ANKARA: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday faces the biggest ballot box challenge of his 15-year grip on Turkey, seeking to overcome a revitalized opposition against the background of an increasingly troubled economy.
A self-styled heavyweight champion of campaigning, Erdogan has won successive elections since his Islamic-rooted ruling party came to power in 2002, transforming Turkey with growth-orientated economic policies, religious conservatism and an assertive stance abroad.
But he appears to have met some kind of match in his main presidential rival Muharrem Ince, a fiery orator from the left of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) who has been unafraid to challenge Erdogan on his own terms.
The intrigue is deepened by the holding of presidential and parliamentary elections on the same day under controversial constitutional changes spearheaded by Erdogan which will hand the new Turkish president enhanced powers and scrap the office of prime minister.
The vote takes place almost two years after the failed coup aimed at ousting Erdogan from power, a watershed in its modern history which prompted Turkey to launch the biggest purge of recent times under a state of emergency that remains in place.
Some 55,000 people have been arrested in a crackdown whose magnitude has sparked major tensions with Ankara’s Western allies.
Only a knockout first round victory for Erdogan and a strong parliamentary majority for his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) will be seen as an unequivocal victory for the Turkish leader.
And many analysts believe Ince can force a second round on July 8, while AKP risks losing its parliamentary majority in the face of an unprecedented alliance between four opposition parties.
“This is not the classical opposition that he has been facing for 15 years and which he more or less succeeded in managing and marginalizing,” said Elize Massicard of the French National Center for Scientific Research.
“It’s a new political dynamic that has grown in magnitude,” she said.
The opposition was already boosted by the relatively narrow victory of the “Yes” campaign in the April 2017 referendum on the constitutional changes.
Most opinion polls — to be treated with caution in Turkey — suggest Erdogan will fall short of 50 percent in the first round.
Erdogan remains by far Turkey’s most popular politician and inspires sometimes near-fanatical support in the Anatolian interior, where he is credited with transforming lives through greater economic prosperity.
“A great Turkey needs a strong leader,” says the slogan on election posters of Erdogan plastered across Turkey.
But the elections come at a time when Turkey is undergoing one of its rockiest recent economic patches despite high growth, with inflation surging to 12.15 percent and the lira losing 20 percent against the dollar this year.
Erdogan brought the elections forward from November 2019 in what many analysts saw as a bid to have them over with before the economy nosedived.
The opposition has sought to play on signs of Erdogan fatigue and also echoed Western concerns that freedom of expression has declined drastically under his rule.
For the first time, Erdogan has been forced to react in the election campaign as the opposition set the pace.
He had to deny quickly when Ince accused him of meeting the alleged architect of the 2016 failed coup, Fethullah Gulen. Erdogan promised to lift Turkey’s two-year state of emergency only after the CHP had vowed the same.
“The opposition is able to frame the debate in the election and this is a new thing for Turkish politics,” Asli Aydintasbas, fellow with the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) said.
“A party that has been in power for so long is, in an economic downturn, going to experience a loss (in support) and lose its hegemony over politics,” she added.
While the CHP sees itself as the guardian of a secular and united Turkey, Ince has also sought to win the support of Turkey’s Kurdish minority who make up around a fifth of the electorate.
A rally held by Ince in the Kurdish stronghold of Diyarbakir in the southeast attracted considerable attention. “A president for everyone,” reads his election slogan, over a picture of the affably smiling former physics teacher.
The opposition, which argues that Erdogan has been given a wildly disproportionate amount of media airtime in the campaign, has sometimes resorted to creative and even humorous campaign methods.
The Iyi (Good) Party of Meral Aksener, once seen as a major player but lately eclipsed by Ince, put out humorous messages on Google ads and even devised a computer game where light bulbs — the AKP symbol — get destroyed.
Selahattin Demirtas, the candidate of the pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party (HDP), has campaigned from his prison cell following his jailing in November 2016. He made an election speech on speaker phone through his wife’s mobile but was allowed give a brief election broadcast on state TV, albeit from prison.
Erdogan faces biggest challenge in tight Turkey polls
Erdogan faces biggest challenge in tight Turkey polls
Young Libyans gear up for their first ever election
In Misrata, Libya’s third-largest city, walls are covered with campaign posters of the candidates hoping to be elected
MISRATA, Libya: Young Libyans have mobilized for Saturday’s municipal elections, the first time many will vote in the fractured North African country where polls have been rare since Muammar Qaddafi’s 2011 overthrow.
