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)
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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.



What Is Known About Polio’s Return to the Gaza Strip 

Displaced kids sort through trash at a street in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024. (AP)
Displaced kids sort through trash at a street in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024. (AP)
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What Is Known About Polio’s Return to the Gaza Strip 

Displaced kids sort through trash at a street in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024. (AP)
Displaced kids sort through trash at a street in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024. (AP)

Health authorities in the Gaza Strip confirmed the first case of polio in 25 years earlier this month.

The infection and subsequent partial paralysis of the nearly year-old Abdul-Rahman Abu Al-Jidyan has hastened plans for a mass vaccination campaign of children across the Palestinian enclave starting on Sept. 1.

Three-day pauses in fighting in each of Gaza's three zones have been agreed by Israel and Hamas to allow thousands of UN workers to administer vaccines.

ORIGINS

The same strain that later infected the Palestinian baby, from the type 2 vaccine-derived polio virus that has also been detected in wastewater in some developed countries in recent years, was detected in July in six sewage samples taken in Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah.

It is not clear how the strain arrived in Gaza but genetic sequencing showed that it resembles a variant found in Egypt that could have been introduced from September 2023, the WHO said.

The UN health body says that a drop in routine vaccinations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including Gaza, has contributed to its re-emergence.

Polio vaccination coverage, primarily conducted through routine immunization, was estimated at 99% in 2022 and fell to 89% in 2023. Health workers say the closure of many hospitals in Gaza, often because of Israeli strikes or restrictions on fuel, has contributed to lower vaccination rates. Israel blames Hamas, saying they use hospitals for military purposes.

Aid workers say poor sanitation conditions in Gaza where open sewers and trash piles are commonplace after nearly 11 months of war have created favorable conditions for its spread.

MASS VACCINATIONS

Israel's military and the Palestinian armed group Hamas have agreed to three separate, zoned three-day pauses in fighting to allow for the first round of vaccinations.

The campaign is due to start in central Gaza on Sunday with three consecutive daily pauses in fighting, then move to southern Gaza, where there would be another three-day pause, followed by northern Gaza. There is an agreement to extend the pause in each zone to a fourth day if needed.

The vaccines, which were released from global emergency stockpiles, have already arrived in Gaza and are due to be issued to 640,000 children under 10 years of age.

They will be given orally by some 2,700 health care workers at medical centers and by mobile teams moving among Gaza's hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the war, UN aid workers say.

The World Health Organization says that a successful roll-out requires at least 95% coverage.

The Israeli military's humanitarian unit (COGAT) said that the vaccination campaign would be conducted in coordination with the Israeli military "as part of the routine humanitarian pauses that will allow the population to reach the medical centers where the vaccinations will be administered".

A second round is planned in late September.

RISKS

The Gaza case which is vaccine-derived is seen as a setback for the global polio fight which has driven down cases by more than 99% since 1988 thanks to mass vaccination campaigns.

Wild polio is now only endemic in Pakistan and Afghanistan although more than 30 countries are still listed by the WHO as subject to outbreaks, including Gaza's neighbors Egypt and Israel.

The World Health Organization has warned of the further spread of polio within Gaza and across borders given the poor health and hygiene conditions there.

Poliomyelitis, which is spread mainly through the faecal-oral route, is a highly infectious virus that can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis and death in young children with those under 2 years old most at risk. In nearly all cases it has no symptoms, making it hard to detect.