CHP boss Kilicdaroglu: The anti-Erdogan | tagesschau.de

The opposition alliance in Turkey has reached an agreement: CHP leader Kilicdaroglu will run in May as a candidate against President Erdogan. Who is the man who sometimes walks 400 kilometers for his politics? What are his chances?

Kemal Kilicdaroglu is a kind of anti-Erdogan. There are hardly any records of his rousing speeches. But he can certainly attack sharply – as was the case recently after the devastating earthquake in Turkey that killed tens of thousands. He believes that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his AKP are to blame:

A political late bloomer with backing in the CHP

20 years in which Kilicdaroglu himself makes politics. In 2002 he came to parliament for the social democratic CHP for the first time. At the time, he was already in his early 50s, but he was a political late bloomer. After studying economics, he initially worked in administration. In the 1990s he was head of the Turkish Social Security Authority. Kilicdaroglu has not held political office for a long time.

In 2009 he stood for election as mayor of Istanbul, but was defeated by the AKP candidate. This does not harm his popularity in the CHP. A year later he becomes its chairman, elected with 100 percent. And he sets his theme: against corruption and nepotism.

This is also currently a prominent topic of his election campaign: “Because of a corrupt leadership, the citizens have no share in the prosperity. But I promised my citizens to fight corrupt entrepreneurs and corruption.” According to Kilicdaroglu, he will not put himself in the service of dirty corporations.

According to his calculations, corruption has already cost the state around 20 billion euros. Money that Kilicdaroglu wants to collect after a change of government.

Corruption, Democracy and Justice

Then he also wants to implement his other major topic: democracy and justice. To this end, in the summer of 2017 he launched what is probably his most notable campaign to date – the so-called Justice March. Kilicdaroglu walks more than 400 kilometers from Ankara to Istanbul. Thousands join, also from the pro-Kurdish HDP. They are demonstrating against the arrest of a CHP politician and the journalist Can Dündar.

His main opponent, Erdogan, is one of the reasons why the left-wing Kilicdaroglu is close to the Kurdish terrorist group PKK. Kilicdaroglu has lost all political decency because of the sheer dialogue with the “HDP puppets of the PKK.” “Or isn’t it you walking hand in hand with your PKK comrades? Wasn’t it you who marched with them from Ankara to Istanbul? They killed so many soldiers, but he doesn’t care.” , says Erdogan addressed to his competitor.

“Tyrants always go in the end”

This bounces off Kilicdaroglu. Instead, he denounces Erdogan and his policies. For example, he calls for people to stop paying electricity bills because the government is to blame for the increased prices. Or he picks up on the deteriorating mood towards Syrian refugees and promises that he will get them out of the country. And he is sure of victory. A few weeks ago he predicted Erdogan’s political end in parliament:

In fact, Kilicdaroglu could now become his successor. Political scientists say that if anyone can appeal to voters from all camps, it is Kilicdaroglu.