Turkey’s election will decide if Erdogan stays in power

Erdogan’s Reviving the Ottoman Empire – Revising Turkey‘s welcome mat in the election season and the prospects for Turkey

Forecasts suggest a close race with Erdogan ahead. Some opinion polls had predicted Kilicdaroglu to win the first round, but that was not the case.

The candidates have been fighting against refugees and Kurds since then, in order to appeal to hard-line nationalists in Turkey.

For his part, Kilicdaroglu initially pledged to repatriate most, if not all migrants within two years of being elected. Then, as the race came down to the wire, he reduced that timeline to just one year.

The message has been reached by both of them. Erdogan speaks of returning 1 million Syrians, and has launched a campaign to build housing in northern Syria for them.

“Coming from home … She claims that she didn’t see many Turks on the road. Syrians, Afghans, Arabs, that’s all. Right and left they speak in foreign languages, no one speaks Turkish,” she adds. “And this won’t get better, it will get worse.”

Turkey is home to 4 million refugees, the world’s largest population. But Turkey has joined European nations in pulling back the welcome mat.

Akyol says the underlying message from Turkey’s leader is more like: “All good, pious Muslims should vote for [Erdogan] because he’s their savior, he’s reviving the glory of the Ottoman Empire — he’s making Turkey Muslim and great again.”

According to an analyst at the libertarian think tank, the economy will not be the deciding factor in Turkey’s elections.

But despite the hard times facing Turkish families, Erdogan has continued to draw support from his base — which includes religious Muslim, conservative and working-class people who felt largely ignored under previous governments.

Osman worries if Erdogan wins again, the economy could collapse before he serves out his term in office. He says that the economic policy of Erdogan is not sustainable.

Turkey’s official annual inflation climbed to a whopping 85% last October, before easing to just below 44% in April, although independent economists estimate the actual rate is much higher.

Some economists say this was largely due to Erdogan’s pushing the Turkish central bank to repeatedly lower interest rates to spur economic growth, despite warnings that could depress the currency and send inflation soaring.

Like many people in Turkey, Osman keeps a close eye on the value of the Turkish lira, and lately the news has been depressing. When Erdogan began as prime minister, the conversion rate was roughly 1.50 liras to the U.S. dollar. This week, the lira sank to a new record low beyond 20 liras to the dollar.

The presidency was transformed from a ceremonial role to a powerful office after a narrowly won referendum scrapped Turkey’s parliamentary system of governance. He was the first directly elected president in 2014 and won the 2018 election that ushered in the executive presidency.

One resident standing outside a currency exchange, Osman, says Erdogan has had enough time in power. Like most people interviewed for this story, Osman doesn’t want to use his family name because he’s worried about retaliation for speaking to foreign media about the election.

The decision could have ramifications far beyond Ankara as Turkey plays a key role in NATO.

Erdogan’s party also dominated in the earthquake-hit region, winning 10 out of 11 provinces in an area that has traditionally supported the president. Erdogan came in ahead in the presidential race in eight of those provinces.

ANKARA, Turkey — Voters in Turkey returned to the polls Sunday to decide whether the country’s longtime leader stretches his increasingly authoritarian rule into a third decade or is unseated by a challenger who has promised to restore a more democratic society.

Voters in Turkey are going to the elections in a final-round-presidential-runoff-offoff: Insights from a late-term Turkish prime minister

Turkey vetoed Sweden’s bid to join the alliance and purchased Russian missile-defense systems, which prompted the United States to oust Turkey from a U.S.-led fighter-jet project. But Erdogan’s government also helped broker a crucial deal that allowed Ukrainian grain shipments and averted a global food crisis.

The May 14 election saw 87% turnout, and strong participation is expected again Sunday, reflecting voters’ devotion to elections in a country where freedom of expression and assembly have been suppressed.

The first half of Erdogan’s tenure included reforms that allowed the country to begin talks to join the European Union and economic growth that lifted many out of poverty. After a failed coup attempt in Turkey, he moved to suppress freedoms and the media, and also concentrated more power in his hands. The cleric is not the one who is involved.

Wages and pensions have been increased, while Turkey’s defense industry and infrastructure projects have been highlighted in his efforts to woo voters hit hard by inflation. 319,000 homes will be built within the year, thanks to a reelection campaign promise of rebuilding earthquake-prone areas. Many people see him as a source of stability.

Since 2010, the leader of the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, is a soft-mannered civil servant named Kilicdaroglu. He wanted to improve ties with the West and restore the economy by reverting to more conventional policies.

The AKP and its allies won the legislative election held on May 14 to keep their majority in parliament. There will be no parliamentary elections on Sunday.

The criminalization of dissemination of false information and online censorship were pointed out by international observers as evidence that Erdogan had an “unjustified advantage.” The observers also said the elections showed the resilience of Turkish democracy.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/05/28/1178641171/voters-in-turkey-are-going-to-the-polls-in-a-final-round-presidential-runoff

The 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Republic of Kurdistan (Iraq): the PKK leader’s orders

The PKK is based in the mountains of Iraq, where the leader of the outlawed party receives his orders from, according to the leader of the campaign.

The country marked the 100th anniversary of it’s establishment as a republic after the fall of the Ottoman Empire.