“A double-edged sword,” is the description given by experts and observers who spoke to Alhurra about the call by the leader of the largest opposition party in Turkey, Ozgur Ozel, to hold early elections in the country.
Although implementation will not be easy from a procedural standpoint, there are goals behind this call that was made publicly.
Speaking to Turkish media on Thursday, Ozil, who heads the Republican People’s Party, said: “Erdogan was elected for a period of 5 years, and I believe that early elections can be held a year and a half from today. I will not run away from this option and will run towards it.”
After he considered that “the demand is increasing” and that nearly half of society supports this, he linked the contexts of his talk to economic determinants, problems, and a “dead end.”
Ozil had met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan twice in recent weeks, as part of the “softening” or so-called “normalization” process, the first steps of which began following the end of the recent local elections.
In those elections that took place on March 31, Ozil’s party (the Republican People’s Party) won a major victory, dealing a major blow to the country’s ruling party (Justice and Development), which was considered the harshest since its founding in the country.
Although the “historic” double meeting that brought together the two main poles in the country (Erdogan and Ozil) raised hopes for reducing the state of polarization in Turkey, the positive statements and positions related to it did not take long for the leader of the “Republican People’s Party” to return to announce striking and surprising intentions at the same time.
“Economics paper cause”
The country’s intention to hold early elections requires obtaining 360 votes in the Turkish Parliament, which the “Republican People” does not have, and Ozil himself confirmed this in his interview with the “Halk TV” channel.
But the opposition leader added, in return, “For this reason, which is not technically possible, I say that early elections will be inevitable if the people want them.”
Turkish political analyst, Jawad Gok, believes that “the Republican People’s Party and its leader, Ozil, want to seize the opportunity of inflation and high prices in order to reach the top of power with confidence.”
Speaking to Alhurra, he explained that the call for early elections “cannot be separated from the strange problem of inflation, the recession of the economy and the market, and the clear failure in the government’s economic file.”
Since Erdogan won the presidential elections in May 2023, he appointed a new economic team that overturned all the policies that had prevailed for more than two years, and observers considered them to have caused many problems in terms of the value of the lira and inflation rates.
The team is led by Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek and Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz.
The two men still insist that their policies are bearing fruit in terms of reducing inflation, encouraging investment and raising the central bank’s reserves.
However, they point out, on the other hand, that the “treatment” will not be in the foreseeable future, but rather gradually and with steps that go forward and cannot be undone.
It was striking in Ozil’s talk about the “early elections” that he touched on the economic problems that citizens are suffering from.
After referring to the pensions of retirees, the “ignorance of merchants” and contracting companies that do not pay taxes, he stated that if this is not corrected, “citizens will demand early elections.”
“double-edged sword”
Abdulkadir Selvi, a writer for the pro-government Hurriyet newspaper, believes that “the CHP’s pursuit of early elections puts pressure on the government, which wants to spend the next four years without elections.”
He believes that “his message will be important on both the domestic and foreign levels, and that it is a double-edged sword.”
Silvi expects the opposition to increase pressure for early elections in the next phase.
He explains that “this indicates that a new era has begun in relations between the government and the opposition, and it can be called the period of the new opposition.”
However, for his part, Turkish researcher and journalist Ali Asmar believes that the reasons that push Ozgur Ozil to call for early elections go in another direction.
He reviews several reasons in his interview with Alhurra, including that the recent rapprochement and meetings between Ozil and Erdogan have raised many criticisms and questions among opposition circles.
Some journalists even said that “opposition leader Ozil was charmed after his meeting with Erdogan,” according to Asmar.
Ozil was also “attacked by Kemal Kilicdaroglu’s team, who are watching him carefully and carefully to catch his mistakes and errors.”
Therefore, Asmar believes that all the previous considerations prompted the new leader of the Republican People’s Party to declare the necessity of early elections, hoping that this would relieve some of the pressure on him within opposition circles.
Will the invitation be “transient”?
The repercussions of the recent results of the local elections are still present, especially in terms of the positions and statements of politicians.
Erdogan’s motivation for meeting Ozil recently was to coordinate the writing of a new constitution for the country.
On the other hand, the leader of the “People’s” Party indicated that his meeting with the Turkish President takes several paths, including fixing economic problems and relieving the burden on citizens.
Analyst Gok says, “The Turkish street and people want early elections,” and that “Erdogan knows that if that happens, anyone will win easily against him.”
While he considers that “the opposition is a failure,” he adds that “the people want to give it a chance even though they are not satisfied with it.”
Researcher Asmar believes that Ozil’s invitation is “transient” and directed at the opposition audience and not the ruling party as some think.
He explains that “Ozil knows very well that the era of elections has been closed for five years and there is no justification for these elections.”
The researcher also adds that “Ozil is forced to make some statements against the ruling party from time to time, because he is the current leader of the opposition and the opposition public in Turkey has high hopes for him.”
If a new Turkish constitution is agreed upon with the ruling party, the attacks on Ozil will increase, and therefore he is trying to “hold the stick from the middle” at the present time, according to what researcher Asmar said.
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