The Turkish opposition, one step away from winning the elections with the promise of changing the country
“All against Erdogan” is the underlying message of the broad opposition coalition that is running to win the presidential and parliamentary elections in Turkey this Sunday.
For the first time since Recep Tayyip Erdogan came to power in 2002, the main opposition party, the social democrat CHP, has managed to reach an agreement with the other parties -liberals, nationalists and even former allies of the current president- to present a candidacy common with a message of change and hope in the country. They have presented a candidate for the presidency, Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, who promises to democratize the country's institutions, restore Turkish diplomacy and move from a more personalist policy to one that works through the relevant ministries. With an open speech to the minorities and youth of the country, Kiliçdaroglu assures that he will relaunch the economy and has promised the “brain drain” that Turkey is suffering great changes so that they return. According to data from the Turkish Statistical Institute, about 300,000 people between the ages of 20 and 29 left the country between 2019 and 2021.
Kiliçdaroglu's candidacy also has the support of the pro-Kurdish left, the third force in Parliament with a loyal vote of around 11%.. Despite the fact that Kiliçdaroglu is a member of a party with a Turkish nationalist Kemalist tradition, he has convinced a large part of the Kurdish voter, who has suffered for years from government intervention in their town halls, security forces operations in their cities and that they are has been hit hard by the economic crisis. The main opposition alliance has not promised the Kurds anything if they win, but they hope that their situation will improve in a possible change of government. Polls put Kiliçdaroglu several points ahead of Erdogan and he has a serious chance of winning the presidency even in the first round.
One of the opposition coalition's promises is to return to a parliamentary system, which will strengthen the country's judicial institutions and strip the president of current executive powers.. Kiliçdaroglu wants to restore the confidence of international investors and take measures to curb price increases.
The opposition leader is confident that he will be able to unfreeze the accession talks to the European Union. He has also announced that he will implement the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights, which is calling for the release of two imprisoned opponents for years: the former leader of the pro-Kurdish leftist party HDP, Selahattin Demirtas, and the philanthropist Osman Kavala, sentenced to life imprisonment for his participation in anti-government protests.
In its electoral program, the coalition indicates that it will maintain relations with Russia without giving further details.. However, last Thursday Kiliçdaroglu marked his red lines in a tweet. In his message he accused Russian hackers of interfering in the elections with fake videos and warned that if they win, they are “open to maintaining cooperation” with Moscow as long as it does not meddle in the campaign.
On the other hand, the opposition alliance has a very clear policy on the refugee agreement with the EU, in which Turkey takes in more than 3.6 million Syrians. Kiliçdaroglu has on several occasions signaled his intention to regain ties with Bashar al-Assad to send back refugees within a period of one year. The Social Democratic leader has not given details on how they will go about this process, but the move has sparked uncertainty in the European press.