Global Courant 2023-05-13 05:11:03
Photo illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Reuters
ISTANBUL – The Turkish opposition accuses Russia of trying to influence Sunday’s elections in order to hold the elections President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in office, as several polls suggest he is on the brink of losing power.
although Erdogan’s ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin have long sounded the alarm, a sex tape scandal seems to be the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Muharrem İnce, a presidential candidate who led the main opposition party in 2018, dropped out of the race this week over rumors of an alleged sex tape circulated online. The candidate claimed the tape was a deepfake and said he had undergone a false character assassination.
Soon after, Turkish opposition presidential candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu accused Russia of dispersal deep fakes and conspiracies, including “tapes revealed yesterday in this country”.
“Get your hands off the Turkish state,” he wrote in a tweet on Thursday.
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Kilicdaroglu told Reuters he had concrete evidence to support his statement, but the Kremlin has denied his accusation.
In an interview with the Daily Beast, an MP from the second-largest party in Kilicdaroglu’s coalition said that – although he did not know the alleged evidence behind the statement – it was clear that Moscow was “assisting” Erdogan in his bid. stay in power.
“It is certain that the Russians will intervene in the elections in a different way,” said Ahmet Erozan, who helps lead foreign affairs for the Good Party.
Just three days before the election, Reuters reported that Russia was delaying a bill for $600 million in natural gas payments until next year. Erozan, a former ambassador, said the deferment was a way for Moscow to contribute to Erdogan’s campaign, adding that there was an “abnormal surge” in trade between the two countries.
The country’s stagnant economy is believed to be the main reason Erdogan could lose, as massive inflation means citizens are inundated with rising sticker prices for everything from onions to their gas bills.
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Erozan said Turkish-Russian ties had become “too personal” — reliant on relations between the two leaders rather than one guided by state institutions — and that Moscow may need to adjust their approach to Ankara.
“The Russians, they put all the eggs in Erdogan’s basket, all the eggs. Now, after the election results, they will face reality,” he said. “Turkey will not be Erdogan’s Turkey.”
Erzoan believed that billions of dollars in the central bank of unknown origin came from Russia.
Peas in a pod
A person close to the Turkish government said the Russian president wants Erdogan to win because Putin would face less criticism if he had a president on the world stage with similar leadership style and political leanings, such as a lack of respect for press freedom.
“He (Putin) wants more people like him so he doesn’t stand out,” they told The Daily Beast. “When they’re all bad guys, they don’t stand out anymore… They look alike and survive together.”
The person compared the situation to when Trump was president and stated that Turkey received less attention about rights and freedoms in the country because the criticism was directed at Trump.
“When Trump was in office, it was good for us,” they added.
Hisyar Ozsoy, MP and deputy chairman of the pro-Kurdish HDP with a focus on foreign affairs, said Erdogan was clearly Putin’s choice for a leader in Turkey. He cited the postponement of gas payments as an excellent way Russia had helped the Turkish president, limiting the rise in people’s energy bills, and also sending money to Turkey for the nuclear power plant.
“President Putin wants Erdogan as his partner in Turkey, so those were some of the ways he eased the pressure on Erdogan ahead of the election,” he told The Daily Beast.
Putin praised the Turkish president at a ceremony in front of Turkey’s first Russian-funded nuclear power plant three weeks before the election.
Putin said the ceremony and power plant showed how much Erdogan did for the country, the economy and “for all Turkish citizens,” according to Russia’s state news agency TASS. reported.
Putin’s on-camera appearance came as Erdogan canceled in-person events over an apparent illness, boosting the Turkish president at a time when his image as a strongman had been tarnished.
“I think Putin supports Erdogan and would clearly prefer Erdogan,” Gulru Gezer, a former senior adviser at the Turkish embassy in Moscow from 2017 to 2020, told The Daily Beast.
She said Russia has been cautious because of speculation about interference in other countries’ elections.
“I know the Russians are handling this very carefully,” Gezer said.
Gezer said Putin and Erdogan’s similar personality traits — including exuding strength and charisma — helped them bond, pointing to their near-monthly phone calls as an example of an unusually close relationship between leaders.
While she stressed that the two countries should maintain relations regardless of who wins the election, she said the simple fact that the Russian president has decades of experience with Erdogan would make it easier to work with him.
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“If he doesn’t respect the person he’s sitting with, he doesn’t have closer ties,” Gezer said. “He has also built this relationship on respect with Erdogan, because he knows that when Erdogan makes a promise, he keeps it.”
Gezer said Turkey’s downing of a Russian fighter jet that Ankara said had violated its airspace showed the Kremlin that the Turkish government would stand its ground.
Aside from that, the relaxation of Russia’s financial demands on Turkey has been a big boost for Erdogan.
The dwindling Turkish lira has broken records for its fall against the dollar this year and official inflation was reported at 44 percent in April. But independent economists have said the number is much higher, sometimes double the rate the government gives.
Since Turkey depends on foreign imports for its energy, that devalued currency has led to a major increase in energy prices – and many of the bills are paid to Russia, which has supplied about 40 percent of Turkey’s natural gas imports.
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