Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed a decree to hold presidential and parliamentary elections in Turkey on May 14, 2023. Thus, the neighboring country began a countdown to the most crucial elections in its recent past.
The Turkish people will vote as Turkey focuses on healing the wounds of last month's disaster. To be clear, the short time until Election Day represents the opening phase of a marathon.
Opposition parties have been talking about early elections since the municipal elections in 2019. They have spent the last 13 months discussing the "table of six" and its joint presidential candidate.
Everyone knows that Erdogan and Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the chairman of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), will be the leading candidates in the presidential race.
The question is which candidate will win a simple majority in the first or second round. The presidential candidates intend to run a campaign without music or colors, but all analysts in Turkey believe that the domestic contest will be intense and full of rhetorical battles and reversals.
The "stoning" of Aksener
Having Meral Aksener, the president of the "Good party", back at the "table" after her "stoning", the opposition feels confident. They raise the stakes by releasing some polls that claim Kilicdaroglu is leading the race.
Now that the People's Alliance and the National Alliance have chosen their presidents, all relevant parties will hit the streets in an attempt to mobilize voters.
Whatever the pollsters say, the presidential race will not be a walk in the park for either coalition.
The People's Alliance will compete against Kilicdaroglu – whom they wanted to claim. However, the CHP president strengthened Axener, who opposed his candidacy, and forced her to rejoin the table of six. Indeed, Axener has been so badly wounded that her party may lose more votes than any other on May 14.
The Turkish people can listen to the talk of CHP and HDP representatives, but what Kilicdaroglu promised the HDP, in official and secret negotiations, to receive their support will be debated until election day.
On the campaign trail, Kilicdaroglu's main challenge will be to reassure voters. After all, the CHP president has repeatedly broken his promises. Let's remember that he was initially against the appointment of party leaders – only to run himself throwing Axener out of the race. He also insisted that the president should not be associated with any political party. If he wins, however, he will remain head of the CHP until the parliamentary system is adopted.
"Turkish Spring"
The intensity of the upcoming fight highlights how important politics is in Turkey. Whether it is changing the political system or rebuilding the country, everyone knows that only politicians will determine the future – that the ballot box is the only point of reference.
Few commentators have distanced themselves from reality and are desperate to vent, arguing that Turkey will "become another North Korea" if the People's Alliance wins, or celebrating the arrival of the "Turkish Spring".
The Greek-Turkish approach
In order for the political world in Turkey to dedicate itself undividedly to the race that awaits it and taking into account the positive situation that exists in Greek-Turkish relations after the earthquakes, it was decided after about 20 days of consultations, that the two countries should support each other in international organizations.The "positive" momentum will be maintained in the coming days both by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Fragogiannis who will discuss in Ankara on Wednesday morning with his new Turkish counterpart "low politics" issues, i.e. trade and finance, as well as the Minister of National Defense who is expected to go to Turkey, to the earthquake affected areas in order to meet Hulusi Akar.
