On the eve of the second round of the presidential election in Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan chose to bow on Saturday at the grave of his model in politics, a nationalist-Islamist hanged by the military.
Quite a symbol for the head of state, 69, given favorite despite twenty years of power against his opponent, the social democrat Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, 74.
Adnan Menderes, an emblematic figure for the Turkish conservative right, put an end in 1950 to the reign of the secular CHP of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the father of modern Turkey.
“The time of coups and juntas is over: tomorrow will be a special day for all of us”, launched the Turkish president, calling on his compatriots to go and vote on this anniversary of the coup of May 27, 1960.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, given worn out and weakened by the economic crisis and the earthquake of February 6, created the surprise by obtaining 49.5% of the votes on May 14, against 44.9% for his rival.
Since then, Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, at the head of a coalition of six parties, from the nationalist right to the center left, has tried to mobilize his troops to the end, in particular on his right.
His supporters have swarmed the streets of major cities to call for the vote and try to seduce young people and housewives, traditionally won over to Mr. Erdogan.
But unlike the outgoing president, omnipresent on the stands and on television, Kemal Kiliçdaroglu had to fight hard to be heard.
“Fake news”
According to the organization Reporters Without Borders, public television TRT granted “sixty times more airtime” to Mr. Erdogan than to his rival during the campaign.
On the Turkish Fox television channel, Mr. Kiliçdaroglu on Friday denounced the blocking of his campaign text messages by the telecommunications regulatory authority, accusing the president’s camp of “seeking by all means to stay in power”.
Simultaneously, the Head of State accused on TRT “the Western media of always trying to manufacture false news”.
The arithmetic is nevertheless favorable to him after the rallying of the third man in the first round, Sinan Ogan, an ultranationalist who had won 5.2% of the vote.
To flatter this electorate, Mr. Erdogan chose Saturday to pray at the tomb of former Prime Minister Menderes, deposed by a military coup in 1960 and hanged a year later.
Menderes had made Islam a political tool, restoring the call to prayer in Arabic and reopening thousands of closed mosques. It is this political model that inspired the Head of State to create the Islamo-conservative AKP party, which accompanied his rise.
“regime of oppression”
“What comes first is safety. Tayyip has done so much for this country, I think he is still the one who will win,” said 18-year-old Ahmet Karakoç in Istanbul on Saturday, sensitive to the accusations of “terrorism” brought by Mr. Erdogan against his rivals. .
Opposite, Mr. Kiliçdaroglu, an economist by training and former senior civil servant, played the appeasement with an electorate stunned by inflation.
“We want the country to find peace, for the economy to recover […]. I think he would be a good leader. An economist would be good for the country,” judged Ali Öksüz, 45, in the conservative district of Üsküdar.
The candidate, however, beefed up his speech between the two rounds, repeating in an unusually firm tone that he would return “within two years” the 3.4 million Syrians who had found refuge in Turkey.
The pro-Kurdish HDP party reiterated its unconditional support for him, despite Mr. Kiliçdaroglu’s rapprochement with an ultranationalist and xenophobic micro-party.
From the bottom of his cell, the main figure of the HDP, Selahattin Demirtas, recalled on Twitter: “There is no third round in this affair! Let’s make Mr Kiliçdaroglu president, let Turkey breathe. Go to the polls, vote! »
“What I expect is a change of government. We can’t take this regime of oppression any longer, ”confided Saturday in Ankara Ugur Barlas, a 39-year-old teacher.
Polling stations will be open Sunday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. local time and the first results are expected by early evening.
This time, the CHP will deploy “five observers per ballot box, not one or two…, that is a million people, to guarantee the security” of the vote, promised Kemal Kiliçdaroglu.