long tenure Recep Tayyip Erdogan It wobbles in Turkey. Over 20 years of rule could end this Sunday. record attendance More than 80% of the vote and a weak victory for the opposition close to 50% In the first round, this scenario tied the president, whose election strategy consisted of: belittle and attack your opposition.
As Erdogan’s party loses its power and support at the ballot boxes, the government is gone raising the tone of his attacks The only common denominator of the parties with different ideologies to the main opposition coalition known as the National Alliance is the will to unite. evacuate Erdogan strength. “This coalition based its unity on the will to restore democracy and revolutionize the country,” says a political analyst from the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV). Selim Koru From the Prensa Ibérica group to EL PERIÓDICO.
Threats came last week armed men According to some local Turkish media, in the election centers of opposition parties and in the media. Although the author of the actions is unknown, these threats irrelevant media According to sources close to these companies, “gunmen dictated to journalists what to write and how to make headlines” to Erdogan’s government.
Throwing stones at the opposition
Journalist harassment is not a new weapon for the Government. One of the key points of the long-standing authoritarian orientation of the Erdogan administration is arrests of journalists, activists and politicians, to be generally blamed terrorism for a simple fact of defense ideas critical of the regime. More than 200 journalists have been imprisoned in the country over the past five years, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF). “Erdogan has carried out a series of attacks, publicly and without cover, as other figures in the world have done. donald trump or Jair Bolsonaro. The more they make it public, the greater the impact of this coercion because people feel more remorseful when it comes to criticizing the Government and power. It shows that opposition has a price,” he said.
In addition, at the rally organized by the Istanbul Metropolitan Mayor and Vice President candidates last Sunday, Ekrem ImamogluAt least seven people were injured by stones thrown by supporters of the president. Soon after, İmamoğlu said, “We came to the area where we were going to talk. Stones were falling everywhere. None of the police officers there (to intervene) moved. They threw stones at people’s heads.” 15 detainees were released a few hours later without any results.
Life imprisonment or bullet in the body
The feared ‘sorpasso’ predicted by the polls led the Erdogan government and its ministers to delegitimize an election they had supported months ago. The Minister of the Interior recently announced that the elections were “a “West of the West” and accused the opposition coalition of “terrorists” and supporting the LGTBI collective. An opposition recently threatened by the government’s ally in Parliament, the leader of the ultra-nationalist MHP party, Devlet Bahçeli, accused them of “traitors to take”. aggravated life imprisonment or lead in the body”.
In the context of this tension and continued discredit by the opposition, Erdogan’s party’s rhetoric has had a hard impact on the battered LGTBI collective. At nearly all rallies, the Turkish president accused each of the opposition parties of supporting this group, and his attacks were applauded by the crowds, and according to various LGTBI associations, hate speech against the community. Some associations defending LGTBI rights, such as the Diyarbakır Bar Association, claim that this has led even the opposition to increasingly aggressive and risky responses to distance themselves from the group. “Hate speech is on the rise,” they argue from the association.