Kiliçdaroglu publicly confirmed what many already knew, but according to AFP, he broke a big taboo in the country. Video called Alevi, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s main rival for the May elections posted on Wednesday night in a social media post that has tens of millions of views.
According to the latest polls, Kiliçdaroglu is the favorite for the presidential election.
Seventy-four-year-old Kiliçdaroglu, who is the candidate of the six-party opposition bloc called the National Alliance and the leader of one of them, the People’s Republican Party (CHP), is speaking mainly to young people in the video. He calls on them to “lead the country out of harmful sectarian debates”.
The presidential election in Turkey is approaching, Erdogan insists
Foreign
“My dear young people who are going to vote for the first time. I am Alevi. I am a sincere Muslim who was brought up in the faith of the Prophet Muhammad and Ali,” said Kiliçdaroglu, referring to the two highest representatives of Islam, the first of which is Sunni and the second Shiite ). “I was born in this beautiful country that (Mustafa Kemal) Atatürk gave us,” reminded Kiliçdaroglu of another great figure, the founder of the Republic of Turkey, which celebrates 100 years this year.
Kiliçdaroglu went on to say in the video that he does not want to talk about differences and identities, but about achievements and common dreams. “Will you join our expedition for change? Will you prefer an honest and moral system to this regime that says ‘no’ to the Alevis?” the opposition leader added.
Photo: Profimedia.cz
Kemal Kilicdaroglu
Responding to the video, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said Kiliçdaroglu was trying to make himself a victim. “It’s not a problem for us,” he said of the opposition candidate’s confession. In the past, however, Erdogan criticized Alevis, for example, for the fact that they are allegedly overrepresented among judges.
First in the polls
Kiliçdaroglu is in first place in the latest polls, several percentage points ahead of Erdogan. According to the latest AKSOY poll published by Birgun daily on Wednesday, the opposition candidate would win the first round with 48 percent of the vote. He would then receive 58 percent of the vote in the second round. According to an April poll by the MAK agency, Kiliçdaroglu would also receive 48 percent of the votes in the first round. But some earlier polls indicated Erdogan’s victory in both the first and second rounds.
Alevis are Turkey’s second largest religious community after Sunni Muslims, making up about 15 to 25 percent of the 85 million population. Exact data on their number are not available precisely because many of them do not publicly report it due to fears of discrimination. They were persecuted during the Ottoman Empire, but also in the 20th century after the establishment of the secular Republic of Turkey.
Alevis do not have mosques, but gather in spaces called cemevi (Turkish meeting place), which the Turkish government considers cultural centers and does not recognize them as mosques, therefore does not contribute financially to them like Sunni and Shia shrines.
Prayer rug
Before Kiliçdaroglu became an official candidate for the May 14 presidential and parliamentary elections, some pushed for another leader, fearing that his Alevi background would rob him of votes from the majority Sunni Muslims.
President Erdogan also plays this chord, who at the beginning of April used in his campaign a photo in which Kiliçdaroglu is captured standing in his shoes on a Muslim prayer rug. The opposition leader apologized for the incident, saying he did not notice the rug on the floor because of a group of people surrounding him.
Poll in Turkey: Erdogan would lose the election to an opposition candidate
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