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Turkish opposition stumbles on united platform

Turkey’s opposition parties have so far been unable to gain traction among large segments of the Turkish public ahead of the 2023 elections. 
A woman casts her vote at a polling station during the mayoral elections rerun, Istanbul, Turkey, June 23, 2019.

Despite fast-growing economic challenges, Turkey’s political opposition seems to have so far failed to broaden their core supporter base as recent polls suggest support for Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling party is increasing. 

After several attempts, six opposition parties got together for talks Feb. 28, and then again a month later. For years, Turkey’s political opposition has been criticized for being “too divided” against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s pragmatic political alliance with the far-right Nationalist Movement Party. Now six of the political parties have managed to sit together and pen a document with the common goal of reinstituting Turkey’s parliamentary system that was replaced by the executive presidency in 2018, paving the way for Erdogan’s one-man rule. The six parties also announced they would conduct monthly meetings.

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