President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who reduced the number of campaign rallies ahead of the runoff vote set for May 28, is in form on social media. Erdoğan, active on Twitter after securing the majority of votes in the first round on May 14, lashed out at the opposition again on Monday.
Expressing his hope for a “record” rate of votes in the runoff, the president asked the public to answer some questions about the opposition’s record in his tweet. “Can you trust those who pledge free housing for earthquake victims before the elections, only to attempt to evict the victims from the places they were hosted?” was his first question. Erdoğan’s main rival Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, nominated by the six-party opposition bloc, pledged free houses for survivors of the Feb. 6 earthquakes that hit Türkiye’s south. Yet, the municipality of Tekirdağ, run by Kılıçdaroğlu’s Republican People’s Party (CHP), removed earthquake victims from the hotel they were hosted in the aftermath of the election where Kılıçdaroğlu trailed behind Erdoğan. The incident sparked an outcry, especially amid a flurry of social media posts by Kılıçdaroğlu supporters who derided people in the earthquake zone where Erdoğan garnered high support in the first round of the election.
“Do you believe that this person who did nothing good for this country in his bureaucratic and political career would benefit this nation?” Erdoğan said in his second question about Kılıçdaroğlu, the former director of Türkiye’s social security agency. The president often criticizes Kılıçdaroğlu for his bureaucratic tenure and accuses him of mismanagement of the agency. After ending his bureaucratic career, Kılıçdaroğlu took to politics, where he was elected as head of CHP after his predecessor, the late Deniz Baykal, stepped down amid a sex tape scandal. Yet, the CHP failed to defeat Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in multiple elections after Kılıçdaroğlu took office, save for winning some municipality seats in unprecedented success in the 2019 elections.
Erdoğan also said the public could not trust “someone cooperating with members of the Gülenist Terrorist Group (FETÖ) during the Dec. 17-25 coup attempt,” referring to the 2013 coup attempts disguised as an anti-graft probe that targeted Erdoğan and his ministers. Several judiciary members and police chiefs were indicted in the investigation based on fake evidence, and all are accused of having links to FETÖ.
“Can you expect those who pledged to release the people inciting the Oct. 6-7 riots from prison to fight against the separatist group?” Erdoğan also asked. The opposition bloc promises the release of Selahattin Demirtaş, jailed co-chair of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP). Demirtaş is accused of inciting the riots in 2014 that killed dozens. Riots were the work of sympathizers of the terrorist group PKK, which the HDP maintains close ties with. The PKK is often referred to as being “separatist” for its agenda to establish a so-called Kurdish autonomous area in Türkiye’s southeast. Its campaign of violence since the 1980s killed thousands of people across the country.
“Can you trust the political morals of those who view everything, from blackmail to threats, as legitimate to get rid of their rivals?” Erdoğan asked in his tweet. Muharrem Ince, one of four presidential candidates in the May 14 elections, dropped out of the race a few days before the vote, citing a smear campaign that accused him of serving the interest of Erdoğan by “dividing the vote of the opposition.” Ince, a former CHP member, had decried doctored videos and images spread through social media that “defamed” him.
Erdoğan has beaten back his rivals at one of his most vulnerable moments and regained his old aura of invincibility ahead of a historic runoff election. The ultimate political survivor, Erdoğan, 69, has overcome jail and a bloody 2016 coup attempt to emerge as Türkiye's most important leader since Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the revered founder of the post-Ottoman republic.
An unprecedented opposition coalition represented his latest challenge in last Sunday's general election. But while coming closer to defeat than ever, Erdoğan beat the odds yet again, looking increasingly likely to extend his two-decade rule for one last time until 2028. Erdoğan is revered for unshackling religious restrictions in the officially secular but mostly Muslim state, overseeing ambitious infrastructure projects and turning Türkiye into a geopolitical force.
Known to his inner circle as "beyefendi" (sir) and to admirers as "reis" (the chief), Erdoğan prides himself on being able to woo doubters through tireless campaigning. This passion has helped him and his party win more than a dozen local and national elections. Erdoğan risked his political domination in a 2017 referendum over abolishing the office of prime minister and handing greater powers to the president. He eked out a narrow win in the referendum that ushered Türkiye into an era of executive presidency.
Born in a working-class harbor district of Istanbul, Erdogan made his name in nascent conservative movements, becoming the city's mayor in 1994. His term in office was cut short when he was convicted and jailed for four months for inciting religious hatred when he recited a fiery poem that compared mosques to army barracks and called minarets "our bayonets." Among supporters, this only seemed to magnify his appeal.
Erdoğan spearheaded AK Party's 2002 landslide election victory and became premier less than six months later. His signature early achievements included a series of reforms that gladdened the European Union, including abolishing the death penalty and beginning a reconciliation process to resolve the "Kurdish question."
