Tarkan's Political Pirouette

Posted by Hatice Soylu from Istanbul, Turkey

The run-up to Sunday's municipal elections in Turkey has seen pop star Tarkan drawn into the political rhetoric of nationalist and leading party rivals, but Tarkan's political friends "won big" last night.

The previous Mayor of Seferihisar, Tunç Soyer (pictured with Tarkan), has now been voted to the Mayoral office of İzmir, while Halil Posbıyık has won back his office in Ereğli.

Both are members of the social-democratic CHP (the Republican People's Party), the oldest political party in the country, founded by the country's founding father Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, and the largest opposition party to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's ruling party today.

The singer's close connections with the opposition party's İzmir and Ereğli mayoral candidates meant that Tarkan's name was used in these local elections by ruling and rival candidates in slur campaigns.

A member of the ruling party called the stray home in İzmir's Seferihisar "a death camp" for animals, the building of which Tarkan had backed with support from Mayor Soyer, while a member of a far-right party in Zonguldak's Ereğli had attacked Posbıyık for telling people Tarkan would perform at a festival on the region if he won.

"A 25-year Page Has Been Turned"

Both of Tarkan's political connections have won their region, as the artist takes longer retreats to Germany with his family, and was noticeably absent from local elections yesterday.

Although those wins were "safe seats", they are part of a wider win for the opposition party as it dealt a blow to the Turkish president's strong hold on the country's psyche.

Viewed as a crucial test of Erdogan's party and as a referendum on his presidency, the mayoral elections have seen the ruling party lose key cities - including the capital - amid a sharp economic downturn.

Erdoğan's party lost key posts in 30 large cities, 51 provincial capitals and hundreds of districts.

Pundits are saying this could be a watershed moment for Turkey's powerful, polarising president, because he finally looks beatable by the opposition.

Erdoğan's Year of Culture with Tarkan

Still strong on a national level, however, Erdoğan is gearing up to kickstart a year of cross-cultural festivities with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin - which includes Tarkan.

As part of the upcoming events that will take place in Russia and Turkey for a year of culture and tourism the popstar is planning to perform in Moscow and Kazan this May.

The "Year of Culture" aims to highlight the importance of Russian and Turkish cooperation in political and business investments and will be opened by Erdoğan and Putin on 8 April.

In December last year there had been stories in the press that Tarkan would be performing in Russia in 2019. Sputnik's Turkish language edition wrote about the possibility of a Tarkan concert to help strengthen ties between Ankara and Moscow.

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