Turkish far-right candidate announces support for Erdogan

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The presidential candidate of a Turkish ultranationalist alliance on Monday announced his support for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s presidential bid for the runoff, making it harder for the opposition to unseat Erdogan. 

Turkish parliamentary and presidential elections were held on May 14. Erdogan’s alliance won most of the parliament seats but he failed to win the presidential bid, gaining 49.5 percent of the votes. The opposition’s candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu came second by gaining nearly 45 percent. Therefore, the electoral council announced that both candidates would race in the second round on May 28. 

Sinan Ogan, the third presidential candidate who was supported by the far-right Ancestral Alliance (ATA), surprisingly gained over five percent of the votes. He announced on Monday that after meeting with Erdogan and the opposition he has decided to support the incumbent president of the country to maintain his position.  

Erdogan has been the prime minister and president of Turkey since 2003, gaining executive powers through a referendum in 2017. 

Ogan has said that his conditions include the return of Syrian refugees to their homes, the exclusion of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) from the next cabinet, and the continuation of the fight against Kurdish rebels. 

Erdogan told state media late Monday that he did not make any deals with Ogan, adding that his cabinet's policy regarding refugees and the fight against Kurdish rebels meets Ogan's demands. 

However, Umit Ozdag, president of the Victory Party, which is the backbone of Ogan’s alliance, said minutes after Ogan’s announcement that his views do not reflect those of his party, adding that the party would announce its official position on Tuesday.  

This is the first sign of division between members of the ATA alliance. 

Kilicdaroglu implicitly slammed the third-place finisher for his decision, accusing him of “selling this beautiful country.”  

“We are coming to save this country from terrorism and refugees. This is a referendum; No one can fool anyone anymore,” he said in a tweet, reiterating his nationalist rhetoric.

Kilicdaroglu, who gained most of the votes in the Kurdish areas and was supported by the HDP and its leftist allies, promised to release Kurdish political prisoners and end crackdowns on Kurdish politicians, activists and journalists during his first campaign. 

However, after realising that the nationalist votes are the potential kingmakers in the runoff, he shifted his tone in a bid to please them. Kilicdaroglu has taken a much harder tone on two issues that are top priority for nationalists - refugees and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Kilicdaroglu is the leader of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP).