Erdogan overcomes ill health as Turkish elections set to go to the wire

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and wife Emine Erdogan greet supporters during a rally ahead of the May 14 elections, in Izmir, Turkey April 29, 2023. (Reuters)
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Updated 30 April 2023
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Erdogan overcomes ill health as Turkish elections set to go to the wire

  • President returns to campaign trail but challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu ahead in some polls
  • Incumbent likely to stage ‘big and attractive meetings’ to regain lost ground, analyst says

ANKARA: Turkiye is facing one of the most competitive elections in its political history with both presidential and parliamentary polls set to be held on May 14.

After President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was forced to postpone his campaigning last week due to a reported intestinal infection — he fell ill during a live interview — questions were raised as to how his health might affect his popularity among voters.

Since undergoing intestinal surgery in 2011, the 69-year-old’s health has been often subject to false reporting.

The latest upset meant Erdogan was forced to inaugurate the activation of a Russian-built nuclear power plant on Thursday via a video link.

But after a few days’ rest, he was back on the scene on Friday at Teknofest, a major aerospace and technology event, alongside Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev and Libya’s Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh.

Erdogan’s main opposition in the election is 74-year-old Kemal Kilicdaroglu. Both men have campaigned hard in recent weeks, holding daily rallies across the country.

“Erdogan’s voters have probably lost their morale a little, since he’s a charismatic leader who easily gathers people around him,” Hurcan Asli Aksoy, deputy head of the Berlin-based Center for Applied Turkey Studies at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, told Arab News.

“(But) Erdogan will try to attend and organize big and attractive meetings to regain their attention,” she added.

Erdogan has been in power for two decades and is seeking a third presidential term but the latest polls give Kilicdaroglu a narrow lead.

The challenger’s campaign has focused on the public’s discontent at Turkiye’s “one-man” rule and proposes to replace it with a more democratic system. He has also promised to bring wealth and prosperity to Turkey amid an economic recession.

Kilicdaroglu recently pledged to introduce a five-year ban on foreigners buying property in Turkiye to help ease a long-running housing crisis.

“Within a year, rent prices increased by 197 percent. The minimum wage is 8,500 lira ($437) while the average rent for a house is 7,400 lira,” he said.

According to a survey by Turkish firm Konda that was leaked on social media, Erdogan won 43 percent of the votes in the first round against Kilicdaroglu’s 42 percent. But in the second round, the challenger secured 51 percent to Erdogan’s 49 percent.

During his campaign rallies, which drew large crowds even in conservative strongholds, Kilicdaroglu was accompanied by potential vice presidents Ekrem Imamoglu and Mansur Yavas, the mayors of Istanbul and Ankara respectively.

Osman Sert, research director of polling firm Panoramatr, said Kilicdaroglu was showing he had wide appeal among voters, from the center-left to the center and nationalist groups, as well as those with Islamist tendencies.

“Both Imamoglu and Yavas have helped him during his electoral campaign and they appeal to large crowds because they represent the center and nationalistic tendencies within Turkish society,” he told Arab News.

“As the opposition conducts his campaign with several actors under the same bloc, they have been able to hold rallies across 10 cities on the same day. But, their campaign still lacks a main message.”

In contrast, the Erdogan camp was using identity politics to win over voters, but the leader’s absence had hampered this approach, Sert said.

“As the three-day sickness of Erdogan revealed, the government, in contrast to the opposition bloc, does not have any backup actors who can overcome the short-term absences of the leader,” he said.

“The only political actor who could generate rhetoric during the campaign is Erdogan and when he is not on the campaign field, the void can’t be filled, because in Turkiye political power has become extremely centralized around Erdogan.”

While Erdogan was recuperating, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu attracted criticism by referring to the upcoming elections as the “West’s political coup attempt” against the current regime.

But Sert said the president’s brief absence was unlikely to have had a major effect on his ratings.

“Such short-term disappearances can happen in any country and it is totally understandable that it can fuel some speculations and concerns,” he said. “But this time it was not for a long duration and it did not change voter preferences to a significant degree.”

The race was still neck and neck, he said.

Erdogan on Saturday delivered a 40-minute speech to voters in the western province of Izmir — an opposition stronghold — helping dispel concerns about the state of his health.


US believes Israel, Lebanon have agreed terms to end Israel-Hezbollah conflict

Updated 20 sec ago
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US believes Israel, Lebanon have agreed terms to end Israel-Hezbollah conflict

WASHINGTON: Israel and Lebanon have agreed to the terms of a deal to end the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, Axios reported on Monday citing an unnamed senior US official.
Israel’s government on Monday said it was moving toward a ceasefire in the war with Hezbollah but there were still outstanding issues.

