Turkey can be roughly divided in two: Istanbul and the rest of the country. Istanbul is the role model for all Turkey. Turkey emulates Istanbul. It doesn’t matter whether it is political, cultural, social, economic, sports, whatever. There are two prerequisites for any trend to be adopted by Turkey: To originate from Istanbul or to be approved by Istanbul. Any trend that is not adopted by Istanbul is bound to remain ineffectually local.
Istanbul is the key junction of the country. Istanbul decides who passes through that junction and who can’t. Therefore it is not possible to win Turkey without winning in Istanbul. Or, those who lose Istanbul in the end will lose the country. This rule has never been negated.
After the Sept. 12, 1980, coup, the Motherland Party set up by then-Deputy Prime Minister Turgut Ozal won the first elections it participated in, in 1983. Its eventual loss of power began with its losing the Istanbul local elections in 1989; in the 1991 general elections, Motherland was defeated.
Also, the beginning of the march toward power by the mainstream Islamic current was the 1994 local elections. Today’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was then the Istanbul provincial leader of the Welfare Party, was catapulted to the forefront of Turkish politics by winning the mayoralty elections for metropolitan Istanbul.
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