>

He will rig the elections anyways...
Erdogan is a constrained tyrant. The tail will wag the dog, if he's faced with the possibility of losing power. >

unless he can find something domestic to fight I'm not sure how he does that  
he can't fight NATO since all his power comes with being the fringest member of nato, and if he attacks somewhere east he just alienates the other side he relies on. >

Eh, he could always start another "antiterrorism" campaign to reduce the Kurdish population in eastern Turkey, that's usually a pretty popular move! >

Or do another pretend coup d’etat >

This is the most likely direction IMO. >

Yep worked for him once. >

Seems risky to light a match when there is a lot of flammable debris around. >


Seems risky to light a match when there is a lot of flammable debris around.

you're underestimating how stupid the average person is
i love democracy, but it absolutely allows idiots who are dumb as rocks to make very damaging political decisions swayed by emotional rather than logical reasons. It's the same reason the U.S. got stuck with Trump for four years even though he was woefully unqualified to be president >

"The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with an average voter." >

"Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others." >

That's some hope at the end of a very dark tunnel.
Will the citizens fight for a brighter future, though? >

Hopefully they won't have to fight, just show up to vote. >

That has never been the issue.

The voter turnout for the average of 18 parliamentary election is 81.4%; of the local elections is 78.7% and of the referendums is 83.1%. >

I'd be curious to the validity of that data, if it's coming from Erdogan's government reporting.. >

Voting is mandatory in Turkey, and you have to pay a fine of some sort if you don’t show up; so the majority of the country does vote, but that doesn’t mean they all have concrete political opinions. >

But isn't it true that Turks can also vote from abroad by post, and Erdoğan gets a huge amount of support from Turks living elsewhere? The very ones that don't have to live under his rule anymore keep helping to put him back in >

Yes you’re definitely correct, that is also a major factor in his base of support.
Which is wild because any abroad living Turk I’ve met HATES Erdoğan, but these are all young progressive people, so I imagine the support comes from the older traditional crowd. >

I can’t confirm that second statement. There are quite some 50+ year old, who root for him. I‘ve seen pictures of him on the wall in the back of small Turkish shops in Germany. I can’t tell if it would be a majority, but it seems to be a thing at least. >

Live in berlin, can partly confirm - some turkish immigrants love him, others loathe him, none are in between.
It has much to do with the origin of the person in question... were they originally more educated, secular and urban? They tend to hate him... instead those from rural conservative areas of the country form his base. >


Erdogan has developed increasingly close relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin while tightening social freedoms and flouting European court rulings

Fuckin guy is a tyrant. Türkiye should be proud to have kept the possibility to vote this wannabe dictator out. The longer he stays in power the more likely voting him out will no longer be an option. That would be a damn shame. >

I wonder if he might try to pull a Trump if he actually loses. >

Given Brazil did it, and those things are so heavily promoted by anti-NATO/West entities (and yes, this includes conservative media) it almost certainly will happen. >

He's already had his chance to purge the military of non yes men too. >

Those non-yes men previously purged secularists in the army. >

Few people know that aside from America, Turkey was one of a very few countries on earth with a true separation of church and state in law, if not entirely in practice, and that idiot Erdrogan took it away. >

He's been committed to ruining the legacy of one of the greatest men to ever live; Mustafa Kemal. Absolute embarrassment of a man. I hope Turkey can remove him and get back on the right path. >

Not to mention Ataturk is rolling in his grave and spitting on Erdogans name. >

The problem is that Turks love a "Strongman" ever since Ataturk. That's the dynamic that Erdogan plays on. >

Turks don’t gaf about “strongman” players.
They love backgammon, tea, and telling Greeks that everything they have is actually of Turkish origin.
Everything else is just an asshole (Erdogan) who is abusing power as much as humanly possible with the support of hyper rich (saudis) nations who are willing and able to buy influence. >


Turks don’t gaf about “strongman” players.

