According to Piri, the elections will be extremely tense, although he believes it is possible that Erdogan’s challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu will get more than 50 percent of the vote in the first round, so a second round is no longer necessary. Of the 60 million Turks eligible to vote, 7 million are young people who will be voting for the first time, and both Erdogan and Kilicdaroglu are trying to win over those voters.
Economy and democracy
Economy and democracy are important topics for this target group. The economy is not doing well, according to Piri many young people are worried about this. The economy therefore remains Erdogan’s Achilles heel. His involvement in this and his ineffective monetary policy of cutting interest rates to curb inflation led to skyrocketing inflation for the Turkish economy. Anyone shopping in Turkey has to dig deep into their pockets.
“The next 72 hours are incredibly exciting”
But what also plays a role is the autocratic way Turkey is governed: “If you send out a critical tweet, you could have the police on your roof and, in the worst case, get a fine or even go to jail.” According to Piri, the opposition is trying to present itself as an attractive alternative for the future with a healthy economy and a respected democracy, without launching a harsh attack on Erdogan. That clemency is not reciprocal: ‘On the other hand, we see the harsh attacks that Erdogan makes on the opposition by linking it to terrorist movements, distributing fake films. So the next 72 hours are very exciting.’
electoral College
The opposition fears that Erdogan has also appointed supporters to the highest constituency, which is the final blow to the result. Piri shares this concern, but also points out that, in addition to political parties, some 100,000 volunteers keep an eye on the tallies. “So it’s not that easy in Turkey to commit large-scale fraud, but ultimately the highest constituency has to make a decision.” Piri stresses how important it is for both sides to acknowledge the outcome ‘because one must not think that either side will ultimately call on its supporters to protest violently or in any way’.
“It is not easy to commit large-scale fraud in Türkiye”