Erdogan secures endorsement of former rival for president
The candidate who came third in last week’s Turkish presidential election announced on Monday that he supported President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Sunday’s runoff, giving Erdogan an extra boost against his remaining challenger.
Mr Erdogan, the dominant figure in Turkish politics for 20 years, appears to have a head start in the second round, whose winner will shape Turkey’s domestic and foreign policies for the next five years. Throughout the campaign, Erdogan tried to connect himself in the minds of voters to the image of a strong Turkey, with growing military power and geopolitical clout.
While most polls leading up to the first vote on May 14 showed Erdogan trailing his main challenger, opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the president overcame voters’ anger at high inflation and frustration at the initially slow response of the government on catastrophic earthquakes in February to win 49.5 percent of the vote.
Mr Kilicdaroglu, the joint candidate of a coalition of six opposition parties that came together to try to oust Erdogan, won 44.9 percent.
In his campaign, Kilicdaroglu vowed to undo Erdogan’s legacy, which he said had damaged the economy and pushed the country from democracy to one-man rule.
The third-place candidate, Sinan Ogan, is a far-right nationalist who defied odds by winning 5.2 percent of the vote, leaving none of the top contenders to secure the simple majority that would have brought instant victory.
In an interview with The New York Times after the results of the first round were released last week, Mr. Ogan that he was negotiating with figures on both sides of the political divide to decide who to support for the runoff.
He said he was trying to ensure that the winning candidate pursues nationalist goals, including a planned plan to deport millions of refugees and a refusal to cooperate with pro-Kurdish and hardline Islamist parties he believes are linked to terrorism.
In exchange for his approval, Mr. Ogan that he wanted a high-ranking post in the new administration, such as vice president.
But it remains unclear whether his support will win many voters. Mr Ogan has no significant party machinery to mobilize his base, and in the eight days since the election his far-right electoral alliance has disintegrated.
Political analysts said many voters who elected him in the first round probably did so to protest against the top two contenders and so might not vote at all in the second round.
Mr Erdogan met with Mr Ogan on Friday, but neither man released details of what was being discussed. That same day Mr. Erdogan said an interview with CNN that he didn’t want to negotiate with Mr. Ogan.
“I am not someone who likes to negotiate in that way,” Erdogan said. “It will be the people who are the king makers.”
In announcing his support for Mr Erdogan at a press conference on Monday, Mr Ogan said nothing about an agreement the men reached, but characterized his impact on the election as a victory for far-right targets.
“We have elevated Turkish nationalists to a key role,” he said, listing key issues facing Turkey, such as refugees, earthquake preparedness, the economy and the fight against terrorism.
“We would advise those who belittle our voters to keep a closer eye on our work,” he said, apparently referring to a change in rhetoric by the opposition after far-right figures like him fared better than expected in the election.