Following days of speculation, third-party presidential candidate Sinan Oğan of the Ata Alliance has announced his support for President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Sunday’s (May 28) second round runoff. Oğan had captured 5.47% of the vote in the first round of the presidential election on May 14. Erdoğan had captured just over 49% while his challenger and main opposition leader was just shy of 45%. Oğan’s announcement this evening delivers a blow to Kılıçdaroğlu’s hopes of mounting a comeback in the second round.
Oğan’s campaign had sought to offer a far-right nationalist alternative to the two main candidates. A former member of parliament from the Nationalist Action Party (MHP), Erdoğan’s current coalition partner, Oğan had run on an anti-immigrant platform that was also strongly opposed to Turkey’s pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) and promised a hard-line stance towards groups such as the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) and Gülen Movement (FETÖ).
In his speech, Oğan proclaimed his campaign’s role in unseating Turkey’s pro-Kurdish movement as the country’s ‘kingmaker’ as well as convincing the major candidates to adopt more anti-immigrant stances:
“We have removed the HDP from the role of Turkey’s ‘key party’…The issue of refugees and undocumented immigrants have now entered the political agenda and will be addressed. All measures will now be implemented for the return [to their home country] of the refugees who reside in our country.”
The anti-immigrant rhetoric from Oğan’s Ata Alliance has had an appreciable effect on the other two major candidates heading into the second round. Last week, Kılıçdaroğlu promised in a video message to send millions of immigrants back to Syria in what was widely interpreted as a play for nationalist votes. Erdoğan, while stopping short of making promises of deportation, has recently indicated that his government plans to encourage Syrians to voluntarily relocate through projects such as mass housing construction in northern Syria.
Meetings with both major candidates
Prior to announcing his support for Erdoğan today, Oğan had met with both the president and Kılıçdaroğlu in recent days. Insisting that he had made no concessions to either of the major candidates, Oğan said that his conversations with both men had instead focused on shared principles.
Oğan’s alliance partner Özdağ set for Tuesday endorsement announcement
Ümit Özdağ, chairman of the Victory Party which forms part of Oğan’s Ata Alliance, is set to announce his endorsement tomorrow morning (May 23). Recent reports have indicated that the two may be endorsing different candidates heading into the second round. Özdağ has recently hinted at the fact that he will not follow Oğan in endorsing Erdoğan, saying earlier today “As the election is now over, the Ata Alliance has been dissolved.” Oğan, too, fueled the speculation by saying “Myself and Ümit Özdağ do not have to make the same [endorsement] decision.”
Özdağ has long been known for his outspoken anti-immigrant views and held a face-to-face meeting with Kılıçdaroğlu today.
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Another member of the Ata Alliance Vecdat Öz, chairman of the Justice Party, announced earlier today that he would be supporting Kılıçdaroğlu heading into the second round.
Written for Medyascope by Leo Kendrick
