Turkey’s two leading presidential candidates made their final public appearances in the final hours of campaigning on the eve of presidential and parliamentary elections that could significantly shape the NATO member’s future.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held his last election rallies in Istanbul on Saturday, before a so-called propaganda ban came into effect, accusing the opposition of colluding with US President Joe Biden to topple him as he a final appeal in the face of the biggest challenge to his 20 years of rule.
Polls show Erdogan trailing main opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu. If no candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote to secure an outright victory, there will be a runoff on May 28.
Al Jazeera’s Sinem Koseoglu, reporting from Istanbul, said Erdogan spent the last two days of his campaign in Istanbul. “He met the young people and visited several neighborhoods, including the Beyoglu district where he was born, played soccer and started his political career,” he said.
On Saturday, he chose the Hagia Sophia mosque for evening prayers, and his final election message, Koseoglu said, adding: “This is a symbolic move by President Erdogan.”
Built first as a cathedral in the Christian Byzantine Empire, then converted into a mosque after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453, and then a museum in 1935 in the early modern secular Turkish state, the iconic monument was re- in a mosque in 2020, under Erdogan.
Kilicdaroglu at the Atatürk mausoleum
Kilicdaroglu did not hold a rally on Saturday, instead paying his respects at the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, in Ankara. He was accompanied by a crowd of supporters, each with a single carnation to place on his grave.
On Friday, he called on tens of thousands of people gathered to listen to his final speech to vote on Sunday to “change Turkey’s destiny”.
“We will show the whole world that our beautiful country is one that can bring democracy through democratic means,” he said.
Al Jazeera’s Hashem Ahelbarra, reporting from Ankara, said Kilicdaroglu remained confident and resolute: “He says it will be a historic moment for the people of Turkey.”
Ahelbarra said the visit to the mausoleum of Atatürk, also founder of the Cumhuriyet Halk Party (Republican People’s Party, CHP), on the last day of the campaign was important because “Kilicdaroglu has continued to say during the campaign that he is fighting for the secular. identity of Turkey”.
“He wants this election to be the end of an era and the beginning of a new one that he says will be more about personal political freedoms and vibrant democracy in the country,” Ahelbarra said.
Voters will also choose a new parliament, likely a tight race between the Cumhur İttifakı (People’s Alliance) which includes Erdogan’s conservative Adalet ve Kalkınma Party (Justice and Development Party, AK Party), the ultra-nationalist Milliyetçi Hareket ( Nationalist Movement Party, MHP) and other far-right groups. Kilicdaroglu’s Millet İttifakı (National Alliance) includes six matches.
Erdogan’s campaign over the past month has focused on his government’s successes in defense industry and infrastructure projects, and his claim that the opposition would reverse those advances.
One of his talking points has been that the opposition is taking orders from the West and will bow to the wishes of Western nations if elected. At a rally in Istanbul, Erdogan also recalled comments made by Biden and published by the New York Times in January 2020, when he was campaigning for the White House.
At the time, Biden said Washington should encourage Erdogan’s opponents to defeat him electorally, stressing that he should not be overthrown in a coup.
“Biden gave the order to overthrow Erdogan, I know that. All my people know that,” Erdogan said. “If that’s the case, tomorrow’s polls will also give Biden an answer,” he added.
While there have been concerns about how Erdogan might react if he loses, the president said in a televised interview on Friday that he would accept the outcome of the election, regardless of the outcome.
“If our nation chooses to make such a different decision, we will do exactly what democracy demands and there is nothing else to do,” he said.
