Opposition Roadmap for Undoing Erdogan’s Legacy

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, presidential candidate of Türkiye’s main opposition alliance, greets his supporters during a rally ahead of the May 14 presidential and parliamentary elections, in Tekirdag, Türkiye April 27, 2023. (Reuters)
Kemal Kilicdaroglu, presidential candidate of Türkiye’s main opposition alliance, greets his supporters during a rally ahead of the May 14 presidential and parliamentary elections, in Tekirdag, Türkiye April 27, 2023. (Reuters)
TT
20

Opposition Roadmap for Undoing Erdogan’s Legacy

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, presidential candidate of Türkiye’s main opposition alliance, greets his supporters during a rally ahead of the May 14 presidential and parliamentary elections, in Tekirdag, Türkiye April 27, 2023. (Reuters)
Kemal Kilicdaroglu, presidential candidate of Türkiye’s main opposition alliance, greets his supporters during a rally ahead of the May 14 presidential and parliamentary elections, in Tekirdag, Türkiye April 27, 2023. (Reuters)

Türkiye’s multi-faceted opposition alliance wants to undo President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's two-decade legacy of highly centralized and religiously conservative rule.

Here is a look at its plan of action should it win next Sunday's parliamentary and presidential vote.

End 'one-man regime'

Opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu has portrayed his six-party alliance, which includes liberals, nationalists and religious conservatives, as a force for democratic change.

The 74-year-old former civil servant has pledged to "bring democracy to this country by changing the one-man regime".

The alliance vows to abandon the presidential system Erdogan introduced after winning a hard-fought constitutional referendum in 2017.

Instead, it wants lawmakers to elect a prime minister and for parliament to have oversight over ministries.

The president would be limited to a single seven-year term.

"Changing the political system will not be easy," said Bertil Oder, a professor of constitutional law at Istanbul's Koc University.

Such changes require a three-fifths majority in parliament, which the opposition will struggle to win on May 14, he pointed out.

Release prisoners

Kilicdaroglu says his first order of business will be to release some of the most high-profile opposition figures jailed under Erdogan.

These include the philanthropist Osman Kavala and the Kurdish leader Selahattin Demirtas, whose freedom has been long-sought by the West.

The opposition pledges to restore "independent and impartial" courts, which Erdogan stacked with allies after surviving a bloody coup attempt in 2016.

It also wants to revive freedom of expression and give independence to the media, now almost completely controlled by the government and its business allies.

"You will be able to criticize me very easily," Kilicdaroglu once quipped, pledging to abolish the criminal offence of "insulting the president".

Defend 'all women'

Representing the traditionally secular CHP party of Türkiye’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Kilicdaroglu has worked hard to gain the trust of religiously conservative women who wear the headscarf.

Kilicdaroglu has pledged to make the right to stay veiled in public guaranteed by law, to show he has no intention of reversing religious freedoms introduced by Erdogan.

"We will defend the rights of all women," Kilicdaroglu said, vowing to "respect everyone's beliefs, lifestyles and identities".

Kilicdaroglu also wants to rejoin the Istanbul Convention, a European treaty aimed at combating gender-based violence from which Türkiye withdrew under Erdogan's orders in 2021.

Restore economic orthodoxy

The opposition vows an immediate return to economic orthodoxy and a break with Erdogan's "Turkish economy model".

Erdogan's refusal to fight inflation by raising interest rates has sparked the worst economic crisis of his rule.

The official annual inflation rate touched 85 percent last year. Independent economists believe the real rate could have been twice as high, erasing gains of a new middle class created during Erdogan's first decade in power.

But a return to prosperity might take time, requiring the resuscitation of state institutions that became emaciated during Erdogan's era of centralized control.

"Whoever wins the election, Türkiye’s economy is unlikely to experience a quick recovery," said Erdal Alcin, a professor of international economics at Germany's Konstanz University.

