Before the runoff election between Turkish President Erdogan and his challenger Kilicdaroglu, both are aggressively campaigning for votes in the nationalist milieu – at the expense of the Syrian refugees.
It is one of Kemal Kilicdaroglu’s many campaign appearances these days. He traveled to Antakya, the city hit hardest by the earthquake. The 73-year-old entered an event tent to great cheering and initially held a minute’s silence for the many victims of the quake.
Then he enters the stage. The first thing to do is to rebuild the region. Kilicdaroglu promises comprehensive aid and criticizes President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s crisis management. Division is the guiding principle of the government, but he wants to be president for all citizens in the country.
Mood against Syrians after the first ballot
Finally, he comes to the topic that has been the focus of his campaign since the first ballot. “With its EU deal, the government has turned Turkey into a storage room for refugees,” he complains.
“When we are in power, we will not allow this to continue and we will rid our country of it!” There is loud applause from the spectators. According to Kilicdaroglu, he wants to send all Syrians home within two years. On a voluntary basis, he emphasizes.
Fear of deportation
But very few would go voluntarily. Not even Ferdan Ahmad. He fled to Turkey in 2015 with his parents and younger sister. The 25-year-old Syrian comes from a family of hoteliers, they have nothing left.
Ahmad earns his money in Istanbul as an employee in a snack shop. He emphasizes that he has good relations with his Turkish neighbors. He has not really experienced discrimination. He is now following Kilicdaroglu’s recent statements with great concern.
Having to go back to Syria, says Ahmad, would be a nightmare for him. “It’s completely unclear what Assad would do with us. I’ll either end up in prison or have to do military service. Then I’d have to murder my own brothers and sisters. If Turkey sent me to Assad, I’d rather kill myself first at the border .”
rejection grows
Most of the approximately four million Syrian refugees in the country are like Ahmad. Many are outright afraid of the ruler Bashar al-Assad. They have found refuge in Turkey and mostly live in normal residential areas, not isolated in reception camps or refugee camps.
But in Turkish society, rejection of refugees has been growing for years, reinforced by the country’s economic crisis. One hears from almost all parts of society and political camps that the capacity limit has been reached.
Also at the election campaign event in Antakya, where several hundred thousand Syrians lived before the earthquake. Now the Syrians should go or someone else should take care of them, says a woman in her mid-40s, for example the EU. They make it far too easy for themselves by paying Turkey money and rejecting any responsibility.
Suddenly aggressive rhetoric
The fact that Erdogan agreed to this is how Kilicdaroglu is now trying to win votes shortly before the runoff. “Decide – for Turkey!” is the new campaign motto. In Antakya, blue posters also read: “Make a decision before the refugees take over the country!”
It is a rhetoric that is not only significantly more aggressive than it was just a few weeks ago, but also anything but social democratic ideas. In order to knock Erdogan from the top, Kilicdaroglu needs the votes of the undecided. And he needs the votes of those who voted in the first ballot for the third candidate, Sinan Ogan, an ultra-nationalist.
Erdogan moves opposition into terrorism proximity
Ogan has now made a recommendation for Erdogan. However, many doubt that those who voted for him would follow this recommendation as a whole. They probably don’t have to, because based on the first ballot, Erdogan would be enough with almost a fifth of Ogan’s votes to win.
According to polls – most of which were wrong in the first ballot – Erdogan is now the favorite in the runoff. He is correspondingly self-confident: “Our people have shown the red card to those who want to come to power with the help of terrorists.” During his election campaign, he repeatedly defamed the opposition and linked it to terrorism – sometimes using deep fake methods.
A number of times, for example, the AKP had shown an alleged campaign video by Kilicdaroglu, showing Murat Karayilan, a co-founder of the banned PKK, which is considered a terrorist organization in Turkey, Europe and the US. The message is: a terrorist supports the challenger. It is a manipulated compilation that numerous pro-government television stations also broadcast without comment. Kilicdaroglu is now taking legal action against the spread.
Erdogan also wants to repatriate millions of Syrians
But Erdogan is also increasingly focusing on the issue of refugees in the final sprint of the election campaign. In the last few days, his government has presented new construction projects and almost completed test-tube cities in the Turkish-controlled areas of northern Syria. One million Syrians want to be sent there in the near future, says Erdogan – under the motto: “Voluntarily, safely and with pride!”
Syrian Ferdan Ahmad hopes that much of what is currently being said so close to the election is just populism and will not come true. It’s been a difficult week. He does not interfere in Turkish politics, Ahmad emphasizes several times. But he hopes to stay here and continue working – even after the election next Sunday.