Arab Istanbul .. So you accept the election results

Khalil Mabrouk - Istanbul

Zainab Mansour made her voice in the local elections held in Turkey on Sunday, March 31, in the first ballot involving her lifespan.

In the 36 years she spent in Yemen, Zainab says she did not participate in any elections there because she did not have a chance, and convinced that it is useless to cast her vote.

But Zaynab's thinking differed from that of one of the thousands of Arabs who got Turkish citizenship in 2018, which opened the way for them to vote in the recent municipal elections as "new Turks."

The winds of change in the Istanbul municipal elections were singled out by what Zainab, who voted for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), hoped.

Official results still indicate that the Republican People's Party (CHP) candidate Akram Emamoglu won the presidency of the municipality, pending a decision on the appeals of Ben Ali Yildirm, whose supporters hope the election commission will correct them in the fraud case and demand a recount.

The effect is simple
Zainab told Al Jazeera Net that she was disturbed by the results of the elections, which brought the Republican candidate to the Bioc Pldesi, but did not expect that this would affect the training and rehabilitation center for the women she runs in the Bahjeli Aflir area west of Istanbul.

"I have acquired Turkish citizenship through investment. I have established this center in accordance with the law. I am now a Turkish businesswoman according to the law of the country, not on the decision of the AKP, which I will continue to support as a Turkish citizen," she said.

Zeinab points out that the loss of the Istanbul Municipal Justice Party will not affect Arabs who have recently been naturalized in Turkey or Arab investors, because the municipalities are local administrative bodies and not sovereign bodies in the state, such as parliament or government.

Not a loss
With the same logic, Engineer Ihsan Arslan expressed his belief that the mayors of the major municipalities would adhere to the pre-determined state policy.

"The winners, regardless of their political identity, will work sincerely for the benefit of the Turkish people," said Arslan al-Syri, a Turkish national who recently won Turkey's citizenship, referring to the leader of the Republican People's Party, Kamal Klitsdaroglu, to cooperate with the government to work out the economic crisis.

In response to a question by Al-Jazeera Net, Arslan explained that he did not see in the election results a victory for the People's Party or a loss of justice and development. The latter holds 24 local municipalities in Istanbul in return for 14 municipalities run by the People's Party based on the election results.

Arslan does not believe that there will be profound effects of the Republicans' control of the Greater Istanbul Municipality, but he believes that some of the sub-municipalities they manage may play a more stricter role in dealing with Arabs and Syrians from the municipalities administered by Justice and Development.

There was a lot of confusion in the Arab media in Turkey after the victory of the candidates of the People's Party headed by the major municipalities such as Ankara, Izmir, Bursa and Istanbul, which is expected to issue the final decision on the Commission in the coming days.

There is a large Arab community in Istanbul, most of them Syrians who have been involved in Turkish citizenship programs, and large numbers of them manage commercial interests and investments in various sectors.

With every election entitlement in Turkey, the opposition is blaming the Arab and Syrian files in propaganda campaigns by claiming that their presence has harmed the economic interests and working environment of the Turks in order to undermine the policies of the AKP and the government.

But Arabs who acquire citizenship show a high ability to adapt to Turkish political and social environments and engage in the broadest possible public life.

Arslan said he was very encouraged to participate in the elections because he knew his voice was valuable and capable of making change. He also encouraged his wife to vote and vote. They both went to the polling station last Sunday because he saw it as a duty for even the elderly And the disabled in Turkey, while "we miss him in our Arab world with regret."