Erdogan faces tight race against emboldened opposition The cost of living crisis is seen as affecting his chances. Turkey’s two-decade transformation at stake
ANKARA, May 7 (Reuters) – With his two-decade rule in the balance, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has pulled out all the stops on the election campaign as he struggles to survive his toughest political test yet and protect his legacy of an emboldened opposition. .
Erdogan, the son of a sea captain, has faced strong political headwinds ahead of the May 14 election: He was already facing the blame for an economic crisis when a devastating earthquake in February ‘left saw his government accused of a slow response and lax enforcement of the building. rules that may have saved lives.
With polls showing a tight race, critics have drawn parallels with the circumstances that brought his Islamist-rooted AK party to power in 2002, in an election also marked by high inflation and economic turmoil.
His opponents have vowed to debunk many of the changes Erdogan has made in Turkey, which he has tried to shape into his vision of a pious, conservative society and an assertive regional player.
High risk is nothing new for a leader who once served a prison sentence – for reciting a religious poem – and survived an attempted military coup in 2016 when rogue soldiers attacked parliament and killed 250 people.
With so much at stake in the presidential and parliamentary polls, the veteran of more than a dozen electoral victories has taken aim at his critics in typically combative fashion.
Accusing the opposition of seeking advantage from a catastrophe, Erdogan has made several visits to the area of the earthquake where more than 50,000 people died, promising rapid reconstruction and punishing builders who circumvented building regulations.
He has peppered the election period with celebrations of industrial milestones, including the launch of Turkey’s first electric car and the unveiling of its first amphibious assault ship, built in Istanbul to carry Turkish-made drones.
Erdogan also activated Turkey’s first delivery of natural gas from a Black Sea reserve, promising free supplies to households, and inaugurated its first nuclear power plant in a ceremony virtually attended by President Vladimir Putin.
He has enjoyed extensive mainstream media coverage, while state media has paid scant attention to his main rival, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, prompting accusations of an unfair playing field by the opposition.
His attacks on the main opposition alliance have included accusations of support for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has waged an insurgency since the 1980s that has killed more than 40,000 people.
Kilicdaroglu, who was backed by the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), has responded by defending Kurdish rights and accusing Erdogan of “treating millions of Kurds as terrorists.”
As he seeks to bolster his appeal among conservative voters, Erdogan has also spoken out against homosexuality, describing LGBT rights as a “deviant” concept he would fight against.
‘BUILDING TURKEY TOGETHER’
Polls suggest the vote could go to a second round and some show Erdogan trailing. This hints at the depth of a cost-of-living crisis caused by his unorthodox economic policies.
The authorities’ push to cut interest rates in the face of rising inflation was aimed at boosting economic growth, but the currency fell in late 2021 and worsened inflation.
Despite signs that his party could return to more orthodox policies, Erdogan stressed last month that interest rates would fall while he was in power and that inflation would fall with them.
The economy was one of Erdogan’s main assets in the first decade of his rule, when Turkey enjoyed a prolonged boom with new roads, hospitals and schools and rising living standards for its 85 million people. inhabitants.
“If he loses, it will hurt his image. But for the people who love him, they won’t give up on him very easily,” said Seda Demiralp, chair of the Department of International Relations at Istanbul’s Isik University.
Halime Duman said high prices had put many groceries out of her reach, but she remained convinced Erdogan could still solve her problems. “Erdogan can solve it with a flick of the wrist,” he said at a market in central Istanbul.
HUMBLE ROOTS
The president came from humble roots in a poor district of Istanbul where he attended an Islamic vocational school and entered politics as a local leader of the party’s youth wing. After serving as mayor of Istanbul, he rose to the national stage as head of the AK Party (AKP) and became prime minister in 2003.
His AKP tamed Turkey’s military, which had toppled four governments since 1960, and in 2005 began talks to secure a decades-old ambition to join the European Union, a process that later stop abruptly
Western allies initially saw Erdogan’s Turkey as a vibrant blend of Islam and democracy that could be a model for Middle Eastern states struggling to shake off autocracy and stagnation.
But his push for greater control polarized the country and alarmed international partners. Ardent supporters saw it as a reward for a leader who put Islamist teachings back at the core of public life and championed the pious working classes.
Opponents portrayed it as a foray into authoritarianism by a power-hungry leader.
After the coup attempt, the authorities launched a crackdown, imprisoning more than 77,000 people pending trial and firing or suspending 150,000 from state jobs. Media rights groups say Turkey became the world’s biggest jailer of journalists for a time.
Erdogan’s government said the purge was justified by threats from supporters of the coup, as well as Islamic State and the PKK.
At home, a new presidential palace complex on the edge of Ankara became a striking sign of its new powers, while abroad Turkey became increasingly assertive, intervening in Syria, Iraq and Libya, often deploying Turkish-made military drones with decisive force.
Drones also helped Ukraine defend against Russian invasion.
The interventions won few allies, however, and with a struggling economy counting down to elections, Erdogan sought rapprochement with rivals across the region.
Additional reporting by Jonathan Spicer and Ali Kucukgocmen; Written by Tom Perry; Edited by Jonathan Spicer and Toby Chopra
Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
