Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the rival of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the Turkish presidential race, accused the government today, Wednesday, of allowing ten million migrants to enter the country illegally, marking a shift towards a nationalist tone in his speech ahead of the runoff on May 28. Kılıçdaroğlu's latest remarks came after his party stated that it had filed complaints regarding alleged irregularities in thousands of ballot boxes during the historic elections held on Sunday.
In a video clip posted on Twitter today, he stated, "We will not abandon our homeland to this mentality that allowed the entry of ten million migrants illegally among us." He warned that the number of migrants could reach 30 million. He urged voters "who love their homeland to go to the ballot boxes." No evidence was provided regarding the number of migrants. Turkey hosts the largest number of refugees in the world, estimated at around four million, according to official figures.
*Divided Opposition*
Erdoğan, who currently leads the race, claims that he alone can guarantee stability in Turkey, a NATO member state, at a time when it grapples with a rising cost of living crisis and increasing inflation, as well as the impact of devastating earthquakes that occurred in February. Analysts noted that Erdoğan's insistence that the opposition is supported by Kurdish militants, using fabricated video clips and without any evidence, has resonated well with his voter base, overshadowing their economic concerns.
His message was a reference to the Green Left Party, which supports Kılıçdaroğlu but is not part of the six-party opposition coalition. The Green Left Party, which is the third-largest party in the new parliament after Erdoğan's Justice and Development Party and Kılıçdaroğlu's Republican People's Party, denies any ties to Kurdish militants.
