As the countdown towards the 14 May elections continues, public opinion polls reveal very different results concerning the winner of the elections. An interesting picture emerges when an average is taken apart from the results of the survey companies known to be clearly sided between the People’s Alliance led by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu’s Nation Alliance.
Both blocs have a “very determined” electorate of around 30 per cent. Of the remaining 40 per cent, approximately 10 per cent is expected to vote for the other two candidates, Muharrem İnce and Sinan Oğan while the other 30 per cent is likely to be distributed between the two blocs. “Preventing the other party from winning”, rather than making the right choice for the solution of Türkiye’s problems shapes the motivation of this 30 percent. “Erdoğan cannot solve the crisis, but if Kılıçdaroğlu wins, much worse days await us” or vice versa: This is the opinion of a significant group of voters.
This also means an electorate that thinks that neither Erdoğan nor Kılıçdaroğlu can solve Türkiye’s systemic crisis, but is not yet looking for an alternative outside of the system, and will eventually vote for one of the two leaders and their alliances.
Anti-imperialism and the Vatan Party
The tendency of voters to seek a solution within the system is as relevant for the parliamentary elections as it is for the presidential elections. When we look at the 24 political parties, 11 of which will contest the elections on their own and 13 in alliances, we see that almost all of them are saying similar things and announcing similar election manifestos with the exception of some special projects. Among these 24 parties, only the Vatan Party, led by Doğu Perinçek, says very different things about the future of Türkiye and proposes different solutions for the country.
Doğu Perinçek, who has been in a legal political struggle since 1978, has been imprisoned for 16 years in different periods and ranks the first in terms of being banned for the longest time. Doğu Perinçek failed to collect the 100,000 signatures required to become a candidate in the presidential elections, but he and the Vatan Party have a political influence far beyond the votes they received.
Perinçek is a doctor of law who exposed the structuring and activities of the “Super NATO-Gladio” in Türkiye since the 1960s, became a target during military coup periods such as 12 March 1971 and 12 September 1980, and finally imprisoned for six years in the “Ergenekon” case which is known to be a CIA-backed plot against the Turkish army and patriotic groups.
Doğu Perinçek, author of 55 books published to date, is known in the press for his statements targeting US imperialism and its tools in Türkiye – the PKK terrorist organization and FETÖ, the perpetrator of the coup attempt on 15 July 2016. In return, the CIA and former Pentagon official and US psychological warfare operator Michael Rubin frequently target him.
An election between Türkiye and the US
Doğu Perinçek and the Vatan Party, the main targets of the psychological warfare waged by the US in Türkiye, argue that the US-centered Atlantic system has imposed Türkiye to sink in a debt spiral and state that a “Production Revolution” is imperative to get out of the crisis. The Vatan Party’s slogan for the elections is “Strong State, Producing Nation”. This means Türkiye’s liberation from the Western system and the shackles of NATO, and positioning itself in Eurasia together with the rising economies of the world.
Establishing enduring friendly relations and economic cooperation with China and Russia, and ensuring the relations with the European Union countries on the basis of equality are among the main goals of the Vatan Party.
According to the Vatan Party, along with the $500 billion foreign debt, the policies implemented by the Turkish governments on the axis of Washington and Brussels threaten Türkiye by imposing ethnic and territorial division. Pointing out that the West intends to create a puppet state (Kurdistan) in the Middle East, which would mean a “second Israel” in the Party’s own terms, the Vatan Party warns of the risks to Türkiye posed by NATO expansion led by the US.
The Vatan Party argues that Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and the Nation Alliance led by him are the tools of the US while Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the People’s Alliance are afraid of the threat and pressure of the US and seek compromise with imperialism. The Party emphasizes that the May 14 elections will essentially be a struggle between Türkiye and the US.