Erdogan Rival Kilicdaroglu Plays Anti-Migrant Card to Woo Nationalist Vote

Turkish presidential candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the opposition Republican People's Party, CHP, addresses a press conference at CHP's headquarters in Ankara, 18 May 2023. Photo: EPA-EFE/NECATI SAVAS

"As soon as I come to power, I will send all refugees home," Kilicdaroglu said in Ankara four days after disappearing from media view after his election defeat in the first round.

Kilicdaroglu, president of the main opposition Republican People's Party, CHP, claimed that there are 10 million refugees in Turkey, and that millions more are on the way.

"If they [Erdogan's goverment] remain [in power], more than 10 million refugees will come to Turkey. If they win … these fugitives and asylum seekers will turn into potential crime machines, and plunder will begin," Kilicdaroglu said, surprising many after his positive campaign before May 14.

In the May 14 general and presidential elections, contrary to most elections polls, Kilicdaroglu and his alliance lost the parliamentary race to Erdogan. In the presidential race, he was more than 2 million votes behind Erdogan, receiving 44.9 of the total votes.

Erdogan received 49.5 per cent of the total votes. Sinan Ogan, from the ultra nationalist and anti-migration ATA Alliance, received 5.2 per cent, becoming the de facto kingmaker to decide the victor in the presidential run-off.

According to experts, Kilicdaroglu aims to attract nationalist votes in order to win an advantage in the run-off on May 28 but it may not work out.

"This nationalist discourse will not provide an advantage to Kilicdaroglu to win the election [run-off], this is a kind of appetiser nationalism," said Nurettin Kalkan, a political scientist and a senior fellow at the Freedom Research Association in the...