Young Turk voters show deep divisions of Erdogan era
ANKARA: Eighteen-year- old student Sena Su Baysal, a firsttime voter in Turkey’s election, can’t remember life before President Tayyip Erdogan took power but she wishes she had grown up in those earlier times.
“Turkey used to be a more modern and secular country,” she says at home in the capital Ankara, where she lives with her parents. “I would have liked to have lived then.” Mehmet Salih Takil, another student born in 2000, disagrees. He says Erdogan is his idol, and he criticises the ‘old Turkey’.
“I was two years old when Erdogan came to power. My family tells me of the pre- 2000 years, life was difficult then. I wouldn’t have wanted to live in those years,” he said at an election rally for Erdogan in Ankara.
Like the rest of the country, Turkish teenagers taking part for the first time in elections have sharply differing takes on Erdogan – the most successful and polarising leader in recent Turkish politics.
His AK Party won elections in 2002 and he took power early the next year, ruling the country since then, first as prime minister and then as president.
Polls suggest Sunday’s vote may be close, with the AK Party possibly losing its parliamentary majority and the presidential vote potentially going to a second round.
But the young Turks Reuters spoke to, all born in the first six months of the millennium, share an overriding concern for education and employment prospects.
Arman Tihminlioglu has chosen to attend university in Germany instead of Turkey, saying that repeated changes to Turkey’s education system had worried students.Anewcurriculumadopted last year excluded Darwin’s theory of evolution, university entrance exams were changed, and money has poured into ‘Imam Hatip’ religious schools.
Another youth, Dilara Hallac says, “Lots of people we know cannot get jobs. Under Erdogan you cannot find employment unless you have someone who can use influence in your favour. Everyone who can find a job is an AK Party supporter. Well, maybe there are some who are not but they are only a few. Half of our neighbourhood is now Syrian refugees.” — AFP