Skin-deep politics?

A healthy-life guru from Bursa went on to explain how the local politicians wanted to brush up their image, if not their ideology, before the local elections at the end of March.

According to the article, the candidates use the time-honored method of lipo-suction to get rid of the pot bellies and use botox to get rid of that hard look that politicians acquire after several years in the tricky business.

Dr Ender Saraç said that a recent meeting on "how to impress the public" drew many mayoral candidates, who were more than happy to embrace "ozone therapy" to look dynamic and youthful before their potential voters.

"It is basically the people around the Istanbul area that realize the importance of that," said Saraç.

The services that are offered are many: they can ask for a health programme, or go for a more radical solution of plastic surgery. They need vitamin shots, not only to keep up with the hard pace of the election period but to have a glowing skin."

On second thought, this should hardly be surprising: any Turk can remember just how far late President Özal, a chubby politician whom a foreign newspaper once compared to an "oriental carpet-seller," came in terms of a changed jacket, changed glasses and a changed mustache.

Prime fashion

Mrs Tansu Çiller, Turkey’s most beautiful prime minister, had also created her image before she made an unexpected grab for the prime ministership in the early 1990s. Out went her "Americanized professor in Boğaziçi University" clothes, to be exchanged with the simple European lines of couture that glided over a heavy waist and thick legs. Mrs Çiller, whose hot temper could only match that of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, managed (through the vitamin shots and botox that Dr Saraç mentioned) to look serene, calm and tranquilly beautiful, no matter how she screamed at her ministers and staff.

Botox, Mr Erdoğan?

As I buried myself in oysters, kriek and the European Union debate (yes, I was in Brussels) an odd item caught my eye: Mrs Hillary Clinton, the U.S. Secretary of State, will be hosted by Turkey’s most fascinating talk show on NTV, which is called "Come be With Us" Ğ which is made up of three tough divas plus one.

For those who are unfamiliar with the show, the format is as follows: you have media diva Çiğdem Anad, the literary icon Pınar Kür and actress Müjde Ar (who is, for Turkey, the thinking man’s Marilyn Monroe and the wittiest woman in the country to add to the bargain). Then there is the fourth person, stunningly beautiful, delightfully young and gaffe-prone Aysun Kayacı who acts the fool. I am still unclear whether it is intentional or not. The trio-plus-one have hosted endless controversial names, from stars to politicians, always with their slightly (w)itchy style and heavy-handed criticism, despite Mrs Ar’s talent for defusing tensions.

According to Anad, the proposal to host Mrs Clinton came from the U.S. Embassy, which not only shows that the embassy’s thorough knowledge of the Turkish media but its creativity Ğ surely, one cannot imagine a better set-up for Mrs Clinton, whose own style somewhat resembles the women she will meet.

Anad also said that the group would not ask Mrs Clinton about the "Oral Office" episode and her reaction to it, although they were told that they could ask anything.

Now, unlike Mrs Anad, that is one question I would have liked her to reply. I would have liked her to shrug it off: "it was not the first time I noticed Bill had bad taste," I see her say in my mind’s eye. "But you do not impeach a good president for that."Ah, but Mrs Clinton would be too sophisticated to say what an ordinary woman would!