Support for Erdogan’s party declines in Turkey’s earthquake zone | turkey

In the aftermath of the Turkish earthquakes, the offices of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party in Kahramanmaraş were abandoned, the front doors haphazardly tied together by cable.

A plaque bearing the party’s crest and the words “AK parti” was placed on the broken glass door to keep out intruders. In the window, office furniture is piled high, evidence of a cleanup after two powerful earthquakes rocked the city and much of southeast Turkey, shaking an area traditionally considered a bedrock of AKP support.

Nearby residents said they saw few local AKP officials after the disaster. “They ran away!” Mohammed, who declined to give his full name, joked sitting on a sofa inside a furniture and homeware store. And shimmering pots and pans were placed next to new refrigerators intended for the homes of people trying to rebuild their lives in an area where the cemetery was expanded to accommodate thousands of bodies after earthquakes.

“We reopened this shop a week after the earthquakes, and we haven’t seen them since,” said Mohammed. “This city is the AK’s fortress but I haven’t seen any of them here, not even next to the ruins.”

Turkey goes to the polls on May 14, three months after multiple earthquakes killed more than 46,000 people and displaced at least a million people from the country’s southeast. A tight race is expected between Erdogan and the main opposition candidate, Kemal Kilicdaroglu.

Billboards showing her election rivals Erdogan (left) and Kilicdaroglu in Şanlıurfa, southeastern Turkey. Photo: Ozan Kose/AFP/Getty Images

Mehmet said he was willing to vote for AKP opponents, despite the party’s decades-long popularity in Kahramanmaraş. If a donkey runs on the AKP ticket in this city, it wins, despite all the corruption and nepotism they bring. But I never voted for the AKP and I don’t think I ever will. And he said, “Whoever has influence and fights them, I will vote for them.”

After two decades in power, Erdogan is often seen as more popular than his party, but the earthquakes, whose epicenters have been under AKP strongholds where the party routinely swept at least 70% of the vote, threaten to upend popular support for both.

In Kahramanmaraş and neighboring Nordağı, some voters expressed cautious support for the AKP, but more were angry at the government’s lackluster response to the earthquakes and questioned Erdogan’s promises of swift reconstruction. Many indicated that their earlier discomfort with criticizing the party was quickly displaced in the aftermath of the disaster, which encouraged them to speak out more openly.

A drone shows the destruction in a Turkish city before and after the earthquake – video

Many residents have directed their anger directly at the mayor of Kahramanmaraş, Hayreddin Güngur, AKP. Billboards depicting Güngor smiling outside the local municipality offices were defaced, with parts of his face cut off.

We thought he died in the days after the earthquake. “Then we saw him on TV,” said one of the residents, Mehmet, a longtime supporter of the MHP, partners of the far-right AKP. “This is more than just the mayor, he’s always been out of favor, but that was another nail in the coffin.”

Others felt differently, notably Osman, a lifelong AKP voter who also declined to give his full name. “The party has always protected us,” he said, speaking to a friend outside his clothing store in a small part of town that had shown less visible earthquake damage. He said that several AKP officials, including Gungur, came to check on him, surprised that others had not seen them.

“There were some irregularities in the first two days after the earthquake. But then everything was fixed.

An excavator removes the rubble of collapsed buildings in the quake-stricken Kahramanmaras region. Photograph: Ozan Kose/AFP/Getty

However, the president’s promises to rebuild everything within a year were not entirely successful. “It is impossible to rebuild this city in one year. I don’t think these numbers are correct,” Othman said. “For this city to get back on its feet it will take maybe two years. We shouldn’t make the same mistakes in reconstruction, it’s too early to start rebuilding.”

His feelings about Reconstruction did little to change the way Osman might vote. “See this chair?” he asked, opening his arms to point to a beige plastic seat behind him. “If this president is the candidate of the AKP, he will be elected here,” he said.

Once a network of wide streets bordered by extensive new construction, the neighboring town of Nordagje has now been almost completely razed. All that remains in the town of 40,000 are the skeletons of the once-new concrete masonry, including a tan white tower bearing many holes and the name of the local AKP mayor, Okesh Kavak, who was recently arrested and imprisoned as part of an investigation. in illegal construction.

Erdoğan wears a red scarf from Gaziantep and poses for a photo with the residents of Nordağı. Photo: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

“The mayor was with us from the earthquake until he was arrested,” said Ibrahim Kopulu, who had nothing but praise for Kavak and his AKP, as he pulled out his phone to show photos of a visit by the official. “He asked us if we needed anything. He’s been here since day one. The party has been so supportive, and they keep coming.”

Staring at the ruined building that still bears most of Kavak’s name, a man who only mentioned his name when Argun was making tea with his wife outside their tent across the road from the ruined AKP offices in Nordağı. Strong earthquakes tore parts of the outbuilding, shattering a glass window that once held a full-size poster of Erdogan. An adjacent window has a poster of the Justice and Development Party printed with the words “Together towards new goals” broken out.

“There was no help, no state,” said Ergun. It was the poor who supported us. It did not help the state as much as it helped the people. There is no such thing as a country here.” He and his wife, Filiz Demirkan, said they expect to stay in their tent long after the election in May, but have said that they expect aid shipments to dry up after the polls take place.

“I voted for the AKP before, but God damn them,” said Ergun. The people who vote for them now are immoral. God forbid, now I have to vote left. All my life I have voted for right-wing parties. But now I will vote left. Even if they run a donkey as a candidate, I will vote for a donkey.”

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