An unsuccessful association

In the publication "Cold", journalist Kirill Krivosheev writes why the Turkish opposition lost the presidential election in the second round:

“As in Russia, in Turkey, most of the manipulations affecting the outcome of the elections are performed before the voting day. For example, it is just right to recall why Kemal Kylychdaroglu, and not a more promising candidate, became the mayor of Istanbul, Imamoglu, a candidate from the opposition. <...>

In addition, there was a banal administrative resource: the opposition, unlike the authorities, could not offer voters free gas and raising the minimum salary for state employees, and Erdogan did this, and right before the elections - in April.

Finally, an important factor is control over the media. According to the organization “Reporters Without Borders”, 90% of the Turkish media are under state control, and in the rating of freedom of speech the country in 2023 took a position near Russia-165th place out of 180, although a year ago was in 149th place. <...>

It is important to say that Ogan ( Sinan Ogan, the Third Presidential Candidate - Polit.ru ) is an ethnic Azerbaijani who was born in the east of Turkey, but from 1992 to 2000 worked in Baku. The opposition media wrote that the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, who is closely friends with the current president and fears the victory of the opposition, influenced his decision. Ogan himself denies this. <...>

At the same time, the Ozdag, the leader of the Victory Party ( Zafer Part ı s ı), from which Sinan Agan was nominated, did not make his decision and supported Kylychdaroglu. Judging by the results, 5% of the rating, originally belonging to Ogan, were distributed between the leaders of the race approximately in half. And this was enough to ensure the victory of Erdogan. <...>

Usually, a calm and intelligent Kylychdaroglu took a very tough anti -migrant position and literally promised to deport four million people for two years. One of his posters promised: "The Syrians will leave." As many experts noted, in ultra -right, the role of Kemal Kylychdaroglu looked unnatural, because before he was compared with Mahatma Gandhi - both for external similarities, and for a calm, non -aggressive manner of speech.

In addition, Kylychdaroglu continued to talk about Russia, which on the eve of the first round accused of interference of the election. <...> The authorities successfully took the anti -Russian rhetoric of the opposition into service and scared voters that, in the event of Kylychdaroglu, Russian tourists will stop coming to the country - and this will hit the economy a lot.

Both Kylychdaroglu himself and his associates in the opposition coalition periodically made reservations that relations with Moscow were important, but it looked more like throwing, and not a firmly formulated position. <...>

The most ambitious and successful project for the association of the opposition against Autocrat in the election failed. Nationalists, Islamists, left -wing and liberals spent a bunch of strength to temporarily reject all the differences and achieve a common goal, but even they did not succeed. What then to expect from similar attempts in the post -Soviet countries, where there is even more administrative and media resource in power, and the judicial system is even weaker? ”