Over the last couple of months, the world has observed a relatively surprising picture: a kind and gentle Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He is ready to embrace Israel, declare the future of Turkey in the European Union (EU), talk to the Saudi king on the phone and cheer for the end of the blockade against Qatar, even biting his tongue against his favorite enemy, Syrian President Bashar al Assad. In preparation for the new US administration, Erdogan is trying to play nice with all around him.

In the meantime, he is also visiting senior officials from smaller opposition parties to expand the coalition for the 2023 election. Although opposition strongly argues an early election is inevitable, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) so far has insisted elections for the presidency and the parliament will be held in 2023 as scheduled.

Erdogan, meanwhile, is not hiding his willingness to expand the election coalition. To get 51% of votes in the new system his own administration designed, he is obliged to seek new political allies however insignificant their vote share might be. Erdogan and his allies are also contemplating altering the current electoral rules to continue their incumbency.

Erdogan has again started calling multiple groups “terrorists” in the meantime, just like he had done before municipal elections in March 2019 and national elections in June 2018. On the target this time around are the second and third largest political parties and their members, the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), respectively.