Turkish prestige project
“They call it aircraft carrier to fool you”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan unveiled his country’s first aircraft carrier. The presentation of the prestige object shortly before the elections is intended to hide the fact that Erdogan is not entering the race as a favourite.
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Turkish aircraft carrier: “Equipped so that we can carry out military and humanitarian operations in all parts of the world if necessary.”
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan unveiled Turkey’s first aircraft carrier.
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The timing of the presentation should not be accidental.
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Parliamentary and presidential elections will take place on May 14th.
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Should Erdogan lose the election, that would be a turning point.
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But the opposition around the “Turkish Ghandi” Kemal Kilicdaroglu has a major weakness.
Elections are coming up soon in Turkey. Accordingly, the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is interested in positive reports – such as the presentation of Turkey’s first aircraft carrier. The “TCG Anadolu” is an impressive 231 meters long, 32 meters wide and can accommodate 1400 people.
Bayraktar TB3 and Kizilelma combat drones as well as heavy helicopters can take off and land on it. “Our ship is equipped in such a way that we can carry out military and humanitarian operations in all parts of the world if necessary,” said President Erdogan at the presentation ceremony in Istanbul.
“They call it an aircraft carrier to fool you”
But not everyone is impressed by the prestige ship. ‘They call it an aircraft carrier to fool you. They delivered it in a hurry before the election. Without even having tested it,” tweeted a former high-ranking Turkish navy commander.
The parliamentary and presidential elections will take place on May 14 – and for the first time since taking office in 2003, Erdogan is not entering the race as a favourite.
Anti-Erdogan alliance around “Turkish Gandhi”
Six opposition parties have formed an anti-Erdogan alliance and nominated a common presidential candidate: Kemal Kilicdaroglu. The head of the Kemalist CHP is not considered very charismatic and is often referred to as the “Turkish Ghandi” because of his appearance.
Depending on the polling institute, Kilicdaroglu is two to ten percentage points ahead of the long-term president. Erdogan’s popularity ratings, on the other hand, are lower than they have ever been during his tenure.
There are several reasons for this: the Turkish economy is in a serious crisis and many Turks felt that the government’s emergency aid after the earthquake disaster on February 6 was insufficient. “Inflation is galloping, energy prices are rising, the middle class is shrinking,” said the former German ambassador to Turkey, Martin Erdmann, in an interview with “Die Welt”.
Opposition with only one connecting element
If Erdogan is re-elected in mid-May, Turkey’s decline will last another five years, Erdmann said. “In the interests of the country, one can only hope that the people at the ballot box will turn the tide and vote for the opposition coalition parties with their common presidential candidate.”
However, it is far from clear whether the opposition will be able to assert itself, especially since the alliance could not be more heterogeneous: “Social Democrats, staunch nationalists and even Islamists are romping about there,” analyzes the Austrian “Kurier”. “The only thing that connects is the slogan: Erdogan has to go! But as the only cement it is of little use – as could be seen in similar experiments in Hungary or Israel.»
The most influential politician since Ataturk
If Erdogan were voted out, it would be a turning point. He is the most influential politician since Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who founded the Turkish Republic 100 years ago. Erdogan’s first years in government were marked by reforms. Turkey experienced a breathtaking economic boom. The average per capita income more than tripled in the first two legislative periods of the AKP alone.
Erdogan curtailed the supremacy of the military, in 2004 he was voted “European of the Year” – a year later he began official accession negotiations with the EU. He even seemed to be able to end the decades-long bloody conflict between the Turkish state and the banned Kurdish workers’ party PKK. Well-known Turkish intellectuals supported Erdogan in his course at the time.
Erdogan has now rolled back many of his own reforms. The EU accession talks are on hold, government opponents are in prison and much of the media is under Erdogan’s control. Erdogan ended the peace process with the PKK in 2015, and he has been criminalizing the legal pro-Kurdish party HDP ever since. Five years ago, he introduced a presidential system in a referendum that gave him far-reaching powers. Since then, important decisions have gone through the eye of a needle: Erdogan’s presidential palace.
The ruling party of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants to officially start the election campaign on Tuesday. The candidates who are running for Erdogan’s Islamic-conservative AKP in the parliamentary elections in May will be presented. Some of the opposition has already started their election campaign. Because of the severe earthquake catastrophe at the beginning of February, it is being held cautiously across party lines this time.
The parliamentary and presidential elections will take place simultaneously on May 14th. Turks abroad can vote as early as April 27th.
The election campaign is expected to focus on the provinces affected by the earthquake – mostly AKP strongholds. The quake has killed tens of thousands of people in Turkey and left millions homeless. Those affected are frustrated, and many accuse the government of failing to provide earthquake relief, especially in the beginning, and of having tolerated construction defects beforehand.
Erdogan has already distributed expensive election gifts nationwide and raised the minimum wage, for example. Now he’s trying to score with the promise that only he can rebuild the earthquake region. It remains to be seen to what extent this will catch on or whether the citizens will vote for a new beginning after 20 years.