I don't comment in these posts often but I've had too much raki to pass on this comment. People here sure do love a populist "leader". So, yes they do give a fuck about "strongman". Fortunately, there is another "strongman" in the horizon. >

Yeah, saying people don't care about him is trying to avoid taking any blame for his regime. The "Strongman" persona is popular to some extent all over the world, it's a trap most, if not all, countries can fall into. Turkey has Erdogan, Russia has Putin, the US had Trump, Italy had Berlusconi etc. etc.
They're not all exactly the same, of course, and some have done a lot more damage than others, but the image of the 'strong, independent leader who has easy solutions to society's biggest problems' is ensnaring for many people and always has been. Especially when times are bad and people a desperate.
It's a tired example, but Hitler was exactly this type of character and was for years widely respected, also outside Germany's borders, before the war started and the atrocities really came to light. >

Exactly, people usually comment without acknowledging the causes. To be completely honest, before the 2002 elections Turkey was in a serious economic crisis and Islamists was legitimately oppressed mainly because of the coup in the '80 and the leading events that tracks to late 90s. So, he got elected with 34%. In the following years thanks (his thanks) to IMF audits and some islamic reforms he appeared as a savior and solidified his position, so we are at this point now. Of course this is a very simplified version of recent Turkish politics, so take it with a grain of salt. >

God dammit. Another countries brief political history rabbit hole, only to not be satiated by the depth of the content. 
This shit is happening so often, It’s literally pushing me to pursue a degree political history or some shit. If you ever want to have your jaw on the floor, start reading any fucking countries political history. >

This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 87%. (I'm a bot)


Ankara - Turkey's opposition vowed on Monday to undo President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's two-decade legacy of Islamic-rooted rule and expand democratic freedoms if they take power in crucial May 14 elections.
The six parties united against Erdogan also pledged to decide on February 13 on a joint candidate in the presidential vote - widely seen as Turkey's most consequential in generations.
The opposition's programme was unveiled at a ceremony attended by cheering crowds eager to reverse Erdogan's transformation of Turkey into a more religiously conservative state.


Extended Summary | FAQ | Feedback | Top keywords: Erdogan^#1 Turkey^#2 opposition^#3 President^#4 rule^#5 >

Do the turks like erdogan? What's the local sentiment towards him? >

%30 of voters are erdogan fan boys. last elections was 51 to 49. New elections is the first election after huge economic crisis so pols says they wont get more than %35 >

Also there are around 10mil new voters (gen z) who dislike erdogans regime. Thats roughly 1/10 of the population >

Do they vote? Cause in my country (Greece) that demographic had a terrible turnout last elections. >

Voting is mandatory in Turkey >

In theory the same is true in Greece, but it has never been enforced. >

Same in turkey it has nearly never been enforced here too. But it is still over %80 here since a lot of individuals are into politics and economics here since they have to. >

Nice, sounds like a government that has a plan to drag Turkey heading towards the dark ages and bring them back to the modern world.  Would be good for the country.
No space for this authoritarian rule and Draconian bullshit amongst today's society >

Especially in NATO. >

I don't understand why people have this idea that NATO is some vanguard of democracy. It's a military alliance for mutual benefit. Greece and Portugal were NATO members while being governed by dictatorships. Turkey is a valuable member for military reasons. Its internal politics are irrelevant. >

Despite its problems, nato has been the backbone of the lasting peace we have enjoyed in Europe, and one of the most benevolent military alliances in history. We cannot pretend that Nato is somehow just the same as the Warsaw pact was or the current Russian sphere of influence >

I think you have a very rosy view of NATO, which it doesn't deserve. At the end of the day it's a realpolitik thing. >

Of course, at the end of the day it’s real Politik and yeah, Nato is not perfect but it’s just doesn’t seem true to compare Nato and its adversaries as equally bad >

well gl i guess. i hope u got fair elections... >

Erdogan said who holds Istanbul holds Turkey.
He then lost the Istanbul elections just by a few percent, got a court decision to rerun it and lost again by an even bigger margin. >

Imagine Turkey, Hungary and Poland became liberal secular functioning democracies. How much better would EU and NATO be. >

Slovakia might just join them after the next elections. The far right is on the rise here. I hope I'm wrong. >

We'll see if big bro Czechia influences them with recent election >

As far as I understand it, one of the main dividing factors between Czechs and Slovaks is that the latter are significantly more conservative on average. >

Same everywhere. Rural, less educated, poorer tend conservative. >

would be huge to see another dictator fall >

So the real talk then, how are the current guys chances of winning again? >

Pretty much every survey puts AKP (Erdogan's party) at 25-30% however since almost every other political party is against Erdo, it's more like 65-35 against AKP (60 to 40 at worst). But Erdo seems like still in the lead for presidency except two other guys, Ekrem İmamoğlu and Mansur Yavaş. >

Thankyou for the in depth answer! >

Take your country back! >

We must and we will. >

This is excellent news! And if he survives to election time hopefully we can get a sane Turkey back on the world stage! 
Long has it been missed! >

