Turkey Update –2nd Round & more – 23rd May 2023

rd of May: 2023

There’s only one week left ‘till the second round of the elections. They will be held on Sunday the 28th, and the opposition has decided to change its election tactics and become a lot more hostile.

For starters, the ruling party’s main election campaign was wrongfully associating the opposition with terrorist organizations, and with the HDP. The government believes the latter is the political branch of the PKK, which Turkey deems a terrorist organization. Erdoğan even broadcasted a montaged video of one of the alleged terrorist groups dancing to Kılıçdaroğlu’s campaign song during his rally, claiming that it was his official campaign video. He also continuously claimed that Kılıçdaroğlu got orders from terrorist groups, with no evidence to back up his claims. These stuck with people, and most cited Kılıçdaroğlu’s alleged ties to terrorist organizations for not voting for him. Previously, the opposition didn’t pay much attention to the allegations, but now they decided to fight them, seeing how it affected the votes.

In an effort to do so, the opposition alliance decided that, instead of holding rallies, this time, they’ll go among the people and correct the lies the ruling party spread about them. Since the state-run TV channels and radios don’t broadcast Kılıçdaroğlu’s election propaganda, the opposition set up a large screen at the Kadıköy coast in Istanbul and broadcasted Kılıçdaroğlu's speech condemning terrorism. There was also footage of Erdoğan with alleged terrorist leaders in the video.

Moreover, Kılıçdaroğlu decided to abandon his calm and endearing persona and raise his tone for the second election. He said that the election results showed that the citizens wanted change in the country, as the president got less votes than the two opposition candidates combined. The number of parliament seats of Erdğan’s party also dropped. This time, he directly targeted President Erdoğan, slamming him for working together with terrorist organizations. He also said that if Erdoğan remains in office, over ten million refugees will come to Turkey and the exchange rate for the Turkish lira will surpass thirty liras per dollar.

Let’s talk about the other opposition candidate: Sinan Oğan…

So, Oğan got 5% of the votes in the election, which is more than polls estimated. However, he will not be a candidate for the second election, as only the two candidates with the highest votes go up against each other this time. Oğan said that he is the key person that will determine the fate of the elections, as ‘his voters will vote for whoever he supports’. These remarks caused some backlash, since it looked like he was treating his voters like sheep that merely follow a leader, incapable of forming their own opinions.

For the last week, Oğan has been in talks with both the ruling party and the opposition to decide which side he’ll support. He’s been negotiating and expecting the sides to compromise and give him some sort of a position in the government if they win. Oğan requested that, under no circumstance, the first four articles of the constitution, which define the language, the name of the nation and the form of the government, be changed; that the thirteen million refugees in the country be sent back home. He also requested to get rid of Erdoğan’s economic model that says inflation is the result of high interest rate, instead of the widely accepted form that’s the opposite. Lastly, he requested that the candidate distance himself from terrorist organizations and their political branches. Kılıçdaroğlu already supports all of these requests, but these requests caused controversy because it seemed that they were aimed at Erdoğan.

Speaking of Erdoğan…

On Saturday the 20th, he said that he didn’t like negotiating, implying that he wouldn’t request Oğan’s support. However, reportedly Erdoğan called and invited Oğan for a meeting the very next day. While they were in the meeting, The Anadolu Agency, the state run news agency, shared an old quote by Erdoğan where he’s talking about sending Syrian refugees back to their countries, seemingly trying to attract Oğan.

The head of the Justice Party, a member of the opposition Ancestral Alliance, Sinan Oğan’s alliance, announced that his party would support Kılıçdaroğlu without any request. He said that the alliance was opposing the current regime, and that it should without hesitation support the opposition candidate. After this announcement, on Sunday the 21st, he revealed that they’ve officially broken up the alliance, This called into question Sinan Oğan’s support of Erdoğan, which the the parties in the alliance opposed.

After all this speculation, on Monday the 22nd, Oğan unsurprisingly announced that he’d support Erdoğan in the election, saying that since Erdoğan’s party, the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, had the majority in the parliament, if he was the president, the government would be more “stable”. Following his announcement, many of his old tweets criticizing, and at times insulting the ruling party’s policies surfaced on social media. There was backlash for his choice, and for abandoning nationalism, his main ideology. On social media people pointed out that the AKP added members of the Free Cause Party, an islamist and Kurdish nationalist party that rejects Turkish nationalism, to its own parliament member candidates list and got them seats in the parliament. Oğan, being an ultra-nationalist, had been slamming the AKP for this. This change remains open to question. .

On that note, while Oğan was announcing his support for Erdoğan, he said that his alliance was also supporting Erdoğan, even though the alliance broke up two days prior and most member parties announced their support for Kılıçdaroğlu. After Oğan’s announcement, Ümit Özdağ, the head of the Victory Party, a member of the alliance, said in a tweet that Oğan’s announcement didn’t represent their party’s views. Some newspapers reported that Özdağ will support Kılıçdaroğlu, and that the two leaders were working on a common policy. However, Özdağ hasn't officially announced his support.

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room…

Illegal migration is an ongoing problem. However, it’s been a problem for so long that some got bored of discussing it. This week, someone shared screenshots of Google trend’s search location statistics for those who searched ‘Turkish girls’, ‘Turkish boys’ and ‘Turkish child’, stating that Afghanistan and Pakistan were the top two countries who searched these. The two countries are making up the largest portion of illegal immigrants in the country. Many Afghani and Pakistani people walk through Turkey’s southern borders without any documentation and travel to big cities. There have been many reports of them filming Turkish women on the beach or in the streets, then sharing them on social media in a provocative way. This opened up a conversation about protecting Turkey’s borders.

On that note, while Turkey will hold the elections on this Sunday the 28th, the voting period has started for Turkish citizens residing abroad. If you’re a Turkish citizen residing abroad, you can check with your country’s embassy to see where you can vote.

On Sunday the 21st, Greece held its parliament member elections. Four Turkish-Greek politicians entered the Greek parliament in the elections. One of them said that the Turkish minority in the country showed them support and added that they’ll represent the minority in the parliament.

Aaaaand that’s it for this week! We want to hear from you! Write to us at turkey@rorshok.com

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