With our correspondent in Istanbul, Anne Andlauer
This is the sixth time Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has challenged his mandate and the first time we can sense in his speeches the possibility of defeat looming across borders.
On May 10, the head of state warned his supporters. “Be careful, there is no accident on Sunday,” he told them. Tayyip Erogan urged her to convince all her undecided relatives to vote for him. Otherwise, he added, “the terrorists will rub their hands.”
When the Turkish power contemplates defeat, it makes a threat and points the finger at foreign forces. The Secretary of the Interior claimed that the United States was trying to influence the ballot. Süleyman Soylu accused them of “trying to achieve through the ballot box what they failed to achieve with a coup in 2016”.
The failed coup of July 15, 2016 occurs frequently in Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s election speeches. In a message on Twitter, he therefore promised to “defend our independence and our future, risking our lives if necessary, as we did on the night of July 15”. Words that raise concerns about the outgoing president’s reaction in the event of a defeat on Sunday night.
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