In our conference titled "The Three-Body Problem of Mayors," organized by KAPDEM (Public Policy, State Administration and Societal Progress Center), we comprehensively examined the evolving roles of local politics and mayors in Türkiye.
Are today's mayors merely local actors governing cities, or are they political figures caught in the middle of colossal gravitational forces between the ruling party, the opposition, and state mechanisms? On one side lies the increasing determinism of the ruling power, on another is the ambitious politics built by the opposition through municipalities, and on the third side are the legal mechanisms of the state... Mayors caught in the center of this triple gravitational field are trying to find a stable orbit, just like the "Three-Body Problem" in physics.
Featuring Prof. Dr. Savaş Zafer Şahin, Faculty Member at Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli University and Vice President of the Ankara City Council, our program addressed this chaotic network of relationships, the fractures in the center-local balance, and the future of our cities from a multidimensional perspective. Guided by Prof. Dr. Şahin's striking evaluations, we discussed whether local politics can emerge from this bottleneck through institutional capacity, participatory governance, and collective intelligence.
During the highly engaging Q&A session of our conference, deepening urban issues, the role of municipalities in modern society, and the most critical headlines of the current agenda were discussed. In particular, we thoroughly examined striking issues that directly impact the autonomy and future of local governments, such as the arrest of opposition mayors and local administrators or their confrontation with legal processes.
