World News | Erdogan counts on Western nationalism, security and defiance to win elections

John Solomo

Nicosia [Cyprus] May 22 (ANI): Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan topped expectations in the inconclusive election on May 14, defying dozens of polls predicting his rival Kemal Al Kilicdaroglu will lead the election and prove he is rightly focused on winning over nationalists and promising a strong and independent Turkey.

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A runoff election will be held next Sunday, as neither candidate managed to secure more than 50 percent of the vote.

Erdogan got 49.5 percent of the vote, while Kilidaroglu, the leader of the six opposition parties, got 44.88 percent. The third candidate, ultra-nationalist Sinan Ogun, received 5.17% of the vote and may play the role of “kingmaker”.

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Ogun will announce tomorrow which of the two candidates he will support in Sunday’s election, according to media reports. However, Kilicdaroglu won big victories in many eastern cities given that Ogun said he would not support anyone who would work with a Kurdish party, and Kilicdaroglu would not risk losing the support of the pro-Kurdish HDP. Ogun may therefore urge his followers to vote for the incumbent president.

Erdogan, despite the inevitable attrition of 20 years in power, the major economic problems facing the country, authoritarianism and the aftermath of the recent earthquake, has still received a very high number of votes, making him a favorite for re-election.

Erdogan’s three cards to keep him ahead are: a) Islam, b) anti-Americanism and anti-Western sentiment, c) nationalism and anti-Kurdish sentiment.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu as a character does not have the characteristics to inspire and express the heterogeneous anti-Erdogan sentiment in Turkey. The pro-Kurdish HDP’s support for Kilicdaroglu had an adverse effect on the nationalist audience, pushing votes toward Erdogan.

Furthermore, Kilicdaroglu’s intention to return to the West has been met with anti-American and anti-Western reactions from large segments of society. Erdogan is considered a defender of the conservative Islamic way of life, a fighter against “Kurdish terrorism” and a strong political leader against the West.

In the first round of elections, the mild-mannered Kilicdaroglu made “tolerance” and “fraternity” his main themes among Turkey’s various ethnic groups, but now in the second round, he has changed his wording. Erdogan accused him of “collaboration with terrorists” and took a more confrontational approach.

The six-party opposition led by Kilicdaroglu accused the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in its new campaign of collaborating with the radical Islamist Liberal Cause Party (HUDA-PAR), which has four members in the Turkish parliament, because This cooperation. HUDA-PAR is affiliated with the radical Islamic terrorist organization Hezbollah (unlike Hezbollah in Lebanon), which has used horrific methods of torture to kill many people, even Muslims.

Kilicdaroglu realizes he has to do everything possible to convince a sizable percentage of Turkish nationalists to vote for him and that defeating Erdogan is “feasible”. After the first round of elections, Kilicdaroglu doubled down on his pledge to send millions of refugees back to Syria and vowed to protect the homeland — a reference to security and the country’s war against Kurdish separatists, which could turn many voters Supporting Kurds were not happy with him.

The question for Erdogan is how to convince all his supporters to vote for him again in the runoff, as many of them may take his re-election for granted and may not bother going to the polls.

It should be said that if Kilidaroglu is elected president, he will certainly face many difficulties in passing the necessary reform legislation in the Turkish parliament, because Erdogan and his allies can count on the 600-member Grand National Assembly (Parliament). ) gained 322 seats, while the six-party coalition backing Kilicdaroglu gained 213 and the Kurdish Freedom Party 62.

Notably, hard-line nationalist parties have increased their share of the vote. Devlet Bahceli’s Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) won 10.1 percent of the vote, Meral Aksener’s Good Party (IYI Parti) 9.7 percent, Umit Ozdag’s Victory Party 2.2 percent, Grand Unity Party (BBP) 1 percent, National Party Winning 0.92%.

If Erdogan is elected president for a third consecutive term under the most likely scenario, he will become Turkey’s longest-serving leader. The election coincides with the 100th anniversary of the founding of Turkey (1923), and Erdogan will be called by his supporters the “father of the nation” on par with Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey.

For Kilicdaroglu, failure to be elected would spell the end of his political career and would trigger a succession process within the Republican Party (CHP), with the most popular successors being Istanbul Mayor Imamoglu or Ankara Mayor Yavas.

Sunday’s election results confirmed that Turkey is a country deeply divided between Kemalistism and political Islam, authoritarianism and democracy, religious conservatism and secularism. During more than two decades of Erdogan’s rule, this division has become entrenched in Turkish society.

Erdogan, despite downsizing after 20 years in power, economic problems, authoritarianism and the aftermath of the recent earthquake, still received a very high number of votes, making him a big favorite for re-election.

Kilicdaroglu, as a character, does not possess the necessary characteristics to inspire and express the anti-Erdogan sentiment that exists mainly in Turkish cities. The support Kilicdaroglu received from the pro-Kurdish HDP prevented many from identifying themselves as nationalists from voting for him, so they voted for Erdogan. Kilicdaroglu’s intention to return to the West has been met with an anti-American and anti-Western reaction from large segments of Turkish society. Erdogan is considered a defender of the conservative Islamic way of life, a fighter against “Kurdish terrorism” and a political leader against the West.

As Howard Eisenstein, professor of history at St. Lawrence University, points out: “Erdogan’s emphasis on nationalism, terrorism, and Western conspiracy is not decoration to most voters: it is the core of their worldview. ” (Arnie)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)