It would seem that HDP has started dominating the opposition bloc with its radical demands as well as marginal discourse.

In 2023, Türkiye will celebrate the centennial of the establishment of the republic and will also hold a crucial election. The 2023 elections are one of the most important in Türkiye’s history. Four main topics will determine the fate of the elections: refugees, the economy, rising nationalism, and the Kurdish question. There are serious differences of opinion between the government and opposition blocs regarding the solution to these problems. Concerning refugee policies, Türkiye is still the country hosting the highest number of displaced persons under temporary protection in the world. While policies against immigrants are rising all over the world, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has adopted a humanitarian approach in terms of refugee policies. Erdoğan has also used his power of persuasion in society in terms of solving economic problems. In many parts of the world, the combination of refugees and economic problems manifested itself in the form of reactionary nationalism. Erdoğan, on the other hand, used nationalist rhetoric in an integrative way, blending the concepts of native (yerli) and national (milli). Although the opposition has not demonstrated a clear approach to these issues, it positioned itself directly opposite Erdoğan. Likewise, recently, a new approach has been adopted in terms of the solution to the Kurdish question, apart from the PKK. The 2023 elections will show which of the approaches of the government or the opposition wings coincide with Turkish society’s expectations.

This article analyzes the approaches of the two major electoral alliances set to compete in the upcoming elections, instead of focusing on each political party’s proposed system of government separately.

Türkiye will hold the most critical elections in its recent past on May 14, 2023. The haste and increasingly intense rhetoric of electoral alliances and candidates attest to that fact. Before the war of words between President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his opponent, the Republican People’s Party (CHP) Chairperson Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, kicks off in the final stretch, it would be helpful to summarize what each candidate says about the future (and what they refrain from saying).

Türkiye’s pro-opposition circles have launched an excessive public perception campaign for Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the Republican People’s Party (CHP) chairperson and presidential candidate. The conservative parties that are part of the “table for six,” the opposition bloc that nominated Kılıçdaroğlu, and pro-CHP media personalities and authors lead that effort. Specifically, they refer to the prominent opposition leader as a mujtahid and draw parallels between him and Mahatma Gandhi to support his claim of being calm, collected, compromising, democratic and inclusive. Their praise for Kılıçdaroğlu comes with accusations against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan – whom they see as the complete opposite.

On Friday, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan signed a decree for Türkiye to hold presidential and parliamentary elections on May 14, 2023. The country thus started counting down to the most consequential elections in its recent past – and this year’s most important election worldwide.

The opposition leaders charge President Erdoğan with instituting ‘one-man rule’ but their solution is unimaginable. Nowhere in the world has political power been shared by eight parties

Having refused to meet Erdoğan, even in the name of national solidarity for the earthquakes, the main opposition CHP's Chair Kılıçdaroğlu set a high bar for critics by saying that the president was the 'disaster of the century'

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pledged to “rebuild all homes within one year,” the opposition responded by launching a public campaign against the election’s postponement.

The opposition appears to have been apologizing for Türkiye’s foreign policy in response to the various forms of criticism that the Western media printed about the country in recent years.

The 'table for six' cannot seem to stop being a coalition of unrelated parties no matter how many times they meet or how many documents they unveil

The joint statement of the 'table for six' suggests that an extremely aggressive campaign is in the making

The level of ambiguity seems to increase as that debate continues, mainly because the Turkish opposition bloc, known as the 'table for six,' is in a challenging and contradictory pursuit

GP Chair Davutoğlu and DEVA Chair Babacan, the 'engineers' of the 'table for six' who face harsh criticism, work very hard to ensure the success of a political initiative that would lead to main opposition CHP’s domination

The pro-PKK HDP strengthened its hand vis-à-vis the 'table for six' by opting to field its own presidential candidate

The 'table for six' came up with a 'solution' that would make it easier for them to pick a presidential candidate: Since we cannot agree on whom to endorse, they said, let us all run for president!

Distribution of parliamentary seats could encourage various players to work closer together, and the opposition fielding multiple candidates would actually benefit the People’s Alliance