Polling stations closed

The recent Turkish electoral campaign took place under the sign of two keywords: "home" and "religion". A few months after a devastating earthquake that involved eleven provinces in the central-south-east of the country, further bringing an economy that had been in serious pain for years to its knees, it was inevitable that the housing question would become crucial on the plate of electoral promises. If in the seismic emergency the patriarchal family system was much more decisive than government and civil protection policies, the propaganda use of sipped delivery of housing units (especially during the holidays of the end of Ramadan, the holy month of Islamic fasting) , was a leitmotif of the last few weeks leading up to the May 14th vote. A race against time certainly not conducive to compliance with anti-seismic rules and the quality of buildings in general (a sore point at the center not only of the controversies of recent months, but a chronic problem in a country that has always been characterized by an ambiguous relationship between strong powers and business committees). However, the urgent need for a ceiling has certainly loosened up the supervisory systems and, once again, we are forced, not without fear, to entrust conclusions to time. Moreover, faced with the alarming economic and social data (an inflation rate of 112.51%, fueled by a currency crisis that reached its peak in the last 24 years, with 85.51% in October 2022), of which high prices are just the tip of the iceberg, the propaganda response always rides the generic rhetoric of hatred, rooted in a conspiratorial vision of reality, with in the background not well defined battles of civilization for the defense of values, regularly trampled on by political adversaries, with the complicity of foreign forces.

Speaking of political opposition, the most unprecedented data of the electoral campaign that has just ended was however the "religious coming out" of the leader of the historic "secular" Kemalist party, Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi (CHP), Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu , who revealed that he was an Alevi (current ed. of Islam of Shiite origin originating in Anatolia starting from the 13th century), a sincere Muslim, raised with the creed of Hak Muhammad Ali, grateful for the life given to him by Allah, strict in not trampling on the rights of servants and not reaching out to haram (what is religiously forbidden). This was undoubtedly a bold stroke by the challenger of the outgoing president in the presidential elections because, net of the republican history of the country (which, exactly one century after its foundation, has now completed an ideological mutation that is nothing short of spectacular) and the statute bordering on heterodoxy of Alevism (ed. current of Islam of Shiite derivation originating in Anatolia starting from the XIII century), it is a clear message to the traditionalist and religious electorate, which Erdoğan has always considered acquired a priori. What's more, the endorsement has arrived from one of Kılıçdaroğlu's best-known allies, the leader of the Party of the Future Ahmet Davu-toğlu, former foreign minister of the current president and well-known intellectual of established Islamo-Sunni faith (among 'other, a native of the holy city of Konya). Sharing the video of the CHP leader on his social accounts, Davutoğlu said, “We will say that we are one, we have a common history. When someone tries to sow discord between us, we will say enough. Yes, I am a Sunni, but it is my duty to defend the rights of Alevi citizens first and foremost. This is how the new Türkiye will be born. Greetings Mr. Kemal (Kılıçdaroğlu), message received.' For many years, a certain inclusive rhetoric, anachronistically defined as neo-Ottoman, with a wink at non-Islamic minorities, had in many ways discriminated against thousands of people within Islam itself, leaving quite a few Islamic groups, above all of Sufi inspiration , in the catacombs of history. The ideological revolution, however of a nationalist matrix, which is involving the Republican Party (for several decades, a single party in Turkey) with its allies, involves, in addition to the contestation of a secularism once imposed from above by Kemalism itself (he denounces it Davutoğlu saying he understands his Alevi ally very well, as he himself has long been discriminated against, as an academic, for his religious convictions), an appeal for national unity cemented by Islamic values that are no longer discriminatory. What will become of non-Muslims and non-believers? The future will tell.


Claudio Monge
NP May 2023