The irony is that one man has become one of Turkey’s most powerful leaders ever, and the other has become his barber.
The Turkish citizen, Yasar Ayhan, has been living in Istanbul. He is the barber of the current president and candidate for the upcoming elections, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, since 1988. The president has known him for decades.
Yasar was Ayhan Hallak Erdogan when the Turkish president was still the mayor of Istanbul.
Erdogan supporters in Istanbul
Ayhan, 57, remembers Erdogan when he was young. They grew up together in the conservative Kasimpasa neighborhood of Istanbul, and they come from the same village of Rize, near the Black Sea.
But the irony is that one man has become one of Turkey’s most powerful leaders ever, and the other has become his barber.
In the Kasimpasa neighborhood, located on the European side of Istanbul, the residents’ love for Erdogan is evident.
And inside Ayhan’s barbershop, a picture of him and Erdogan dating back to 2012, when the latter was prime minister, was hung.
On the street, too, posters of Erdoğan and Turkish flags dot the roads.
