“I believe that President Erdogan will lose the first election by a large margin,” he added. If convicted, he could face up to 38 life sentences, and he has protested that the charges against him are part of political persecution by state authorities. government.
Turkey’s elections are shaping up to be one of the most closely watched political showdowns of the year, with huge strategic implications for Europe and the Middle East. Many see the elections as a key moment for the return of democracy to the increasingly centralized Erdogan regime, but the Islamist populist president himself is a veteran campaigner with deep grassroots support and access to state resources and a flexible media culture that will make him difficult to defeat.
Six opposition parties have rallied behind presidential candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu in a bid to break Erdoğan’s rule. Demirtaş’s HDP has not officially joined the alliance, but it supports Kılıçdaroğlu’s cause by not fielding itself as a presidential candidate.
President Erdoğan is arguably more vulnerable than ever this year due to soaring inflation and growing dissatisfaction with cronyism and misgovernment, but the election remains very close, with opinion polls generally showing his challenger with a narrow lead. It becomes.
Enter Kingmaker
Demirtaş first attracted international attention as a force in Turkish politics nearly a decade ago, when he established his reputation as a kingmaker. A songwriter, author of five books and award-winning human rights lawyer, he performed strongly in Turkey’s 2014 presidential elections, winning nearly 10 percent of the total vote, far beyond his Kurdish base, and as co-chair of his party in the 2015 parliamentary elections, won 80 MPs and snatched a majority from Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party.
For Demirtaş’s supporters, this is precisely why Erdogan is trying to neutralize him.
