Skip to main content

Will Turkey’s conservative young women abandon Erdogan and AKP?

The conservative women vote played an important role in bringing Erdogan’s AKP to power two decades ago. But according to polls, that segment of Turkish society is looking for alternatives as AKP became too conservative for their taste. 
Women chant slogans in front of the Istanbul courthouse in Istanbul on April 5, 2023, as We Will Stop Femicides Platform, leading women rights group in Turkey appear on court for the second hearing of the trial that seeks to ban the platform.

IZMIR, Turkey — Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which faces one of the toughest electoral challenges of its 20-year rule in the May 14 election, is losing its electoral advantage among conservative women, which had been one of its pillars, political analysts say. 

Rasim Sisman, the chairman of the Social Democracy Foundation, told Al-Monitor that a survey of 1,067 women found that only 68.7% who voted for the ruling party in the 2018 elections are likely to vote for the party again. The report was prepared in collaboration with the German Friedrich Ebert Foundation and Panaliz Polling and Research Company

Access the Middle East news and analysis you can trust

Join our community of Middle East readers to experience all of Al-Monitor, including 24/7 news, analyses, memos, reports and newsletters.

Subscribe

Only $100 per year.