Restoring the secular and democratic Turkey will be great challenge but people of Anatolia and the people of the world deserve to see it. >

The problem is the lack of a powerful opposition leader that can hold his ground in a powder keg of a region like that. Nobody wants to really vote for him but having a weak leader in that geopolitical region would be suicide. That's why he's still able to rob the country worse than anyone in the country's 100-year hidtory. >

There are strong candidates but seat lower Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu is trying his best to become a candidate despite being closest to loose in elections. >

As a Turk everytime I read comments on a post about Türkiye I am reminded why reddit is such a bad source of information about these kind of stuff. I wonder how much of a wrong idea I have about other countries just because redditors can't stop talking about stuff they have no knowledge of and others upvoting those clueless comments. >

What are the biggest misconceptions? >

People sometimes act like we are literally afghanistan under a different name
I mean we have a refugee problem but its not THAT bad 😅 >

Your attitude is dangerous and indicative of HOW societies fall into dictatorships and theocracies.  The facts show that Turkey has already LOST its secularism. Some mosques are tax-funded, religious schools are tax-funded, the DIYANET is literally part of the government, Islam has an outsized hold on the nation and every part of public life,  the foreign minister made reference in an OFFICIAL letter to "OUR book," when referencing the quran recently.  I could continue but it depresses me. 
Just because Turkey isn't as bad as Saudi, Arabia, doesn't mean its not bad.  Your  statement is a FALLACY of relative privation, or "it could be worse" fallacy. >

As an Iranian Turk, I very closely follow Turkey's news and pray Turkish citizens kick this tyrant out. >

Salam hamsafar. Freedom for Iran, freedom for Turkiye. Also for one day the people of Azerbaijan kicking their tyrant out, and having Azerbaijan rejoin a free Iran once again. Then we can have celebratory Kufte Tabrizi. >

Kufte Tabrizi 🤤 >

Well, good luck to them... >

Good luck with that. Erdogan is very popular and even if he doesn’t truly win, you know he’s gonna do everything he can to win anyway >

There is no problem with people voting for the opposition, in a free and fair election Erdogan would lose by a landside.
The problem is getting that dictatorial fucker out of power.
Regarding religion, there is no place for religion in the 21st century. It serves very little purpose to so few people, and those that it does serve use it as a means of population control. >

The elections are fair, what are you talking about?
People here need to understand that Erdoğan's votes are legit lmao
That is literally one of the major problems. >

Good. Religion should never be mixed with government. >

This is a clear and cut case of how religion can be used to manipulate populations. When Erdogan too power and began his regime he seemed very progressive in the sense of maintaining the momentum that Kemal and Ataturk had already started. He seemed to support democracy and pluralism in the Middle East, especially during the Arab Spring. He oversaw the shift towards the EU in Turkey. Then it all went bad. Religion became the cornerstone of every contraction from that momentum. As he receded into full-on dictatorship religion became the tool for consolidating power and justifying infringements on freedoms. It got just enough radical and easily mobilized people on his side as he broke the confidence of people who would vote against him when it was his time to go. >

It's all I want for my birthday, please! >

Please god, yes. The Czechs just elected a pro-NATO, anti-Putin President (kinda ceremonial but still). Poland has embraced multi-national cooperation. 
If we can reverse some of the slide in Turkey and/or Hungary, it would give this old man some hope. >

As a Greek I would like a more secular turkish gov, even though i know that historically secular turks are more aggressive towards Greece. >

So refreshing seeing someone understand the Greek/Turkey problem is beyond Erdogan. >

Western (European) hypocrisy is responsible for the rise of religious government in Turkey. Turkey could have easily got closer to it's western allies and pursue it's transformation towards  being a more advanced democracy if it was accepted into the EU Union in 1990s, instead of being shown carrot and given the stick for decades. Frankly, no one wanted an 80 million Muslim country in the Christian western club and it was much better to keep Turkey as the forefront military post and a buffer zone between Russia and the west. Now they all act as if they are shocked to see this power broker country is getting distanced from their NATO allies. We are talking about the same country they tried to colonize in early 1900s and failed. When put in historical context, democratic Europe has little to say about Turkish politics, despite the dire situation in current situation. >

True. I still remember a sticker on my wardrobe from childhood that says "EU isn't EU without Turkey". There was a big push. Governments worked very hard to be accepted into EU. Only when I grew up that I've learnt that EU used that to take advantage of the situation to impose very unfair export/import rules etc. Which we agreed to. But it all came to a halt when Cyprus was asked to be left alone. Turks were being systematically killed there and we refused.
Erdogan campaigned on "The West" using us and governments giving away too much and being very weak. How PKK was being supported from the outside and that the secular governments were "opressing our religious brothers and sisters".
Not all of it was EU's fault but they slammed that door on our face time and time again only opening it back again with other requirements. Which gave the religious right everything they needed. >


to impose very unfair export/import rules etc.

