Erdogan draws huge crowds, but needs more than base to win
Critics say Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is using survival and terrorism rhetoric to whip up support and distract from the economy, hoping that voters will be drawn by appeals to their political identity.
ANKARA, Turkey — The huge crowd had been standing in the sun for more than an hour by the time the president took the stage on Saturday. The mayoral candidate from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) had lectured them on his plans to no applause. They had heard the president’s principal ally, Devlet Bahceli, condemn the opposition in the tone of a snarling dog and responded with a few whistles and cheers.
But when Recep Tayyip Erdogan took the microphone, wearing a black suit and a yellow Ankara football scarf, the crowd roared and waved their red-and-white Turkish flags. The noise was milder than the applause he got at his election rally here last June, but he roused the crowd of supporters who came to see him.
Looking healthy and suntanned — he has been speaking to two or three rallies a day for the past three weeks — Erdogan began his greetings. “I salute all the people who stand for the survival of our country,” he said, using the Turkish word “beka,” which means something between survival and permanence and is the slogan of the alliance between his AKP and Bahceli’s National Movement Party.
“We will not give an opportunity to those who want to divide our country and put our flag on the ground,” he said. “We will take off the masks of those who cooperate with terrorists.”
