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Turkey
Meral Aksener, leader of the IYI Party, speaking to reporters on March 3, 2023. Photo: IYI Party
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Less than three months ahead of elections, a rift has split Turkey’s opposition alliance formed to topple President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The leader of an ultra-nationalist party on Friday rejected the alliance’s decision to back the head of the largest opposition party for the presidency.
Six Turkish opposition parties, consisting of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and five newly-established parties, had formed an alliance with the hope of beating Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the 2023 parliamentary and presidential elections. The IYI Party, which was founded by a group of politicians who defected from the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) in 2017, is in the six-party alliance.
The six parties held a meeting on Thursday where they discussed promoting a single candidate for presidential elections that are scheduled for mid-May. A joint statement by the parties read that they would make a final decision on Monday.
On Friday, Meral Aksener, leader of the IYI Party, revealed to reporters that five of the parties had proposed CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, with her party the sole dissenter. She said she had proposed two alternatives - Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu and Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavas - who are both also from the CHP. She noted that both mayors won their posts in 2019 by defeating Erdogan’s candidates.
“Unfortunately, our views and proposals were completely rejected,” she said, adding that the six-table alliance “no longer reflects the will of the nation.”
Aksener called on the two mayors to both come forward and run for the presidency.
Kilicdaroglu, who celebrated yesterday’s meeting with a tweet, stating "Unity and togetherness beats everything but death,” on Friday told reporters “don’t worry” about Aksener’s decision and used a Turkish idiom, “the stones will sit in their places” that means everything will fall into place.
The Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) is not a member of the six-party alliance because of the IYI Party’s strong opposition to the pro-Kurdish party. Aksener said in September that we “will not be at a table where the HDP is present.”
Several HDP lawmakers said on Twitter that they were not surprised by Aksener's decision.
The future of the six-party coalition remains unclear as elections approach. No date has officially been set for the elections but Erdogan has said several times, most recently on Wednesday, that they will be held on May 14.
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