- Title: TURKEY: Turkish presidency candidates start campaigning
- Date: 11th July 2014
- Summary: ISTANBUL, TURKEY (JULY 10, 2014) (REUTERS) TURKISH PRESIDENCY CANDIDATE EKMELEDDIN IHSANOGLU STEPPING ON PODIUM IHSANOGLU ON PODIUM AUDIENCE (SOUNDBITE) (Turkish) TURKISH PRESIDENCY CANDIDATE EKMELEDDIN IHSANOGLU SAYING: "The president should embrace everybody and unite them instead of polarising, oppressing people. The president is the father of 76 million of people. He
- Embargoed: 26th July 2014 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Turkey
- Country: Turkey
- Topics: Domestic Politics
- Reuters ID: LVADQKB1P1CGWR1EHOHIM7VURR8I
- Story Text: Turkey's presidential candidates have started campaigning including Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan who outlined his vision for a "pioneering new Turkey".
Launching his campaign on Friday (July 11), Erdogan told crowds that he pledged to re-write the constitution, forge a more prominent role on the world stage and deepen democracy if he becomes the country's first popularly-elected president.
Erdogan, who is almost certain to win, has dominated Turkish politics for more than a decade and cast his bid for the presidency as part of a historic path of change, breaking the shackles of a status quo he said had held Turkey back for decades.
"Our aim for 2023 is to embrace all kinds of ethnic and religious differences, to reach an understanding, to have a shared life-style based on universal principals and values," Erdogan, 60, told several thousand supporters in an Istanbul conference hall, in a speech lasting almost two hours.
The combative prime minister has endured one of the most challenging periods of his political career, facing down widespread anti-government protests and a corruption scandal over the past year, as well as contending with a deepening security threat posed by chaos in neighbouring Iraq and Syria.
Rather than taboo, religion is now a front-and-centre political issue. The notion of a secularist president has become politically toxic for many of Turkey's 77 million citizens
So much so that Turkey's foremost secularist party, the CHP, the party of secular state founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, and the nationalist MHP have chosen as joint nominee Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, a diplomat and academic who was at the helm of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation for nine years until 2014.
The choice of Cairo-born Ihsanoglu - who has dedicated a large part of his life to promoting Islam - has drawn fierce criticism from some die-hard secularists within CHP, with several refusing to sign his formal nomination.
Ihsanoglu on Thursday (July 10) stressed the need to keep religion out of politics and called for national unity, a clear challenge to the divisive but popular Erdogan.
"The president should embrace everybody and unite them instead of polarising, oppressing people. The president is the father of 76 million of people. He is the leader of the family and the leader of the family is not a baton-wielding man hitting everyone's head. The times of foot-whipping are over. We are in twenty-first century now, defending people's rights and freedoms is one of our constitutional values," he said.
Two polls late last month suggested Erdogan would comfortably win the election in the first round on Aug. 10, giving him 55-56 percent of the vote, a 20-point lead over Ihsanoglu, his nearest challenger.
If no candidate wins more than 50 percent in the first round, a runoff vote will be held on Aug. 24.
Analysts say roughly half of all Kurds already vote for the ruling AKP and many more will likely follow suit in the belief that Erdogan offers the best hope of a lasting peace settlement. His government sent to parliament last week a bill setting out a legal framework for peace talks in a boost to the process.
Speculation that the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) might tacitly throw its weight behind Erdogan in the first round by naming either a weak candidate or no candidate at all has not materialised however, with HDP leader Selahattin Demirtas, 41, putting his hat in the ring as party candidate.
"For the first time in the history of Turkish republic, we the oppressed have a chance. Whoever says 'I am Turk but I am being oppressed and my life style and my freedoms are being curbed,' this is their chance. Whoever says 'I am Kurd but my language and my culture is being restricted' - this is their chance," said Demirtas.
The HDP itself is opposed to an independent Kurdistan carved out of Iraq, lest it imperil the fledgling peace in Turkey.
Both polls put Demirtas, the candidate for Turkey's main pro-Kurdish party, on less than 10 percent. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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