What exactly was very unfair about the customs union?
Nothing huh. >

I hope turkish people will save their country, during this election, from an Islamist tyrant. Good luck. >

The tyrant has a huge backing in the population. Especially from turks not living in turkey. And those are allowed to vote. >

People say that as if that is a bad things surrounding this election but isn't that the norm so long as you retain citizenship? I'm Swedish and we definitely can vote even if living somewhere else. >

I'm not saying it's a bad thing but contextually, if you don't live in your country because it sucks and vote for the person responsible for this, it's disingenuous.
There might be a very small portion of turks that live in Germany involuntarily but those usually don't vote for erdogan. >

I hope they follow Brazil lead. I would love to see Erdogan hanging out in Florida with the other two losers. >

Ataturk is my hero. >

From the article: 
“Western powers have tried to stay out of the election to avoid drawing Erdogan's ire.
But US President Joe Biden suggested in a TV interview conducted during his 2020 election campaign that Washington should help "elements" of the Turkish opposition "take on and defeat Erdogan".”
I live in this country and although I am farthest you can get from what you would consider a nationalist, and have no sympathy whatsoever for Erdogan, reading about these “powers” so nonchalantly considering  whether or not to interviene in her elections makes me sad and mad. Especially since many citizens work a lot to undo or prevent what damage this government has caused. >

Please do. Erdogan is tiresome >

Turkey is setting itself up to be a power player because of this war in Urkraine. I think people really..REALLY need to realize how this conflict is going to effect things. Especially food exports and food stability for most of the middle east. Wanna know what happened when food prices and supply dropped sharply? The Arab Spring. Egypt is already worried about that..its why they moved their capital government structure. >

The problem is, there's too many Turks who are down right stupid and believe Erdogan's  lies. >

People here will actually not believe the lies that he said
We are richer than europe, they are afraid of us
People cant even afford fridges in germany
There was no electricity in the country before us
It was forbidden to read the quran in public back than (guess who ordered to translate the quran to turkish? Hint: his surname starts with atatürk)
These are just the ones i remember from the top of my head >

Turks, enjoy the chance Erdogan was less able to mbed in the state apparatus than Putin, Orban, Chavez/Maduro and Xi ever were. >

He’s gonna rig the elections. >

He recently sentenced the biggest opposing candidate to jail, and gave him a political ban for life (though it hasnt gone through the necessary courts). 
Opposition is disunited, unless the people in unison vote him out, he will get re-elected. >

He will not go out without a fight. Remember last time. Hope it goes well >

Does this mean Erdogan also has to give account to the $120+ billion that went missing?
Can't wait. >

"The election was RIGGED against me! I am imposing martial law til we sort this out" >

As an American I find it hard to believe that one guy can fuck up a democracy while in power .. 
Oh yeah..￼ >

This dude is the exact type of tyrant figure head we need to send to retirement. He has overseen thousands of murder. Good riddance. (Note: he will go down guns/saws blazing) >

Now THAT is something to vote for. >

Everyone can pray and join the opposition and we can finally get Turkey back in the game >

This announcement gave me a TINY bit of hope for Turkey. >

It would be a shame if the opposition was caught orchestrating a coup attempt before the election.
-Erdogan >

One can only wish. >

Russia and Putin should be an example to the world to get rid of autocrats >

I wonder what crisis Erdogan will come up to stay in power ? >

I'm worried that we're only 4 months away from Election Day and the opposition still hasn't expressed a candidate to rally around.
But again, the moment they do, this person will be legal- and media-assaulted by the regime, so I understand why they're withholding the name till the last minute. >

I’ll be honest, the Reddit title is very misleading. The headline in the article has no mention of Islam or anything like that from the opposition’s lips. However, it’s good that they are taking on Erdogan and removing the fool. >

Oh cool! So how long before the election will the opposition begin to die ‘mysterious’ unexplained deaths?