Mukhtars are moving up in the world. Since President Recep Tayyip Erdogan moved to his controversial palace outside Ankara in November 2014, the mukhtars — elected heads of villages and towns — have become his prominent guests. They were the first group to be invited to the fancy palace, and Erdogan continues to receive groups of 300-400 mukhtars at a time.
There are about 53,000 mukhtars in Turkey. Erdogan plans to meet with all of them.