Arrest Warrant: UK would follow ‘due process’ if Netanyahu were to visit – foreign minister

Updated 7 min 11 sec ago
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Arrest Warrant: UK would follow ‘due process’ if Netanyahu were to visit – foreign minister

  • ICC issued arrest warrants on Thursday against Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu
  • Several EU states have said they will meet commitments under the statute if needed

FIUGGI: Britain would follow due process if Benjamin Netanyahu visited the UK, foreign minister David Lammy said on Monday, when asked if London would fulfil the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant against the Israeli prime minister.
“We are signatories to the Rome Statute, we have always been committed to our obligations under international law and international humanitarian law,” Lammy told reporters at a G7 meeting in Italy.
“Of course, if there were to be such a visit to the UK, there would be a court process and due process would be followed in relation to those issues.”
The ICC issued the warrants on Thursday against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defense minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leader Ibrahim Al-Masri for alleged crimes against humanity.
Several EU states have said they will meet their commitments under the statute if needed, but Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has invited Netanyahu to visit his country, assuring him he would face no risks if he did so.
“The states that signed the Rome convention must implement the court’s decision. It’s not optional,” Josep Borrell, the EU’s top diplomat, said during a visit to Cyprus for a workshop of Israeli and Palestinian peace activists.
Those same obligations were also binding on countries aspiring to join the EU, he said.

 

 


Turkiye man kills seven before taking his own life

Updated 25 November 2024
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Turkiye man kills seven before taking his own life

Istanbul: A 33-year-old Turkish man shot dead seven people in Istanbul on Sunday, including his parents, his wife and his 10-year-old son, before taking his own life, the authorities reported on Monday.
The man, who was found dead in his car shortly after the shooting, is also accused of wounding two other family members, one of them seriously, the Istanbul governor’s office said in a statement.
The authorities, who had put the death toll at four on Sunday evening, announced on Monday the discovery near a lake on Istanbul’s European shore of the bodies of the killer’s wife and son, as well as the lifeless body of his mother-in-law.
According to the Small Arms Survey (SAS), a Swiss research program, over 13.2 million firearms are in circulation in Turkiye, most of them illegally, for a population of around 85 million.


2 Palestinians killed in Israeli raid in West Bank: PA

Updated 25 November 2024
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2 Palestinians killed in Israeli raid in West Bank: PA

  • The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said Israeli forces entered the village on Sunday night

Yabad: The Palestinian Authority said two Palestinians, including a teenage boy, were killed during an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank village of Yabad.
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said Israeli forces entered the village on Sunday night, leading to clashes during which soldiers shot dead two Palestinians.
The two dead were identified by the Palestinian health ministry as Muhammad Rabie Hamarsheh, 13, and Ahmad Mahmud Zaid, 20.
“Overnight, during an IDF (Israeli army) counterterrorism activity in the area of Yabad, two terrorists hurled explosives at IDF soldiers. The soldiers responded with fire and hits were identified,” an Israeli military source told AFP.
Last week, the Israeli army launched several raids in the West Bank city of Jenin, killing nine people, most of them Palestinian militants.
Violence in the West Bank has soared since the war in Gaza erupted on October 7 last year after Hamas’s attack on Israel.
Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 777 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war, according to the Ramallah-based health ministry.
Palestinian attacks on Israelis have also killed at least 24 people in the West Bank in the same period, according to Israeli official figures.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.


Israel says hit Hezbollah command center in deadly weekend strike

Updated 25 November 2024
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Israel says hit Hezbollah command center in deadly weekend strike

  • The strike hit a residential building in the heart of Beirut before dawn Saturday
  • Since September 23, Israel has intensified its Lebanon air campaign

JERUSALEM: The Israeli army on Monday said it had struck a Hezbollah command center in the downtown Beirut neighborhood of Basta in a deadly air strike at the weekend.
“The IDF (Israeli military) struck a Hezbollah command center,” the army said regarding the strike that the Lebanese health ministry said killed 29 people and wounded 67 on Saturday.
The strike hit a residential building in the heart of Beirut before dawn Saturday, leaving a large crater, AFP journalists at the scene reported.
A senior Lebanese security source said that “a high-ranking Hezbollah officer was targeted” in the strike, without confirming whether or not the official had been killed.
Hezbollah official Amin Cherri said no leader of the Lebanese movement was targeted in Basta.
Since September 23, Israel has intensified its Lebanon air campaign, later sending in ground troops against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
The war followed nearly a year of limited exchanges of fire initiated by Hezbollah in support of its ally Hamas after the Palestinian group’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which sparked the Gaza war.
The conflict has killed at least 3,754 people in Lebanon since October 2023, according to the health ministry, most of them since September this year.
On the Israeli side, authorities say at least 82 soldiers and 47 civilians have been killed.