Turkish Politics

Opposition Leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu (a Social Democrat, mind you) is accusing right-wing populist Erdogan of bringing millions of refugees into the country, vowing to kick them all out

https://www.politico.eu/article/kick-all-refugees-out-turkey-kemal-kilicdaroglu-recep-tayyip-erdogan-election/

Is Clown World real?

Edited by Forenperser on May 18th 2023 at 8:25:17 PM

I thought he was more of a Macron-style centrist?

His coalition is a really broad tent and he basically needs to win over the ultra-nationalist candidate who's basically being seen as the kingmaker in this election.

Honestly, though, it's utterly ridiculous how much support Erdogan still has, despite his rule having been an utter disaster for the country. Even if you leave aside the blatant manipulation, there's still a lot of people who genuinely believe the guy does a good job.

But then... after Trump shit like that really shouldn't surprise me anymore, I guess.

Edited by DrunkenNordmann on May 18th 2023 at 8:49:18 PM

So, as an ignorant American (yes, I just repeated myself), I would like to ask about a short summary of the government’s past records, current situation, and what’s the state of the opposition.

The last time I remember noticing anything in particular about Turkey was around 2016-17, when I went to visit my cousins in Texas and saw CNN reporting on a live coup attempt in Turkey (that turned out to be a trick by Edrogan to get more power) and when Edrogan was trying to cozy up to the previous bastard.

After that, that’s where my memory stops until my interest had been briefly ignited by a recent incident with Twitter censoring opposition tweets by the request of the government so that’s what made me curious about current Turkish politics.

According to a glance at the last page, there’s supposed to be a runoff for the election?

The Turkish opposition really isn't great with refugees in general. One of CHP's previous major victories was the election of Ekrem İmamoğlu as the mayor of Istanbul in 2019, which some of his supporters "celebrated" with violent attacks against Syrian refugees (the guy had slipped in a lot of anti-refugee dogwhistles in the otherwise progressive rhetorics of his campaign).

Kılıçdaroğlu himself already talked about "repatriating" Syrian refugees long before this election. His stance on the issue is in no way new or surprising, and you can expect his coalition to double down on it as the runoff approaches (or if he gets elected and struggles to deliver on e.g. EU integration).

Edited by eagleoftheninth on May 18th 2023 at 2:09:40 AM

I didn’t think the coup attempt was faked by Erdogan, but it does seem to be a major thing that drove him over the edge, along with the 2013 protests and the realization that the EU was never going to let Turkey in no matter what they did.

It’s been a shock to see how he’s changed. When he first came to power, the AKP were the moderate party when it came to Kurdish rights; the secular parties were far more strongly anti-Kurdish. I was in Turkey in 2013 prior to the protests, and things seemed to be going fairly well; one thing we saw was investment in alternative energy like wind farms. 2013 was one big turning point leading to the downward spiral, and 2016 was another.

Turkey’s really been trapped in a catch-22 on refugees - Europe condemns them if they don’t let refugees across the Syrian border, and also condemns them if any of the refugees get out of Turkey into European countries. It’s deeply hypocritical; if Turkey has a responsibility to the refugees, so do other countries.

Edited by Galadriel on May 18th 2023 at 2:53:34 AM

I just recently watched am analysis how Erdogan never actually changed.

He just dropped his mask.

There's always been signs of his true self, we (as in: the EU and other western partners) just fooled ourselves into believing that the guy was actually a moderate, just because he wasn't a frothing-at-the-mouth Islamist extremist.

And it's not the first time I've seen it pointed out either - I think there's probably at least one piece every few years that points out that no, Erdogan was never actually a moderate.

Edited by DrunkenNordmann on May 18th 2023 at 4:49:33 PM

He had a mask on?

Hmmm, do you mind giving me a link to that?

Sinan Ogan, the third-placed candidate, says he will support Erdogan on the May 28 second round of voting.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/5/22/sinan-ogan-endorses-erdogan-in-turkey-election-run-off

Just to state the obvious, Erdogan is almost guaranteed to win, he needs only 0.5% more votes to win, while Kemal Kilicdaroglu need a little more than 5%.

And as said before in this page  Kilicdaroglu himself, is not pro-refugees, his speech before was simply more diplomatic than Ogan, talking about "helping our Syrian brothers return home" instead of "throwing them out".

But even that has changed after he lost the first round, when he promised to rid the country of 10 million refugees if he wins, possibly to compete with Ogan's promise to throw 15 millions if he had won. 

Worth noting that official estimations say that in all Turkey there exist only 3.5 million Syrian refugees.

Edited by jawal on May 22nd 2023 at 5:53:51 PM

Erdogan is claiming victory in election.

While counting is still ongoing, official results have him on around 52% of the vote, with 97%   of ballot boxes opened.

The official Supreme Election Council has yet to confirm the results

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/5/28/turkey-presidential-election-results-3

Turkish president says he's bothered by U.N. decor that resembles 'LGBT colors'

Imagine being this bigoted that colours set you off.

...what...I can't even...

Sorry, this just broke my brain. Are the fascists descending this far into insanity?

"Descending" implies they weren't already there.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/turkiye-israel-ties-tatters-over-erdogan-address-3880286

Erdogan made a speech as a pro-Palestine rally and called Israel a war criminal.

All Israeli diplomatic staff in Istanbul are recalled.

Polls made in Turkey has a majority wanting the country to be neutral or mediate between Israel and HAMAS.

Well, they can always go lower

DW has a long video on Erdogan, reporting that he's been "flexing" with what's happening in Israel and concerns that his rhetoric is putting more difficulties in terms of NATO ties. It also mentions that he's also putting himself out there "on behalf" of the Muslim world.

Edited by Ominae on Nov 20th 2023 at 3:07:57 AM

BBC reported that Turkey will say whether they will support Sweden's "quest" to join NATO.

Reuters: Turkish Super Cup final in Riyadh postponed amid row. Istanbul-based rivals Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe SK both insisted on wearing jerseys with Atatürk print on them during the pre-match warm-up, which the Saudi organisers refused.

Edited by eagleoftheninth on Dec 29th 2023 at 6:40:52 AM

https://www.yahoo.com/news/media-eu-bans-turkish-airline-175814690.html?guccounter=1

Turkish airlines Southwinds is not allowed in EU territory due to its "close links" with Moscow.

By "close links," the article says that it's not actually a Turkish airline, but a front for Russian money.

Yep. Happened to be registered in Turkey to be "known" as a Turkish company at Antalya.

Edited by Ominae on Apr 1st 2024 at 8:03:35 AM