Politics in Turkey: A look at the picture towards local election after opposition’s loss in 2023 election?

With the Turkish 2023 elections completed on May 28, Erdogan has managed to hold on to power. Of course, this can be seen as solid success at first glance. There is another opinion however that says, when the following conditions are evaluated, winning the election with only 52% of the vote compared to 48% might not be considered a brilliant victory.

What were said conditions?

• First of all, the votes of millions of refugees or immigrants who were granted citizenship, without taking into account possible alarming developments in the demographic structure of the country, went to the current president.
• Fake videos made about the opposition and its leader, trying to show (falsely and unfairly) that the terrorist organization supported him, were used as a propaganda tool by the President himself, even though he knew they were fake.
• All facilities to be made available by the state were used in favor of the government and the current president; to provide an example, almost all the state television channels were used by the president.
• On top of, the president distributed a lot of incentives to citizens, such as wage increases, etc., just before election, using all the facilities of the state.

Despite all this, he was able to win the election with 52% of the vote, only.

The interesting thing is that many opinion leaders, journalists or political experts who fully supported the opposition before the election and stated that the salvation of the country could only be possible if the opposition won, and even insisted that the opposition leader was the most suitable presidential candidate for this, quickly changed their rhetoric after the election was lost (under the above-mentioned conditions).

Since the election loss, the opposition channels in question, opinion leaders and political experts seem to be trying to bill the entire responsibility of the election loss to the opposition leader. In this context, there has been quite a lot of pressure on the opposition leader, to resign as soon as possible.

IS MAYOR OF ISTANBUL THE RIGHT AND AVAILABLE CANDIDATE TO REPLACE THE OPPOSITION LEADER?

However, the point is that local elections will be held in less than 1 year, and the ruling party’s biggest goal is to win back Istanbul from the opposition. The government has already begun to spend serious time and effort on this target. That being said, when we look at the opposition, there is no potential candidate with the capacity and competence to replace the opposition leader (KILICDAROGLU) as it stands now, in case he resigns, to take the ship to the port, safely. Perhaps the mayor of Istanbul could have been the ideal candidate for this. But he can also be sent to prison by the government any moment as there is currently a case pending in the judiciary. In fact, this case is being deliberately put on hold so that he doesn’t make such an attempt to enter a challenge for the opposition leader position.

HOW RATIONAL IS IT, TO FORCE OPPOSITION LEADER TO RESIGN PRIOR TO LOCAL ELECTION?

Therefore, when the situation is so complicated and problematic like this, it might not be considered a rational idea to make the opposition leader resign (to pays the bill and all), in our opinion. Not to forget, the argument, ”how many elections has he lost so far” is also used at this  point by opposing persons and groups.

Thus, if the group that is trying to wear down KILICDAROGLU by making this opposition succeeds, it will definitely serve the benefit of those in power and Erdogan will likely also take Istanbul, which is his greatest goal, in the first local elections.

Unfortunately, this situation also shows how many shallow-minded people who think they are experts, and are referred to as opinion leaders etc., are managed by their egos or else aiming for some other interests or pursue revenge.

THE ONLY WAY OUT FOR OPPOSITION IS TO REUNITE AGAIN PRIOR TO LOCAL ELECTIONS

In our opinion, what should be done here is to reunite literally unconditionally to prepare for the local elections with full force and to make the necessary changes in opposition, after achieving success in local elections.

If common sense prevails in the end, the opposition should be able to unite again. Otherwise, the next local elections will also be presented as a gift to AK Party.