“Elections are a new concept here,” said Radouane Erfida, 21, from Misrata, as he and other volunteers eagerly gave out leaflets and engaged with potential voters ahead of polling day.
“To help people accept and understand the process, we need awareness campaigns,” he told AFP.
The vast, oil-rich country of seven million people has struggled to recover from years of conflict after the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that put an end to four decades of rule under dictator Qaddafi.
Libya remains divided between a UN-recognized government based in the capital Tripoli and a rival administration in the east, backed by military strongman Khalifa Haftar.
Although being held in fewer than half of the country’s municipalities — 58 out of 142 — it is the first election in a decade to be held simultaneously in both eastern and western Libya.
Nearly 190,000 people are registered to vote in the areas where polling will take place.
In Misrata, Libya’s third-largest city, walls are covered with campaign posters of the candidates hoping to be elected.
“Your voice builds your municipality,” reads one placard put up by the High National Election Commission, which staged its own campaign to encourage a high turnout.
For Mohammed Al-Moher, a 25-year-old volunteer, restoring hope in Libya’s democratic process is essential.
“We are trying, through these elections and those to come, to revive people’s dreams... and to ensure that they go to the polls again and choose candidates whose vision matches theirs,” he told AFP.
Libya held its first free and fair elections in 2012 following an uprising inspired by the Arab Spring, which saw the end of more than 40 years under Qaddafi.
After two elections considered to have been successful, parliamentary elections in June 2014 were marred by a very low turnout because of ongoing violence.
There have been several municipal elections between 2019 and 2021 in a handful of cities, including the western city of Tripoli.
Presidential and parliamentary elections that had aimed to unify the fractured country were scheduled for late 2021 but then postponed indefinitely.
The Tripoli-based administration is headed by Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah, while in the east, parliament under the Haftar administration is based in Tobruk.
“We are tired of seeing old people monopolize politics. It’s time young people became involved in something other than the battlefield,” said Nouh Zagout, 29, a candidate in Misrata.
The country’s youth “have both the knowledge and the necessary ability to make a significant contribution to political life,” the pharmacist said.
But young Libyans who aspired to a seat at the table “are subject to a lot of criticism, particularly from their elders who judge them incapable of leading these institutions.”
Such attitudes, he said, are precisely what motivated him to stand for election.
Two Palestinian Islamic Jihad leaders killed in Israel strike on Syria: source
- Abdel Aziz Minawi, a member of Islamic Jihad’s political bureau, and the group’s foreign relations chief Rasmi Abu Issa were killed in the strike on Qudsaya
- Israeli authorities, who rarely comment on individual strikes in Syria, claimed responsibility for the one on Thursday, saying they targeted Islamic JihaD
GAZA STRIP: Two senior Islamic Jihad figures were killed in an Israeli strike on Syria on Thursday, said a source from the Palestinian group which has fought against Israel in Gaza alongside Hamas.
The source told AFP on Saturday that Abdel Aziz Minawi, a member of Islamic Jihad’s political bureau, and the group’s foreign relations chief Rasmi Abu Issa were killed in the strike on Qudsaya, in the Damascus area.
The same source said the strike, targeting a building housing one of the group’s offices in Syria, also killed another Islamic Jihad member.
Israeli authorities, who rarely comment on individual strikes in Syria, claimed responsibility for the one on Thursday, saying they targeted Islamic Jihad.
Contacted by AFP on Saturday, Israel’s army however declined to comment on the two leaders’ deaths.
Israeli strikes on Thursday in and around Damascus killed 23 people, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor, which has a network of sources inside Syria.
Thirteen people, including civilians and Iran-backed fighters, were killed in a strike on the upscale Damascus district of Mazzeh, the Observatory said, adding that an attack on the capital’s outskirts killed 10 Islamic Jihad militants.
Syrian state media said Israel struck the Mazzeh district again on Friday.
Attacks blamed on or claimed by Israel have intensified in Syria, including in areas near the Lebanese border, mainly targeting bastions of the Lebanese movement Hezbollah.
Islamic Jihad still holds several Israeli hostages taken during the October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel. Earlier this week, the group released two video clips of Sasha Trupanov, a 29-year-old Russian-Israeli hostage.
Religious Jews comfort hostages’ families in Tel Aviv
- “(We came) to meet them, to listen to them, show them that we support them,” says Odelia Dimant, wearing the traditional head covering of religious Jewish women
- It is the 33-year-old’s first time coming to the square, where she listens attentively to a cousin of Omer Neutra, a young soldier captured on October 7, 2023
TEL AVIV: Singing together in harmony, hundreds of religious Jews gather in a Tel Aviv square to listen to the devastated families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza for 13 months.
