Longest serving mayor contemplates 7th term in office
Engin Canbaz has been serving as mayor of Bozkurt, a town in Kastamonu province, in northern Turkey, since 1984. He says he may run again if his health permits it.
By Metin Demirsar
Istanbul (Dunya) – When he was elected mayor of the town of Bozkurt, in the Black Sea province of Kastamonu, for the first time in 1984, Engin Canbaz inherited a financially strapped municipality that owned a lone farm tractor as the its sole public vehicle. The town at the time had a population of 2,500 inhabitants, 1,700 housing units and 16 employees – all civil servants.
"I used to drive to work on the tractor," recalled the 65-year-old mayor in an interview in Istanbul during a vacation break.
As mayor of the town for the past 28 years, Mr. Canbaz obtained vehicles for his municipality from inside Turkey and abroad, many of which were donations from successful businessmen from Bozkurt living elsewhere, and found financing to help him modernize his town, making him one of the most popular political figures along the Turkish Black Sea Coast.
Today, the town owns and operates 30 vehicles, including pickup trucks, jeeps, garbage disposal trucks, and bulldozers and other work vehicles, and employs 50 persons, including blue collar workers, and has a population of 5,200 and 4,000 housing units.
Located three km (2 miles) inland from the Black Sea Coast, close by the town of Abana, Bozkurt is in a verdant valley, surrounded by mountains. Some 5,200 inhabitants live in Bozkurt now.
The town, which is also the seat of Bozkurt County, is the most modern municipality in the region with rows of fashionable apartment blocks, and public parks with artificial lakes. It has five neighborhoods.
Bozkurt has produced some of the country's top military leaders, including Enver Pasha (1881-1922), the army officer who led the Young Turks revolution and who was the main leader of the Ottoman Empire during the Balkan Wars and World War One, and businessmen, such as Remzi Gur, owner of the international fashion house Ramsay.
Mr. Canbaz, who is now a member of the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party, introduced many novelties in Bozkurt, long before they were adopted by other municipalities and by the central government.
Ahead of the times
"In many ways, we are a generation ahead of our times. For instance, we banned plastic garbage disposal bags in Bozkurt in 1985, and encouraged the use of environmentally friendly packaging materials instead" he said.
For the past 15 years, the municipality under Mr. Canbaz has been running a hostel for persons from the town who are mentally disabled and who have no families.
Since 1999, the town has had a Veterans' Day, honoring all Bozkurt men who have fought in wars, and has a unique war memorial, commemorating the more than 700 Bozkurt men killed in World War One, the Turkish War of Independence, the 1974 Cyprus Peace Operation and in southeast Anatolia fighting rebel Kurds.
Mr. Canbaz built a park in the center of the town that celebrates the various Turkish states that have existed in history, with their flags and histories profiled, and another park with an artificial lake, where youths can go paddle boating.
Mr. Canbaz also directed Turkey's first anti-obesity campaign, giving free high-fashion suits and dresses for the men and women who lost the greatest amount of weight in a set time period, and he ran the country's first anti-smoking campaign in the town.
In his sixth term in office, Mr. Canbaz is now the longest serving mayor of Turkey.
"There are several mayors, including Melih Gokcek of metropolitan Ankara, who are in their fifth terms in office. I am the only mayor serving a sixth term," he said. One Turk from Kastamonu province served as mayor for 42 years of another town.
The secret of his political success of being reelected over and over again, he says, is his sincerity in his work.
"You have to be sincere in this profession," he says.
Former school teacher
Now he is contemplating running for an seventh five-year term if his health allows it. He has had some heart problems and this summer he had an artificial cardiac pacer implanted in his chest to regulate his irregular heartbeat.
Mr. Canbaz is a former school teacher and administrator and a Ministry of Education inspector. He resigned in 1984 to run successfully for mayor of Bozkurt, his hometown where his father was also a school teacher.
In his youth, Mr. Canbaz was a member of the ultra-right Nationalist Action Party. He served as mayor from the liberal Motherland Party for three terms, as an independent for one term and as an AK Party candidate for two terms.