Ultranationalist Sinan Ogan on Monday announced his support for incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the second round of Turkey’s presidential election on Sunday, AFP reported.

“We will support Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the second round. I invite our voters who voted for us in the first round to support Mr Erdogan in the second round,” said Ogan, who came third in the first round in Ankara. presidential elections.

With 5.2% of the vote in the first round of voting on May 14, the far-right MHP dissident was courted by both election finalists.

Erdogan won 49.5% of the vote and his opponent, the social democrat Kemal Kilicdaroglu, 44.9%, a difference of 2.5 million votes in the first round of voting.

“Our negotiations were conducted around the following principles: the fight against terrorism; a schedule for the return of refugees will be established; and the institutions of the Turkish state will be strengthened,” he said.

What Ogan’s statement means for Kilicdaroglu

A victory for Kilicdaroglu’s opponent, which seemed possible until May 14, seems more compromised than ever.

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The leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), founded by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Kemal Kilicdaroglu leads a coalition of six parties.

He also enjoys the support of the main pro-Kurdish HDP party, which has made it difficult to connect with Sinan Ogan, although the latter denies his “anti-Kurdish bias”.

It remains to be seen which candidate will win the 2.8 million votes Ogan garnered, part of the electorate he intended to turn away from Mr. Erdogan, who has been in power for two decades.

Kilicdaroglu immediately reacted on Twitter, condemning “those who sell this beautiful homeland”.

“We are coming to save this country from terrorism and refugees,” he said, addressing “the eight million citizens who did not come to vote (on May 14) and all our youth.”

The candidate has promised to return more than 3.7 million Syrian refugees as soon as they receive it.

Who is Sinan Ogan?

After the first round, Sinan Ogan said he was “open to dialogue.”

The head of state, who met with him on Friday in Istanbul, made it clear that he does not need his support to win a third term.

Sinan Ogan attributes his relative success to “Turkish nationalists, Kemalists, young people,” he told AFP.

They “consider us modern”, “they see us as representatives of new politics”, “more intellectual”, he said.

He added that his voters were “tired of the old faces of politics”, starting with 69-year-old Recep Tayyip Erdogan and 74-year-old Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who have led the CHP since 2010.

The son of a peasant who grew up in Igdir province (in the east) before studying law and political science in Turkey and then in Moscow, Sinan Ogan presents himself as a traditional defender of Turkey.

It exhibits a secular nationalism faithful to the principles of modern Turkey’s founding father and the CHP party of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, which distinguishes it from Erdogan’s Islamic-conservative AKP party, which supports political Islam.