The paved area, now known as “Hostage Square,” welcomes the families of the captives — most taken from secular kibbutzim — for emotional gatherings every Saturday evening where they issue a rallying cry for their loved ones’ freedom: “A deal now!“
On Tuesdays, religious Jews attend to provide solace to the families.
“(We came) to meet them, to listen to them, show them that we support them,” says Odelia Dimant, wearing the traditional head covering of religious Jewish women.
It is the 33-year-old’s first time coming to the square, where she listens attentively to a cousin of Omer Neutra, a young soldier captured on October 7, 2023.
The crowd this Tuesday is mainly made up of women on the anniversary of Jewish matriarch Rachel’s death in the Hebrew calendar.
According to Jewish tradition, Rachel, who died in childbirth and was buried in Bethlehem, wept as she awaited the return of the exiled Jews.
In front of an attentive assembly, popular Orthodox speaker Yemima Mizrachi drew a parallel between Rachel’s tears and those of the hostages’ mothers.
Before the crowd gathers in front of the stage to listen to performers and sing along, the hostages’ families and religious Jews form small talking circles.
During Hamas’s October 7 attack, militants took 251 hostages back to the Gaza Strip. Of those, 97 are still held there, including 34 who have been confirmed dead.
The past 400 days have been agonizing for the families.
Ever since a truce deal allowed the release of more than 100 hostages in November 2023, negotiations aimed at securing another have been at a standstill, with hopes for more releases further dimmed after key interlocutor Qatar suspended its mediation between Israel and Hamas.
A collective formed on October 8, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, launched the regular gatherings at the esplanade of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, later renamed Hostage Square by the city council.
“The idea behind these gatherings is unity, and it’s the path that I chose, that of dialogue, not shouting but sharing what I have been going through for more than a year,” says Galia David, whose 22-year-old son Evyatar David was kidnapped at the Nova music festival. More than 40 people were taken hostage at the same event.
The unity at Hostage Square moves her deeply, she says.
“The fact that they come here with different ideologies shows that they are here to listen to us, help us, support us.”
Between the stands selling yellow ribbons — a symbol of solidarity with the hostages — visitors take photos, including in front of a giant clock that counts the number of days, hours, minutes and seconds that have passed since October 7.
For Ditza Or, a religious woman and the mother of Israeli hostage Avinathan Or, the nights are “special.”
“I am moved to see this support,” she says. “Tonight is about unity and prayer. I feel people’s support all the time. I see so much love... The unity is real.”
The evening’s highlight is a prayer for the hostages’ release, recited by Shelly Shem Tov, whose son Omer is being held captive, and Shlomit Kalmanson, a woman in a head covering who lost her husband Elchanan during the fighting at Kibbutz Beeri on October 7.
Elchanan grabbed his weapon on that fateful day and, with his brother and nephew, went to the secular kibbutz close to Gaza to try and defend the civilians there.
They saved more than 100 people’s lives, but Elchanan did not survive.
“Shlomit and I are different, in our appearance, in our places of residence, certainly in our votes, but we have in common love and the ability to see the good,” Shem Tov said told the crowd, unable to hold back her tears, her hand on her friend’s shoulder.
“Our hearts are linked, each with her suffering, but beyond this suffering, we share hope.”
Israeli troops reach deepest point in Lebanon since October 1 invasion
- Media reports: Israeli ground forces pull back early Saturday after fierce battles with Hezbollah fighters
- Israeli troops earlier captured a strategic hill in the southern Lebanese village of Chamaa
BEIRUT: Israeli ground forces reached their deepest point in Lebanon since they invaded six weeks ago, before pulling back early Saturday after fierce battles with Hezbollah militants, Lebanese state media reported.
Israeli troops captured a strategic hill in the southern Lebanese village of Chamaa, about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the Israeli border early Saturday, the state-run National News Agency reported. It said Israeli troops were later pushed back from the hill.
It added that Israeli troops detonated the Shrine of Shimon the Prophet in Chamaa as well as several homes before they withdrew, but the claim could not be immediately verified.
Israel’s military said in a statement that its troops “continue their limited, localized, and targeted operational activity in southern Lebanon.” The military did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the Lebanese media reports.
The push on the ground came as Israeli warplanes pounded Beirut’s southern suburbs as well as several other areas in southern Lebanon including the port city of Tyre.
