"Cucumber & Release": Ankara Mayor Snubbed for Nearby Pickle Festival, While Distant Bosnian Mayor is Invited

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Sözcü Newspaper, 5 September 2025)

                   In a political and diplomatic pickle.

Baki Demirbaş, the mayor of Ankara's Çubuk district, sent

invitations domestically and externally for the district's

Pickle Festival (!), scheduled for 4-5 September.  

However (!), Demirbaş, who is a member of the ruling 

AKP party, neglected to send an invitation to Ankara Mayor

Mansur Yavaş of the opposition CHP party.  So while Maid 

Suljakoviç, the mayor of Maglay city, Çubuk's sister city in 

Bosnia-Hersek, 1,806 kilometers distant, received an invitation,

Mayor Yavaş, 42 kilometers away from Çubuk, was snubbed. 

Çubuk's CHP leader Ali Rıza Gökoğlu was surprised to learn

of the snub and he characterized it as disrespectful toward the

Mayor of all of Ankara.  

As for Demirbaş, he "explained" that "Mansur Bey came to

Çubuk and didn't even visit the shopkeepers.  The Festival 

isn't a place for him to grab a microphone and talk about

all the things he hasn't done but will do some day.  No one

around here has ever seen him anyway.  Once he came within

10 kilometers but did not continue on to Çubuk."