In order to remain “hooked” in power, the Turkish president allies himself with more and more “dark” political forces. This is due to the opinion polls in Turkey predicting an inconclusive battle in the double – parliamentary and presidential – elections of May 14.
The economy and the vote of the young, the undecided, the nationalists and the Kurds are projected as decisive factors in shaping the outcome of the ballot box.
With every vote counting, parties now operate on the logic of “strength in unity”, forming or expanding existing coalitions. So in this election there are three. Of these, the two stand opposite the “camp” of Turkish President Erdogan.
The six-party, heterogeneous, non-main opposition “Alliance of the Nation” is rallying around the presidential candidacy of current main opposition (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, while bringing together Kemalists, nationalists, former Erdogan government officials and moderate Islamists.
The left-wing opposition “Alliance of Labor and Freedom” announced that five of the six parties that make it up – among them the pro-Kurdish/leftist HDP party under political and legal persecution – will run in the parliamentary elections with a joint list under its “umbrella” Green and Left Future Party, without presenting their own presidential candidate. An indirect support for Kilicdaroglu’s candidacy.
In response, the ruling “People’s Alliance” responds by expanding, opening its “arms” to even extremely controversial and even… “dark” allies. This is one of the moves, with which Erdogan “bets” that he will attract votes outside his traditional base and win the electoral “game”.
“The end justifies the means”?
The nationalist/Islamist New Prosperity Party (YRP) of Fatih Erbakan—son of Necmetin Erbakan, Turkey’s first Islamist prime minister (1996-97) and mentor to its neighbor’s current president—joined the “People’s Alliance” on March 24, canceling the presidential candidacy of its leader, who would “cut” percentages from Erdogan.
Practically completed the official… “framework” of political Sunni Islam, with a strong dose of extreme nationalism, advocated since 2018 by the alliance of the Islamic conservative ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) with the far-right Nationalist Action Party (MHP) of Devlet Bakhceli and ultra-tennisian Islamist Greater Unity Party (BBP) of Mustafa Destiji.
The last two are closely linked through the infamous “Grey Wolves”: the neo-fascist parastatal organization that first appeared in the late 1960s, sowed terror and death inside and outside Turkey in the name of pan-Turkism and anti-communism, is accused of maintaining close ties with the Turkish mafia and informally constitutes the youth of the MHP. Partly of BBP too.
Cooperation with the “People’s Alliance” – without officially joining it – were meanwhile announced by two other small extra-parliamentary, except… non-excludable parties, which declared “loyalty” to the Erdogan candidacy and in return ensured the participation of candidates in the parliamentary elections with the list of the AKP.
One is the Democratic Left Party (DSP) – a creation of the “invasion prime minister” in Cyprus, Bulent Etcevit – which joined hands with Erdogan a few days ago, causing internal shocks and mass departures.
The second, and more controversial, is the Kurdish, but extreme Islamic-nationalist Free Struggle Party (HÜDA PAR) of Zekeriya Yapizioglu. Their support for Erdoğan is with compensation.
“Show me your friend, and I’ll tell you who you are”
Zekeriya Yapizioglu’s HÜDA PAR is alleged to be closely linked to the Kurdish Hezbollah: a Kurdish Sunni Islamist organization, unrelated to the Lebanese Shiite pro-Iranian organization of the same name.
It is an opponent of the PKK and has committed numerous tortures and politically motivated killings since the 1990s. After the death of its founder, Husein Velioglu, in 2000, the organization says it has renounced the use of violence and is focusing on philanthropy, expanding its influence inside and outside Turkey. Officially, the Turkish government describes it as “terrorist”.
And in the one month that has passed since the alliance of Yapizioglu’s party with the AKP and his support for the “People’s Alliance”, the Erdoğan regime has put forward the operation… “laundry”.
A Turkish court has banned the publication of interviews with Kurdish Hezbollah victims and journalistic investigations into its relations with the AKP’s new allies.
Erdoğan’s partner, Bakhceli, also jumped into the fray, claiming that “so far no clear connection, convincing or authentic information has been found between the terrorist organization Hezbollah and HÜDA PAR”.
After all, the members of the armed organization “were neutralized in extensive operations carried out on January 17, 2000”, he claimed, calling on the then Minister of the Interior Sadetin Tadan – in the fourth Ecevit government – to confirm this.
“We are now passing through a period in which a pack of murderers has turned into a political party,” was the “paid” response he received. Tadan – who has since founded the nationalist Homeland Party – stressed that although the majority of Kurdish Hezbollah members were arrested and tried during his tenure as interior minister, many of them were released, while several others served only half their sentences. their.
“How can Bakhceli digest HÜDA PAR’s party policies of discrimination, which are against the principles of the Republic?”, he added.
Erdogan under… political “hostage”?
For confirmation, on the 12th of the month came the publication of the pre-election program of the party, with the pompous name “Vision Document for the 2023 Elections”…
HÜDA-PAR bluntly praised the presidential system in Turkey, arguing that the parliamentary system creates instability.
It calls for the reinstatement of gender segregation in educational institutions. Criminalization of extramarital relations.
“Strengthening the institution of the family by deviant perceptions” – a veiled attack on the LGBTI+ community in Turkey.
Employment of women in sectors and jobs that “suit their nature”. And first, “revision” of Law 6284 on the prevention of domestic violence.
What is wanted in this case is its further relaxation, in a country that has already withdrawn, by order of Erdogan, from the Istanbul Convention: the first legally binding international text against gender-based violence.
The positions of Erdogan’s official partners in the “People’s Alliance”: Fatih Erbakan’s BBP and Bahtceli’s MHP are similar.
The latter dictates his own hyper-nationalist agenda in Turkey’s domestic and foreign policy, by “pushing” his 48 MPs, which he offers to the AKP as a “crutch” to secure a parliamentary majority.
In case of victory of the “People’s Alliance” and Erdogan in the crucial elections, which will be held in less than a month, this scenario is not expected to change.
In fact, depending on the political balances, the political dependencies of the current “Sultan” on his smaller – and now more – partners may become even more pressing.
