The fierce competition between Erdogan and the opposition over the conquest of Istanbul

According to the report of the International Group Tasnim News, these days Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the leader of the Justice and Development Party and the President of Turkey, is using a tactic that he used from his opponents just a year ago. learned. A tactic called the late unveiling of the face of the knight and warrior who is about to be sent to the battlefield. During the 2023 Turkish presidential election, Erdogan’s rivals and opponents waited until the last minute and chose the name of the final candidate very late.

Now Erdogan and the ruling party of Turkey In the case of the candidate for the 2024 election contests in Istanbul and Ankara, he uses the same tactics.

The task of the People’s Republic Party as the most important Erdogan’s opposition party is clear and plans to nominate the current mayors in both cities. That is, Akram Imamoglu in Istanbul and Mansur Yuvaş in Ankara, but no one knows who Erdogan and his political partner in the presidential coalition, the Baghçeli government, will introduce as their final candidates.

from In 2019, when the municipalities of Istanbul and Ankara fell into the hands of Erdogan’s opponents, the ruling party did not like it, and several important and strategic projects of Erdogan, such as the establishment of a new crossing to connect the Black Sea to the Aegean through Istanbul, were not implemented due to the opposition of Akram Imam. Oglu remains suspended.

Why Istanbul until now Does size matter?

Erdogan has announced in several speeches that he will take back the 3 strategic strongholds of Istanbul, Ankara and Adana from his opponents in the Turkish municipal elections in 2024. Meanwhile, the opponents have also announced that they are trying to keep these 3 cities in their hands.

Now the question is: why Istanbul Does size matter? To get the answer to this question, we have to go to some simple and obvious statistics and figures so that we can calculate and understand why the economic and cultural capital of Turkey, the great Istanbul with 14 million people, is so important.

Part of the answer lies in understanding this The hidden fact is that Istanbul is an important city that alone has more annual budget than small countries like Albania, Macedonia and Armenia. Therefore, the party that wins this city has a lot to say.

Basically, the importance of local elections in Turkey lies in the realization that the flow of financial resources in the hands of local institutions is crucial for shaping political organizations in cities and provinces. Especially in cities that have a so-called “big municipality”.

Istanbul municipal budget from GDP 80 countries including Albania, Macedonia and Armenia are more. A budget of 31.9 billion Turkish lira ($13.7 billion) was allocated to the city last year, which is more than the budget of 19 ministries of the Turkish government.

Allocation of funds, in addition to being able to carry out mega construction projects, in the reorganization of the political base with a budget that can be used for civil society and non-governmental organizations are allocated, it is very important.

The ruling party, already a significant part From the budget of the Istanbul municipality, it was given to the cultural and advertising institutions supporting Erdogan, and they also produced popularity and social base for the government and the ruling party! But now this important tool is in the hands of the opposition and Erdogan’s popularity has decreased in Istanbul and Ankara.

Erdogan and Baghcheli have not conquered

Some time ago, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced that he plans to change the law on the number of votes required to win the presidential election so that the race does not have to go to the second round. But his partner, Dolat Baghceli, strongly opposed this request of the president and brought forward the issue that if the law is changed and, for example, a person with 35% of the people’s votes becomes the president of Turkey, his authority will definitely face a lack of legitimacy. /span>

Turkish political experts believe that this The most important political fight between Erdoğan and Baghçeli has been in their political partnership since 2014. But just days after the fight, Erdogan and Baghçeli’s government met on November 29 to discuss further details of cooperation in local elections.

They announced that about Istanbul And Ankara has no disagreement and is going to support the common candidate.

Erdogan In exchange for Bagcheli’s support, he has agreed not only not to present a candidate in several cities, but to ask his party to support the candidates supported by Bagcheli. In this way, the partnership of these two conservative and far-right nationalist politicians will continue in next year’s elections as well.

Mansour’s work is easy, Akram’s work is difficult

Evidences show that Mansour Yowash has no problem winning the Ankara municipal elections. He recently announced in a meeting with his fans, it doesn’t matter to me if they bring anyone as a competitor and I am fully confident of my victory.

Mansour secretly knows that in addition to The support of supporters of the People’s Republic Party also has the support of a significant group of nationalists, and relying on its current social popularity, it can defeat any candidate. But the situation is difficult for Istanbul Mayor Akram Imamoglu.

Even though Imamoglu is also a popular mayor and in a recent authoritative poll, he won the firm support of 34 percent of the people of Istanbul, but he is not as comfortable as the mayor of Ankara. Because in the previous elections, in addition to the support of Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the former leader of the Republic of People’s Party, he had two other powerful supporters: a) Good Party led by Meral Aksehner. b) Millions of Kurds who support the PKK, who agreed to vote for Imamoglu at the request of the leaders of the People’s Democratic Party, so that Ben Ali Yildirim, friend of Garmabe and Golestan Erdoğan, would be defeated.

But now Mrs. Actionner announced that It has nothing to do with other candidates and clearly supports the candidate endorsed by his own party.

On the other hand, the satellite agency KK has also announced that it will not try to win or lose others and will send its independent candidate. As a result, it must be said, Akram Imamoglu has a difficult road ahead to win in Istanbul.

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