Erdogan’s rival hardens tone, courting Turkish nationalists

Published May 18, 2023
Leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP) and the joint presidential candidate of the Nation Alliance, Kemal Kilicdaroglu gives a press conference in Ankara on May 18, 2023. — AFP
Leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP) and the joint presidential candidate of the Nation Alliance, Kemal Kilicdaroglu gives a press conference in Ankara on May 18, 2023. — AFP

Turkey’s opposition leader vowed Thursday to send back millions of migrants in a strident message aimed at winning the backing of an ultra-nationalist who helped push last weekend’s presidential vote to a runoff.

Secular opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu delivered his first public address since a landmark election Sunday in which he came in almost five points behind President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Kilicdaroglu’s performance was the opposition’s best of the Turkish leader’s two-decade rule.

But it fell short of expectations set by pre-election polling and left the opposition visibly depressed.

The 74-year-old has since revamped his campaign team and toughened his message to win over Turkey’s right-wing voters in the May 28 runoff. He also plans to meet Sinan Ogan — a far-right figure who picked up 5.2 per cent of the vote and is still weighing his endorsement.

Kilicdaroglu tried on Thursday to toughen his message considerably from the more inclusive tone he set in the first stage of the campaign.

“Erdogan, you did not protect the borders and honour of the country,” the former civil servant said.

“You have deliberately brought more than 10 million refugees to this country… As soon as I come to power, I will send all the refugees home.”

Ogan has said he will only back a candidate who cracks down on migrants and fights “terrorism” — a code word in Turkey for Kurdish militants.

‘Syrians are our brothers’

Erdogan and his Islamic-rooted party were lionised across swathes of the Muslim world for their more embracing stance towards those fleeing conflicts in countries such as Syria.

Turkey’s five-million-strong refugee and migrant population became the world’s largest in the past decade.

A separate 2016 deal between Ankara and the European Union helped stem the continent’s migrant crisis by allowing those trying to reach Western Europe to settle in Turkey.

Turkey won billions of euros in funding from Brussels for the programme. But an economic crisis that gathered pace as the election neared sent anti-migrant sentiment soaring.

Erdogan’s government has tried to find a middle ground.

Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said on Thursday that Turkey had already sent more than half a million Syrians back.

“We are not going to make Turkey into a refugee warehouse, and we have not done so to date. But the Syrians are our brothers,” Soylu said.

“We cannot send them to their deaths. And we have not. Tayyip Erdogan doesn’t want to be remembered as a leader who sent Syrians to their deaths.”

Opinion

Revamping the ecosystem

Revamping the ecosystem

Key to high-quality performance of public sector institutions lies in attracting, retaining and motivating civil servants of high calibre throughout the system.

Editorial

Rain havoc
Updated 19 Jul, 2025

Rain havoc

Thursday’s events must be seen not as an isolated disaster, but as a warning of what lies ahead.
Shattered Strip
19 Jul, 2025

Shattered Strip

THE Gaza siege has now crossed 650 days and the situation continues to take one ugly turn after another. True, even...
Battling drugs
19 Jul, 2025

Battling drugs

PAKISTAN’s war on drug trafficking has been ongoing for several years. But the country remains awash in the ...
Soaring again
Updated 18 Jul, 2025

Soaring again

The lifting of the ban by the UK will lead to several welcome developments.
Terror in Kalat
18 Jul, 2025

Terror in Kalat

THE unrest in Balochistan is increasingly taking on an ugly and dangerous colour, with repeated, indiscriminate...
Economic exclusion
18 Jul, 2025

Economic exclusion

FOR all the progress made in Pakistan towards the inclusion of women across the sociopolitical divide, comprehensive...