Turkish opposition's anti-refugee stance threatens all of us
It is no secret that the opposition Good Party (IP), the Victory Party (ZP) and the Republican People’s Party (CHP) fueled xenophobia in Türkiye with reference to Syrian asylum-seekers and illegal migration ahead of the May 2023 elections. The opposition’s joint presidential candidate and CHP chair, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, built his campaign around anti-refugee sentiment – which effectively triggered the negative side effects of the cost of living. It seems highly likely that the CHP and the rest will resort to the same tactics for next year’s municipal elections.
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Turkish opposition persists in blame game as local elections loom
With just seven months left until Türkiye’s local elections, the opposition remains focused on assigning blame for their election defeat. One might argue that properly reflecting on what happened in May 2023 would benefit the new alliance model. Yet, commentators close to the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) make accusations against the alliance’s right-wing members, whose spokespeople make negative remarks about the alliance – which hardly amounts to meaningful analysis. If anything, the current debate threatens to alienate non-ideological voters, whom the opposition attempted to win over to secure a simple majority.
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Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu took the stage in the final act of the "change" debate within the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP). Issuing a call to action on social media, he essentially argued that the Turkish people demand “a change of CHP’s leadership and management in terms of generation and vision.” Imamoğlu’s emphasis on “youth” was a thinly veiled jab at the party’s 74-year-old chairperson, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.
