There’s nothing President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and third candidate Sinan Oğan couldn’t agree on since their rhetoric is not so wildly different, according to Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Deputy Chair Binali Yıldırım as Türkiye heads to a presidential runoff on May 28.
What Oğan is arguing is not so different from what the AK Party-led People’s Alliance has been saying, especially regarding immigrants and terror groups, Yıldırım said Thursday in a televised interview.
Entering the campaign at the last minute, hardline nationalist Oğan, 55, picked up 5.2% of the vote in Sunday’s landmark election that ran into a second round after neither Erdoğan nor his main challenger Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu secured more than 50% of the vote.
Erdoğan finished with 49.5%, taking a clear lead over Kılıçdaroğlu, who lagged at 44.9%.
Oğan, however, running as an independent, has since emerged as a kingmaker and basked in newfound fame over his potential second-round endorsement.
He is believed to have sucked votes away from both Erdoğan and Kılıçdaroğlu, the head of the Republican People's Party (CHP) and the joint contender for an opposition bloc of six nationalist and secularist parties.
Kılıçdaroğlu’s Nation Alliance, visibly dejected from a defeat in both presidential and parliamentary polls to Erdoğan and the People’s Alliance, has also been courting Oğan’s undecided support.
A former member of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), which is now allied with the People's Alliance, Oğan appears closer to Erdoğan as he made it clear he would support a candidate fighting "terrorism."
The AK Party is also looking to hold talks with him, according to a Turkish official speaking to Agence France-Presse (AFP) earlier this week.
One of the key points of Oğan’s arguments has been increased cooperation with Turkic states across Central Asia, similar to Kılıçdaroğlu’s plans for a "Turkic Silk Road" that would connect Türkiye to China through Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
"I’m aware of Oğan’s sensitivity about advancing ties with Turkic states. He shows a similar sense about the fight against terror groups, as well," Yıldırım said.
Referring to the widespread activities of the PKK terrorist organization and its Syrian affiliate, the YPG, which has occupied much of northern Syria since Bashar Assad’s forces withdrew in 2012, Yıldırım added, "The PKK’s relatives are posted there and the U.S., despite being our ally, is trying to build an unnamed terror state there."
Washington has drawn Ankara’s ire countless times for supplying arms, ammunition and even training to YPG members in the region under the pretext of fighting the Daesh terrorist group. Türkiye has been working to prevent a terror corridor along its Syrian border through a series of operations for years now.
Conversely, Ankara and Damascus have recently intensified steps for normalizing ties.
Kılıçdaroğlu, who has elicited vocal endorsement from several PKK ringleaders, has indicated he would cease cross-border operations and pull Turkish troops out of Syria to start talks with Assad, much to the dismay of millions of voters who worry over a potential surge in PKK violence, which has left over 40,000 dead in Türkiye since the 1980s.
As for Oğan’s harsh anti-refugee rhetoric, especially toward some 3.5 million Syrians who fled the brutal civil war in their homeland for asylum in Türkiye, Yıldırım said: "Above all else, these are human beings. This is a temporary situation. There is a government who still hasn’t full control of Syria."
"If we and Mr. Oğan have been saying the exact same thing, he would be in our party. There’s nothing we cannot come to a consensus on," Yıldırım noted.
Oğan shouldn’t be "putting on airs" either, according to the AK Party deputy chair. "If you try to commercialize your endorsement, then you wouldn’t be welcome by the electorate," he said.
"However, I wouldn’t want to be misunderstood, Mr. Oğan is a figure that has become prominent with this election and he will only become permanent in politics if he takes steps toward realizing his political rhetoric," Yıldırım concluded.
Oğan himself said he was open to dialogue but may take a few days to decide about who, if anyone, to endorse. "A decision will be made after talks with both Mr. Erdoğan and Mr. Kılıçdaroğlu," he said.
"We may say we don't support either of them."