The Unlikely New Hero Of Turkey’s Opposition

There is something unusual about Fatih Mehmet Maçoğlu, the mayor of Ovacık, a village in eastern Turkey, becoming the protagonist of an article for the New Yorker. Or, as Fariba Nawa puts it:

There’s something unusual in Ovacık, a village in a snow-capped valley in eastern Turkey where the Turkish Air Force regularly bombs Kurdish rebels.

Maçoğlu is a Communist. At the entrance of the town hall is a painting of Karl Marx – instead of the usual picture or bust of the founder of Turkey's republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk – greeting the incoming visitors.

"Marxist greetings" is no surprise since Maçoğlu is Turkey's only elected "Communist politician" as a local governance representative since 2014. He is a member of Turkey's Communist Party (TKP). Amidst the backdrop of Turkey's chaotic and turbulent politics, where polarization between the government and the opposition escalates further every day, Maçoğlu and Ovacık seem to enjoy idyllic political bliss—secluded as they are both geographically and politically.

As the article by Fariba Nawa notes, Maçoğlu and Ovacık experiment with innovative schemes of rural production and development. And probably, it is their seclusion that has enabled them to do so. Maçoğlu has also featured frequently in Turkey's press as the "producer of the Communist honey", or in articles about the mayor opening up public libraries. 

Nawa describes his work as follows:

Maçoğlu says that he just wants his district to be economically self-sufficient. In 2017, the Ovacık municipality opened a cooperative, creating what Maçoğlu said were two hundred and fifty jobs in beekeeping, organic honey production, and chickpea and bean farming. Maçoğlu, who works in the fields alongside local farmers, plans to open an organic dairy farm next. Since taking office, he has also opened several libraries, made public transportation free, and reduced the cost of the water provided by the municipality.

Secluded Ovacık is stepping into the global limelight, probably because globally we need new models.