Nationalist votes in key position; The Vatan Party declared support for Erdoğan; Minister of Interior Süleyman Soylu’s criticism of the US

Türkiye is heading towards the second round of the elections scheduled for May 28.

After the nationalist candidate Sinan Oğan received 5.17% of the votes in the first round, both the People’s Alliance and Nation Alliance are making new moves to gain nationalist votes in the second round.

Meanwhile, the Vatan Party declared its support for Erdoğan, the candidate of the People’s Alliance.

Another noteworthy development was the statement of the Minister of Interior Süleyman Soylu. Soylu accused the CIA of managing the global drug trade.

Nationalist votes reshaping the Alliances

The surprise of the first round of elections was the 5.17% of votes received by the candidate of nationalist Ata Alliance, Sinan Oğan.

Another surprise was the 2.23% of votes received by the Zafer Party, one of the two components of the Ata Alliance, in the parliamentary elections.

As heading to the second round, President Erdoğan and Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the opposition candidate and the leader of the Republican’s People Party (CHP), made moves to gain the Ata Alliance to their sides. As a result, the Ata Alliance split into two.

The candidate of the alliance, Sinan Oğan, announced his support for President Erdoğan in the second round:

“We conducted our meetings with both candidates as statesmen and with mutual respect. Based on the consultations we made and messages received from the grassroots, we declare our support for Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the candidate of the People’s Alliance, in the second round of elections. I request the voters who voted for us to support Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

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The Nation Alliance, which has been unable to achieve sufficient success against the People’s Alliance which has been in power for 20 years, failed to convince us about future perspective. It overlooked the stability factor.

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Our negotiations concluded with following principles: An uninterrupted and stable struggle will continue against all terrorist organizations. There is now a timeline for the issue of refugees and illegal immigrants. A good effort will be made to send refugees back to their countries. Measures to prevent illegal border crossing will be intensified.

I wish the decision we made without any expectations within the framework of our Atatürkist and nationalist principles to be beneficial to the noble Turkish nation. Greetings and respect.”

While Sinan Oğan took side with Erdoğan in the second round of the election, the Zafer Party led by Ümit Özdağ declared support for Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. Thus the cooperation between two leaders came to an end. Meanwhile Ümit Özdağ unfollowed Sinan Oğan on social media.

Ümit Özdağ and Kılıçdaroğlu held a joint press conference at the Victory Party’s headquarters. Kılıçdaroğlu spoke relatively brief stating they achieved positive results and thanked Ümit Özdağ and his friends.

Ümit Özdağ ellaborated the “protocol” reached at the meeting. He listed 7 points of the protocol:

1. The definition and content of Turkish Citizenship, as stated in the first four articles and Article 66 of our Constitution, will be preserved. (Previously, the CHP and Kılıçdaroğlu had been being accused of attempting to change the Article of the Constitution on “Turkish Citizenship” with the PKK affiliated Peoples’s Democratic Party throughout the last years.
2. There will be no compromise on the national-unitary-secular state established in 1924.
3. All refugees and undocumented migrants, especially Syrians, will be repatriated to their countries within a maximum period of one year.
4. Effective and resolute fight will be waged against all terrorist organizations that target the existence and integrity of the state, including FETÖ, PKK, and ISIS.
5. Assignments in state institutions and positions will not be based on loyalty, but merit.
6. An effective fight against all forms of corruption will be conducted.
7. Transparency and openness of the state towards the citizens.

The Justice Party (Adalet Partisi), the other component of the Ata Alliance, has also declared its support for the opposition candidate Kılıçdaroğlu. The party’s leader, Vecdi Öz, stated the following:

“We had formed the Ata İttifakı together with the Victory Party. The Ata Alliance fulfilled its role in the first round. We offered Sinan Oğan the opposition of candidacy, but he only received 5.17% of the votes. We have made our decision for the sake of the continuation of democracy. The decision to support Kılıçdaroğlu was taken unanimously in the meeting. This election will determine the fate of Türkiye. I appeal to those who supported the Ata Alliance. We were an opposition movement and we will support Kılıçdaroğlu.”

Following these statements, there is a matter of curiosity how the nationalist votes will be divided between Erdoğan and Kılıçdaroğlu.

The Vatan Party declared support for Erdoğan

During a press conference, Doğu Perinçek, the leader of the Vatan Partisi, declared the Party’s support for Erdoğan in the second round of the elections.

Perinçek stated the following:

“Mr. Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has assumed being a tool of the US and Israel’s project targeting Türkiye. Parallel to that, he openly cooperates with the PKK and Fethullah Gülen Terrorist Organizations (FETÖ). He has brought separatist and bigoted organizations controlled by imperialist authorities into the parliament through the CHP lists. Kılıçdaroğlu is the candidate of dismantling the nation-state and the Turkish army, serving as a slave to global financial centers, cultural decay, and the revenge of the coup attempt of July 15, 2016. What Kılıçdaroğlu promises to Türkiye is nothing but chaos. Our President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, despite the balance policy between enemies and friends on the international scale and the zigzags due not being able to break with the Western controls, is the target of imperialists, and thus stands on the Türkiye front.

The second round of the election is a moment for us to advance towards our strategic goal of “Strong State, Producing Nation”. In a two-choice election condition, we call on our people to vote for Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The Vatan Partisi will conduct constructive opposition with the goal of the “National Government of Producers’ in the challenging period after May 29, for the Erdoğan administration to pursue policies of independence, national unity, productive economy, modernization, and a national revolutionary culture and positioning within the rising Asian civilization.”

Strong statement from the Interior Minister on the US

Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu continues to make strong statements against the US. During a television program, Soylu made remarks about the fight against drugs. When talking about drug trafficking, Soylu said: “The CIA manages drug trafficking in the world. Anyone who doesn’t know this is ignorant.” There has been no response from the US regarding Soylu’s statements.

Previously, Soylu had also accused the US of interfering in the elections. Soylu claimed that “the US has been interfering in this election from the very beginning”. Referring to Biden’s footage where he talks about “changing the government in Türkiye”, Soylu continued “Biden said in 2016, ‘We couldn’t do this with a coup, but we will do it with an election.’”