Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu is very impressive when he's righteously angry.

And my God is he right about this. Taxi license owners, a tiny elite, are desperate to stop him creating 5,000 more licenses to try to partially fix Istanbul's ridiculously broken taxi market.

He disagrees.

This is a great debate for İmamoğlu and one where he's undoubtedly on the popular side. Taxi license owners are extremely wealthy and there are very few of them. Istanbul's taxis are notoriously terrible, mostly as a result of license owners having a historic monopoly.

In the video above, he uses two tactics beloved by AKP. He marks out an "us" (16 million Istanbulites) and "them" (elite license owners in Bağcılar, with backing from you-know-where) where he is on the side of the people.

And his language is incredibly harsh and combative.

What I find especially interesting is that part at the end:

"They will find the state in their way."

The state has for 20 years been synonymous with the AKP. The Mayor is saying here that he is the state as well.

That is true but it is also a powerful reminder.

Anyway, if there's going to be a debate between millions of Istanbulites and the medallion owner elite in Bağcılar, any popular politician worth their salt would be on the side of the millions.

Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu is a strong politician. He's making a damn fine move here.

If you viewed this as chess, he's forked the AKP. They will have to either support protests by a wealthy elite threatening to shut down the city and look terrible.

Or they support İmamoğlu and take a strategic defeat.

It's little battles like this that matter. Good work.

I feel like I'm plugging this old thread a lot these days but people are already asking for context. I wrote it all two years ago and it's all pretty much true (except they did end up banning Uber). Do read it to see why Mayor İmamoğlu is on strong ground: https://twitter.com/canokar/status/973143616288972800?s=20