Turkey Elections; Erdogan Becomes Imam of Hagia Sophia in Ottoman Sultan Style

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the President of Turkey, will become the imam of the prayer at Hagia Sophia in Istanbul on Saturday, just before the decisive presidential and parliamentary elections on Sunday. This 69-year-old action by Erdogan imitates the Ottoman sultans who would become the imam for their soldiers before sending them to battlefields. Erdogan's rival in the elections on Sunday is Kemal Kilicdaroglu, an Alevi politician who leads a heterogeneous coalition of six parties. This coalition is also supported by the pro-Kurdish party in Turkey, which has managed to secure over 10% of the votes in recent elections. In polls, Kilicdaroglu has surpassed Erdogan and is hopeful to avoid a runoff election scheduled for May 28 by achieving the required 50% of the votes. Will Erdogan accept defeat? In response to a question during a television program on Friday about whether he would accept the election results in case of defeat, Erdogan said, 'That is a very stupid question.' He added, 'We came to power through democratic means and with the approval of our people in Turkey. If our people change their opinion, we will do what democracy requires.' During an election campaign in Istanbul on Saturday, Erdogan commented on the conversion of Hagia Sophia from a museum to a mosque, saying, 'The whole West is angry; but I did it.' He referred to his opponents as 'LGBT supporters' who receive orders from PKK militants and are financially supported by the West. The most serious challenge facing Erdogan in his 21 years of rule in Turkey is the unprecedented economic crisis the country is grappling with. According to official statistics, Turkey's inflation rate exceeded 80% at the end of last year and was 44% in April of this year. Among the 64 million eligible Turkish voters in the elections on Sunday are residents of the earthquake-affected areas in southern and central Turkey. In the deadly February earthquake, over 50,000 Turks lost their lives. However, issues related to widespread government corruption connected to the reconstruction of homes destroyed in this deadly earthquake have posed a serious challenge to Erdogan's popularity in this region. In the weeks leading up to the elections, Erdogan promised Turkish citizens free natural gas, increased public employee salaries by another 45% after a rise in January, and announced the discovery of oil in the country. It is reported that while a state television channel allocated 32 hours for Erdogan, it only gave 32 minutes to Kilicdaroglu to promote his programs. The opposition's alignment against Erdogan is intensifying as the elections approach.