On the eve of a decisive vote on the future of the presidential election, the outgoing president Türkiye, Recep Tayyip Erdoganintends to mobilize his followers in Istanbul by completing today’s prayer at Hagia Sophia, which he has converted into a mosque since 2020.

By praying to Hagia Sophia, he will end an election campaign full of insults and thinly disguised threats made by himself or his entourage against his opponent Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.

“The whole West has gone crazy! But I did it! he boasted, referring to the conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque.

Erdogan, in power since 2003, vowed yesterday to respect the results of the presidential and parliamentary elections, which drew 64 million voters, calling the issue “absolutely stupid.”

“We came to power democratically, with the support of our people: if our country decides otherwise, we will do what democracy requires. There is nothing else to do,” he said with obvious anger during a TV interview that was simultaneously broadcast by most Turkish TV channels.

However, fears of violence persist in Turkey’s major cities after a series of incidents in the final days of a highly polarized election campaign that forced Turkish opposition candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu to wear a bulletproof vest during final rallies.

“You are ready;”

Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, who returned to Ankara, will end his election campaign today with a symbolic visit to the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey.

Ekrem Imamoğlu, who faces a prison sentence he has appealed, will spend the last day of his campaign in Turkey’s financial capital, which elected him mayor in 2019.

In contrast to the authoritarian “one-man principle” embodied by Erdogan, his 74-year-old opponent offers collective leadership if he wins surrounded by vice presidents who will represent the six political parties of the opposition coalition he leads and spans a wide political spectrum, ranging from right-wing nationalists and ending with the liberal left.

“Are you ready for democracy in this country? To bring peace back to the country. I. I promise you,” said Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu during his last major rally.

“I promise” is, after all, the central slogan of his campaign, the chorus of the songs of his supporters: a return to the rule of law and a parliamentary state, the separation of powers, the release of tens of thousands of political prisoners, politicians, judges, intellectuals, military and civil servants imprisoned for “terrorism” and “insulting the president.”

The authoritarian drift of the last decade of Erdogan’s rule, further intensified after the failed coup in 2016, the perpetual economic crisis with the Turkish lira falling and inflation at 40% per year, according to disputed official figures, have damaged the prestige and popularity of a strong Turkish leader who boasts of the achievements of his government, but admits he is struggling to win over the youth, 5.2 million of whom are voting for the first time. An unknown factor in the vote remains the impact of the earthquake, which devastated much of southern Turkey, leaving behind ruins, 50,000 dead and a huge number of missing.

^{Source: APE-MEB, AFP.}