Erdogan visits grave of Islamic idol on eve of Turkey's 2nd vote round

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
27 May 2023 21:19

Erdogan had previously made reference to Adnan Menderes in the early polls for May 14. Just as his predecessor, Erdogan survived a putsch against his own government in 2016.

Erdogan is seen laying flowers on the grave of Adnan Menderes. (Social Media)

Just a day prior to the second voting round of Turkey's elections, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday paid homage to the late Adnan Menderes, a Turkish former premier who was renowned for his conservative-Islamic views and who was tried and killed by the military junta after a coup was staged in 1960 to bring the country back to a secular form of government.

Erdogan had previously made reference to Adnan Menderes in the early polls for May 14. Just like his predecessor, Erdogan survived a putsch against his own government in 2016.

"The era of coups and juntas is over," the President said while urging voters to go to the ballot boxes tomorrow.

Cumhurbaşkanı Erdoğan, Adnan Menderes’in anıt mezarını ziyaret etti https://t.co/m7ZLqCzuIM pic.twitter.com/4K8UHVJ91v
— T.C. Cumhurbaşkanlığı (@tcbestepe) May 27, 2023

In January this year, Erdogan told his supporters that he plans to continue Menderes's battle for religious rights and nationalist aspirations in the predominantly Muslim country. A similar visit to Istambul's iconic Hagia Sophia mosque two weeks ago was also evocative of such a purpose.

During the first round of the vote, Erdogan received 49.52% of the vote, and his rival opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu received 44.88%.

Earlier last week, Erdogan felt confident in emerging victorious in the next round of presidential elections after falling less than half of a percent short as counting was finalized.

Erdogan said on Twitter, "The 14 May elections, one of the elections with the highest participation in our history, took place in a festive atmosphere befitting our democracy."

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On another note, opposition candidate Kilicdaroglu has attempted to catch up to Erdogan by accusing Erdogan during a TV interview on Friday of unfairly blocking his text messages to voters.

"They are afraid of us," he said.

On Monday, Turkish sources reported that Turkey's third-place finisher, Sinan Ogan, and leader of the far-right Nationalist Movement Party said that he will be endorsing Erdogan in the second round of elections.

Ogan obtained 5.2 percent of the vote on May 14. Were it not for him, Erdogan could have won in the first round.

Then on Wednesday, sources reported that the leader of Turkey's ultranationalist Victory Party, Umit Ozdag, announced his endorsement of opposition leader Kilicdaroglu, defying the party's former presidential candidate Sinan Oan, who backed Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“We reached a consensus with him. As the Victory party, we decided to support Kilicdaroglu in the second round,” he said.

On the same day, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that he expects Erdogan to gain more than 56% of the votes during the run-off elections.

"In the first round, 49.5% is a figure that every leader in the world cannot even dream of. As a result, the people showed their goodwill, but in the second round, as you can see, more than 56% will vote for the incumbent president. Polls are showing the development in this direction."