President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan gains the endorsement of Sinan Ogan, an ultra-nationalist candidate whose third-place finish in the general election forced Turkey into its first-ever runoff.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Monday secured the endorsement of an ultra-nationalist whose third-place finish helped force Turkey’s first election runoff.
Sinan Ogan’s 5.2 percent of vote in the May 14th general election deprived Erdoğan of an outright victory for the first time in his 20-year rule.
He met the Turkish leader on Friday and held separate negotiations with allies of opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu.
“We will support the People’s Alliance candidate, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in the second round of the elections on May 28th,” he told reporters in nationally televised remarks.
“I invite voters who backed us in the first round to support Mr. Erdoğan in the second round.”
Ogan portrays himself as an ardent supporter of Turkish nationalism espoused by the post-Ottoman Republic’s creator, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
He has demanded the immediate expulsion of millions of migrants and sought a firm stance on “terrorists”—a euphemism for Kurdish groups fighting for broader autonomy in Turkey’s southeast.
The 54-year-old also tried to stop the opposition from discussing constitutional changes that could dilute language, stressing the importance of Turkishness at the expense of other ethnicities.
Kilicdaroglu ran a more inclusive campaign, focusing on Turkey’s raging economic crisis and Erdogan’s crackdown on civil liberties during his second decade of rule.
Miroslava Salazar with AFP
