President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday secured the endorsement of an ultra-nationalist whose third-place finish helped force Turkiye’s first election runoff.
Sinan Ogan’s 5.2 per cent of the vote in the May 14 general election deprived Erdogan of an outright victory for the first time in his 20-year rule. He met the Turkish leader and held separate negotiations with allies of opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu.
“We will support the People’s Alliance candidate, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in the second round of the elections on May 28,” he told reporters in nationally televised remarks. “I invite voters who backed us in the first round to support Mr Erdogan in the second round.”
Ogan portrays himself as an ardent supporter of a brand of Turkish nationalism espoused by the post-Ottoman republic’s creator Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
He has demanded the immediate expulsion of millions of migrants and sought a firm stance on “terrorists” — a euphemism for Kurdish groups fighting for broader autonomy in Turkiye’s southeast.—AFP
