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WORLD NEWS
external enemies for the country’s issues.
“We see the games those who seek to
push our country out of the equation play
over exchange rates, interest rates and
price hikes as they used to do in the past,
and we display our will to move forward
with our own game plans,” he said.
Turks are struggling to make sense of
this new, volatile reality. Middle-classprofessionals who once took holidays
abroad are stockpiling medicine. Fears
are rising that producers will hoard
goods until prices stabilise.
At a supermarket in Istanbul this week,
shoppers were restricted to two jars of
Nutella each. In some areas of the coun-
try there were long lines outside petrol
stations. “We just don’t know what willhappen next,” said one professional city-
dweller in her mid-thirties.
Yet Erdogan’s biggest challenge at the
next elections, pollsters say, will lie in
convincing the nation’s conservative
youth that he is the best leader for them.
Four years ago, Ayse, 23, in her second
year of university, took off her headscarf
and disavowed the AKP. Two years beforeshe had left her ultra-conservative family
in a small Black Sea town for Istanbul.
Back home, the only source of informa-
tion was state TV. The family lived in con-
stant suspicion of external enemies try-
ing to destroy Turkey.
“Those who were not from the AKP
were like enemies in the household,” she
said. Once, she could have been counted
on to vote AKP. Yet she believes she has
no future under Erdogan.
“I’m so unhappy I could cry,” she said.
“I don’t see how I’ll be able to get a job.
I’m so tired. I will never vote for him.”
For now, there is no real alternative.
Many of the president’s former support-
ers are loath to throw their weight behind
the main opposition party, the CHP,
founded by Ataturk, who they see as sec-
ular former overlords who discriminate
against religious people. Selahattin
Demirtas, leader of the pro-Kurdish HDP
party — once known as the Kurdish
Obama — is in prison on what rights
groups say are blatantly political charges.
“Many disgruntled AKP voters do not
necessarily dislike Erdogan, but they do
not like how the ruling party is run in this
extremely personal way,” said Berk Esen,
assistant professor of political science at
Sabanci University in Istanbul. “Many
competent people have been purged,
and the party no longer really has the
same organisational capacity that it did.”
Rumours are swirling that elections
will be brought forward, though for now
his approval ratings are believed to be so
low that it would not be in his interests.
“His support has declined substan-
tially,” said Esen.
@louiseelisabetFive years ago, Murat would have
laughed at the suggestion that he could
ever turn his back on the man he credited
with saving Turkey: President Recep Tay-
yip Erdogan. Like most of the inhabitants
in his Black Sea town, Murat was devoted
to the president who, like him, came
from conservative roots and humble
beginnings. When he moved to Istanbul
with his family 15 years ago, Murat would
go to Erdogan’s rallies, cheering and
decrying those enemies in the West and
elsewhere who dared to insult him.
Three years ago a currency crisis made
the price of food and other goods soar,
forcing Murat and his family — once sol-
idly middle class — to cut down on meat
and other luxuries. Each month they
would have to beg the municipality not to
cut off their electricity. Prices doubled,
then tripled, as the costs of imports rose
as the currency fell.
As Murat saw it, the president had
begun distancing himself from the peo-
ple, hiding out in his 27,000 sq ft palace
in Ankara. When he did come out, he
seemed to look down on ordinary Turks.
“I used to vote for him,” Murat said ear-
lier this year, as he stood outside his
house in a conservative part of Istanbul.
“But all I’m seeing now is the rich getting
richer and the poor getting poorer.”
This week, the Turkish lira went into a
tailspin, dropping 18 per cent against the
dollar in one day. Ordinary Turks such as
Murat were facing another day tightening
their belts, struggling to pay rent and fac-
ing a future that looks volatile and uncer-tain — a harsh contrast to the prosperity
once promised by Erdogan. On Wednes-
day riot police broke up a protest in Istan-
bul, one of several nationwide.
For more than 20 years Erdogan, 67,
has dominated politics, first as mayor of
Istanbul, then prime minister and, since
2014, president. During that time, Turkey
was transformed. Its infrastructure has
been modernised: rural tracks have
become dual carriageways and it seems
like there is an airport in every other vil-
lage. Hospitals are often world class.
Now repression and authoritarianism,
and falling living standards, have taken
the gloss off for his supporters. In 2019
the AKP lost control of Istanbul and other
major cities in local elections.
Erdogan’s approval ratings, once
above 50 per cent, have fallen to the mid-
thirties. His chances in the 2023 elections
are looking shaky. Even his rants against
external enemies are starting to fall flat.
Many AKP supporters are turning on
the man they once regarded as a pugna-
cious upstart who could get anything
done — but who they now consider out of
touch. “In the old days when he made a
promise, he delivered, when there was a
problem he’d fix it,” said Murat. “Now he
only talks and he doesn’t fix anything.”
Economists say his policies have made
matters worse: this year the lira has fallen
40 per cent against the dollar after Erdo-
gan pushed the central bank to cut inter-
est rates, claiming it would create invest-
ment, exports and jobs. Critics labelled it
an “experiment” that will fuel inflation
and send the currency further into crisis.
“If you choose to keep the interest rate
low, the Turkish lira is going to lose
value,” said Selva Demiralp, professor of
economics at Koc University in Istanbul.
The main opposition leader, Kemal
Kilicdaroglu, last week said that the coun-
try was experiencing a “catastrophe”.
Erdogan, however, was quick to blameMiddle classes abandon Erdogan as
rising prices and repression take toll
President is derided as ‘out of touch’ after two decades dominating Turkish politics, but voters have few alternatives
WORLD NEWS
LOUISE
CALLAGHAN
UMIT BEKTAS/REUTERS
Food shortages and a
currency crisis led to protests
in Istanbul this week. The main
opposition leader said the
country faced a “catastrophe”