Minor candidate Sinan Oğan gunning for Türkiye’s top office believes all the support that would have gone to a fellow runner who withdrew from the presidential race days before the election will likely be written under his tab come May 14.
"Muharrem Ince’s supporter base is made up of more younger people who are not deeply committed to the Republican People's Party (CHP) and therefore closer to my profile, one that is nationalist and Atatürkist," Oğan argued in a televised interview with Turkish network Habertürk on Thursday.
His remarks came hours after Homeland Party (MP) Chair Ince made a surprise exit citing a faked "character assassination" carried out online, giving out few details and leaving only three candidates in the ring.
Ince and his party advocate an ideology adherent to the ideals of Republic of Türkiye founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. They split from the CHP, founded by Atatürk, claiming that it had strayed from Atatürk’s ambitions for a secular, patriotic, free Türkiye.
"They thought I could not withdraw my candidacy. They claimed I was paid by (President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan) for nomination and cannot pay him back. I withdraw. I do it for my country," Ince said.
For Oğan, this means a huge chunk of Ince’s base, "exceptions excluded," will move to his lane in this Sunday’s vote.
Echoing fellow sympathizing politicians, Ogan expressed "sadness" for the "smear campaign" Ince has endured and condemned "such methods that should be rooted out of Turkish politics."
Oğan claimed he and Ince previously floated the idea of forging an alliance but it fell apart when Ince stipulated that Oğan prove he would garner more votes than him.
"I told him he addressed the core CHP base with his politics and that there were no candidates like me that represents the Turkish nationalists out there, not one from the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) or the Good Party (IP). I said my support would naturally be higher and today, here we are," Oğan recalled.
Ince picked up 30.6% of the vote when he challenged Erdoğan in the 2018 polls. He then quit the CHP and launched his own movement that pulled votes away from CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu — the joint candidate of the six-party opposition bloc, featuring the CHP and the IP as the largest partners.
Oğan dismissed growing rumors that he himself would withdraw from the race, stressing: "I am not anyone’s substitute candidate. I am a strong challenger that earns the votes of Turkish nationalists and Kemalists."
Arguing that leftists and social democrats in Türkiye constituted 25% of votes, which could "barely" be pushed up to 30%, Oğan said Kılıçdaroğlu "should not expect the support of Turkish nationalists beyond the left."
He also claimed the same nationalist group would not "shift toward Erdoğan either."
"Neither Kılıçdaroğlu nor Erdoğan should expect me to withdraw; that will never happen," Oğan said.
Despite most polls placing him last in the race, the ATA Alliance leader also sounded confident that he could now make it to the second round if that should happen.
A runoff is possible on May 28 if no candidate secures more than half of the vote.
As for switching alliances in the second round, namely to Erdoğan’s People’s Alliance, if he manages to cling onto the race for that long, Oğan contended: "Why should people vote for me if I start talking about such a thing already? Why should I shoot myself in the foot like that?"
Oğan further addressed rumors circulating around election security and claimed there was a "possibility some people will kick up a fight."
"I think someone’s trying to create chaos in Türkiye, someone who doesn’t want us to have a peaceful election," he said, referring to a recent bout of armed attacks against party headquarters, fistfights between their supporters, and stoning of bus tours.
Describing the attack against Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu during a rally in the eastern Erzurum province and the stoning of his bus tour in the Diyarbakır province as "unbelievable" incidents, Oğan concluded: "All of these are not a coincidence."
The "defamation" campaign against Ince too has been credited to "external forces looking to meddle in the Turkish state" by several Turkish politicians, with Kılıçdaroğlu blaming the Russians and Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu accusing Kılıçdaroğlu of "colluding" with U.S.-based Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) for it.