The morning strike in Beirut hit an area known as Dahiyeh, which the Israeli military called a Hezbollah stronghold, saying its planes had hit multiple sites used by the militant group. Residents were given advance warning by Israel, and it was not immediately clear whether there were any casualties.
The increase of violence came as Lebanese and Hezbollah officials are studying a draft proposal presented by the US earlier this week on ending the war.
Since late September, Israel dramatically escalated its bombardment of Lebanon, vowing to cripple Hezbollah and end its barrages in Israel. More than 3,400 people have been killed in Lebanon by Israeli fire – 80 percent of them in the eight weeks – according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.
On Friday, Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister apparently urged Iran to try and convince Hezbollah to agree to a ceasefire deal with Israel, which would require the group to pull back from the Israel-Lebanon border. The proposal is based on UN Security Council resolution 1701, which ended the last Israel-Hezbollah war in the summer of 2006.
A copy of the draft proposal was handed over earlier this week by the US ambassador to Lebanon to Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who has been negotiating on behalf of Hezbollah, according to a Lebanese official. The official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the secret talks said Berri is expected to give Lebanon’s response on Monday.
Another Lebanese politician said Hezbollah officials had received the draft, were studying it and would express their opinion on it to Berri. The politician also spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media about the ongoing talks.
Berri told the pan-Arab Asharq Al-Awsat daily newspaper that the draft does not include any item that allows Israel to act in Lebanon if the deal is violated.
“We will not accept any infringement of our sovereignty,” Berri was quoted as saying.
He added that one of the items mentioned in the draft that Lebanon does not accept is the proposal to form a committee to supervise the agreement that includes members from Western countries.
Berri added that talks are ongoing regarding this point as well as other details in the draft, adding that “the atmosphere is positive but all relies on how things will end.”
There is also a push to end the war between Israel and Hamas, which began after Palestinian militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people – mostly civilians – and abducting 250 others.
The UN Security Council’s 10 elected members on Thursday circulated a draft resolution demanding “an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire” in Gaza.
The US, Israel’s closest ally, holds the key to whether the UN Security Council adopts the resolution. The four other permanent members – Russia, China, Britain and France – are expected to support it or abstain.
Israel’s bombardment and ground offensives since the initial Hamas attack have killed more than 43,000 people in Gaza, Palestinian health officials say. The officials don’t distinguish between civilians and combatants but say more than half of those killed have been women and children.
Lebanon state media reports strike on Tyre city in south
- Israeli strikes kill at least two medics in south Lebanon, ministry
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s state news agency reported a strike on Saturday on the southern city of Tyre, in a neighborhood near historical ruins listed as a UNESCO world heritage site.
“The raid on Tyre targeted the ‘ruins district’, resulting in the destruction of two buildings and damage to other surrounding buildings,” the official National News Agency said, referring to a neighborhood near Tyre’s ancient hippodrome.
Since Tuesday, Israel has carried out several strikes on the Beirut’s southern suburbs, a stronghold of Hezbollah.
Israeli strikes on villages in south Lebanon killed at least two medics early on Saturday, the Lebanese health ministry said.
Airstrikes killed a medic in the town of Borj Rahal in the Tyre District, south of Lebanon, and strikes on an emergency response team in the southern town of Kfartebnit killed one medic and injured four others while two medics were missing.
AFPTV video showed three plumes of smoke rising over the buildings in the south on Saturday morning.
Shortly before the attack, Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee posted on X a call for residents of the Haret Hreik suburb to evacuate.
“You are close to facilities and interests belonging to Hezbollah, against which the Israeli military will be acting with force in the near future,” the post said in Arabic, identifying specific buildings and telling residents to move at least 500 meters away.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) said “the enemy” carried out three air raids, including one near Haret Hreik.
“The first strike near Haret Hreik destroyed buildings and caused damage in the area,” it said.
Repeated Israeli air strikes on south Beirut have led to a mass exodus of civilians from the area, although some return during the day to check on their homes and businesses.
In southern Lebanon, Israel carried out several strikes on Friday night and early Saturday, according to NNA.
Overnight, Hezbollah also claimed two rocket attacks targeting the headquarters of an infantry battalion in northern Israel.
Since September 23, Israel has ramped up its air campaign in Lebanon, later sending in ground troops following almost a year of limited, cross-border exchanges begun by Hezbollah over the Gaza war.
Lebanese authorities say that more than 3,440 people have been killed since October last year, when Hezbollah and Israel began trading fire.
The conflict has cost Lebanon more than $5 billion in economic losses, with actual structural damage amounting to billions more, the World Bank said on Thursday.