Make peace

The opposition knows that Türkiye has irritated its NATO allies by forging a privileged relationship with Russia since 2016. It wants to restore trust with the West while maintaining a "balanced dialogue" with Moscow to end the war in Ukraine.

Ahmet Unal Cevikoz, the head of international relations in Kilicdaroglu's party, is also pushing for "full membership of the European Union", which has long remained on hold.

But the priority, said Cevikoz, is on reconciling with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad -- an essential condition for the "voluntary" return of 3.7 million Syrian refugees living in Türkiye.



'Tariff Man': Trump's Long History with Trade Wars

US President Donald Trump during an executive order signing in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 31 March 2025. EPA/ALEXANDER DRAGO / POOL
US President Donald Trump during an executive order signing in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 31 March 2025. EPA/ALEXANDER DRAGO / POOL
TT
20

'Tariff Man': Trump's Long History with Trade Wars

US President Donald Trump during an executive order signing in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 31 March 2025. EPA/ALEXANDER DRAGO / POOL
US President Donald Trump during an executive order signing in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 31 March 2025. EPA/ALEXANDER DRAGO / POOL

Donald Trump loves few things more than talking about his affinity for tariffs, but it's nothing new: he's been saying the same thing for decades.
"To me, the most beautiful word in the dictionary is 'tariff,'" Trump repeatedly said on the campaign trail for the 2024 election, according to AFP.
He has since joked that it is now his fourth favorite word, after love, God and family -- but his commitment to them remains as strong as ever.
The 78-year-old Republican has promised a "Liberation Day" for America on Wednesday when he announces sweeping "reciprocal" tariffs targeting any country that has import levies against US goods.
The sudden trade war has sent leading world economies scrambling -- yet anyone surprised by the onslaught has not been listening to Trump himself.
Other policies have come and gone, especially on hot-button issues such as abortion, but Trump's belief that America is being ripped off by the world has remained one of his core values.
So has his innate conviction that tariffs are the solution, despite arguments by opponents and many economists that US consumers will suffer when importers pass on increased prices.
'Ripping off'
"I am a Tariff Man," Trump declared in a social media post back in 2018 during his first presidential term.
In fact, Trump has been saying as much since the 1980s.
His main target then was Japan, as Trump -- best known in those days as a brash property dealer and tabloid fixture -- discussed getting into politics in an interview with CNN's Larry King.
"A lot of people are tired of watching other countries ripping off the United States," Trump said in 1987, using rhetoric that has changed little in the intervening 38 years.
"Behind our backs, they laugh at us because of our own stupidity."
In a separate interview with chat show host Oprah Winfrey, he raged: "We let Japan come in and dump everything right into our markets."
By the 1990s and early 2000s, China entered his crosshairs, and Beijing remains one of his top tariff targets, along with Canada, Mexico and the European Union.
In his successful 2016 election campaign, Trump stepped up the rhetoric, saying: "We can't continue to allow China to rape our country."
'Very rich'
During his second term, Trump has also started citing a historical precedent going back more than a century -- President William McKinley.
McKinley's passion for both territorial expansion and economic protectionism during his time in office from 1897 to 1901 could have been the model for Trump's "Make America Great Again" policies.
"President McKinley made our country very rich through tariffs and through talent -- he was a natural businessman," Trump said in his inauguration speech in January.
Trump's promises of a "Golden Age" harkens back to the so-called "Gilded Age" that culminated with McKinley's presidency, a time when America's population and economy exploded -- along with the power of oligarchs.
In addition to deploying tariffs, McKinley presided over a period of territorial adventurism for the United States, including the Spanish-American war and the purchases of Guam, Puerto Rico and the Philippines.
Such moves echo Trump's own designs for Greenland, Panama and Canada.
The two also share the unwanted similarity of being struck by an assassin's bullet -- although Trump survived the attempt on his life at an election rally last July, while McKinley was killed by an anarchist in 1901.