Erdogan Is Also Suspected Of Being The Culprit In The Turkish Presidential Election

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. (Wikimedia Commons)

JAKARTA - Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a popular leader in Turkey. His teachings of combining nationalism and conservatism were behind it. The narrative led him to lead Turkey from 2003. He was the Prime Minister (PM) to the President of Turkey.

His reputation is brilliant. He has never lost in the election. However, his prestige faded in the 2023 presidential election. Many surveys 'forced' to lose. Erdogan is like a beard fire. He is suspected of being his political opponent playing a fraudulent strategy to win political contestation.

The figure of Erdogan is not new to the Turkish world of politics. He was once hailed as a savior who brought turkies from the threat of moral and economic downturn. Erdogan has shown this assessment since he was elected mayor of Istanbul in 1994.

He was able to bring Istanbul to develop rapidly. However, on the other hand, he was once considered a threat to Turkey's secularism. Erdogan, who incidentally is a Muslim, wants to uphold morals, one of which is by banning alcohol.

He also openly began to disrupt Turkey's secular understanding. The Turkish government is furious. Erdogan was also considered to incite religious hatred. He also had to receive consequences in prison for four months in 1999. The sympathy of the Turkish people to Erdogan rose.

In fact, prison did not make Erdogan stay away from politics. His political ambition is increasing. Erdogan founded his own political vehicle, the Justice and Development Party (AKP). The result was brilliant. Erdogan's popularity as a 'Muslim defender' was able to bring AKP ahead in the election of Parliament in 2002.

He was also able to become Prime Minister of Turkey for three terms, from 2003-2014. This achievement did not make Erdogan satisfied. He wants to devote himself to leading Turkey again. However, now not as a PM, but as a Turkish President.

He was able to defeat all kinds of competitors in the political contestation of the two-term presidential election. The victory proves that Erdogan's existence is unable to be dammed. Moreover, Erdogan often shows his concern for issues related to Muslims in Turkey, then the world.

The victory shows that the hegemony of Erdogan or what could be called the Erdoganism phenomenon in Turkey, which has been strong since 2002 or more than two decades, has been immovable. In modern history Turkey was born two imisms, namely Kemalism which refers to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey in 1923, and Erdoganism which refers to Erdogan.

Era Kemalism lasts two terms. The first period, the era of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, from the founding year of modern Turkey (1923) to his death in 1938. The second period, the era of the followers of Kemal Ataturk, from the death of Kemal Ataturk in 1938 to the rise of Erdogan as prime minister (PM) in 2002. The period of Kemalism from 1938 to 2002 was interspersed with the period of PM Adnan Menderes (1950-1960) and PM Necmettin Erbakan (1996-1997) who was considered an antithesis of Kemalism, explained Musthafa Abd Rahman in his writings in Kompas Daily entitled Why Erdogan Always Wins the Turkish Election?(2023).

Erdogan's ambition to continue to power has never faded. He even wanted to lead Turkey as president for the third term. However, the affairs of participating in the 2023 presidential election are not easy. Erdogan's leadership is being tested with many trials, from a slump in the economy to handling large earthquakes that have collapsed.

Erdogan's surveys' will lose. The narrative became stronger when the leader of the People's Party of the Republic (CHP), Kemal Kilicdaroglu appeared as a challenger. Various other opposition parties began to unite their forces in supporting Kilicdaroglu.

Kilicdaroglu is considered capable of coming out victorious because it carries the banner of a center-left secular party built by Turkish founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. This condition made Erdogan like a beard fire.

Erdogan is suspected of cheating by utilizing his position as Turkey's number one person. He immediately triggered his government to issue a series of popular policies. Erdogan is driving the minimum wage.

This step was also taken by increasing the intensive health workers. Even a classy policy is the provision of incentives to those who are victims of the earthquake. This strategy makes the 2023 presidential election competition feel unfair.

Opposition has become a headache. This is because Erdogan is increasingly strengthened by the great control of his government towards judicial institutions, businessmen, and the media. Nestapa for the opposition did not stop. Various political opponents Erdogan, who supported his political opponents, were immediately arrested.

Erdogan also in his campaign did not hesitate to make statements about demeaning his political opponents. He called Kilicdaroglu incompetent to be a leader. Kilicdaroglu is also considered to have been soft on Kurdish militants, who in fact are considered terrorists by the Erdogan government.

The narrative that Erdogan built was not just through an oration. Erdogan also shared videos related to Kurdish militias that supported Kilicdaroglu in the 2023 presidential election. In fact, Erdogan actually spread hoax videos. The video that spread was taken in two different incidents to attack his political opponents.

A series of actions that were suspected of cheating also benefited Erdogan. Voting day was held on May 12, 2023. The results of the presidential election in the main round showed 49.5 percent of the votes in Erdogan and 44.9 percent of the votes in Kilicdaroglu. Both were able to beat the other two candidates, Muharrem Ince and Sinan Ogan.

The result made the presidential election held for the second round because they did not get more than 50 percent of the votes on May 29, 2023. Erdogan also won the second round. Erdogan has won 52.3 percent, while his opponent Kilicdaroglu won 47.7 percent.

Erdogan has repeatedly made this argument to voters, based on opposition ones who have the support of a pro-Kurdish Turkish main party. The government often accuses the party of collaborating with militants from the Kurdish minority in Turkey who have been at war with the Turkish state for decades to seek autonomy.

Erdogan even broadcasts videos that have been fabricated. The video was deliberately presented to show Kilicdaoglu and militant leader Kurdi singing with campaign songs. Many voters believed in it, and said in an interview that they did not trust the opposition to maintain national security," explained Ben Hubbard in his article on The New York Times website entitledFive Takeaways From Turkey's Presidential Election (2023).