First Russian mayoral candidate steps in ahead of Turkey’s local elections

ANTALYA

For the first time in Turkey’s local elections, a Russian-born candidate has been nominated independently to run for mayor of the southern province of Antalya’s Alanya district. 

Political scientist and journalist Anastasia Petrova Çetinkaya, born in Murmansk in 1983, had taken Turkish citizenship last year after getting married in Turkey where she has been living for eight years.

“Turkey has given me so much and now it is time to pay back. Alanya is a perfect town and has an unbelievable potential. It also has some problems that we should solve,” Petrova Çetinkaya was quoted as saying by local media on Jan. 9.

She added that she has been preparing for the past three years to run as a candidate in the local elections scheduled for March 31.

“We have more than 40 projects. We will start to announce them one-by-one on our social media accounts,” the independent candidate noted.

In 2014, Irina Balcı was elected as Turkey’s first Russian-born municipal assembly member after she was nominated from the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) candidate list in Antalya’s Konyaaltı district.