Erdogan ‘losing support among young voters’
ISTANBUL: Fading domestic support for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan could lead to the self-styled strongman taking aggressive action abroad, according to a new report.The study by the Washingtonbased Center for American Progress (CAP) highlights eroding support for Erdogan among right-wing nationalist voters, particularly young conservatives. It concludes that the hard-line Turkish leader is losing ground at home for the first time in years, and warns that this could result in “more aggressive moves abroad” and heightened regional tensions as he seeks to bolster support. The survey revealed that Erdogan’s key constituencies are unhappy and unenthusiastic about the government’s performance. A generation familiar with online news is also dissatisfied with Justice and Development Party (AKP) attempts to restrict social media.So far, more than 400,000 websites are blocked in Turkey. “Those who believe the media is `biased’ and `untrustworthy’ reached 70 percent in 2018, rising to 77 percent in 2020, with a particularly sharp rise among AKP voters,” the CAP report said. “The growing divergence of younger and older Turks into discrete media spheres may be feeding into broader generational divides over politics and cultural life. This has important political implications for Erdogan and the AKP,” it added.
With 5 million more young voters expected to vote in the next parliamentary and presidential elections set for 2023, the generation aged between 18 and 29 has become the largest voting bloc and the focus of domestic politics.Max Hoffman, associate director of National Security and International Policy at the Center for American Progress, said economic stagnation was one of several factors damaging support for Erdogan on the conservative right.
Young Turks face a brutal job market, with youth unemployment around 25 percent. In the past year, about 2.5 million people have become jobless, while the Turkish central bank desperately tries to keep the lira’s value steady by using its net reserves.
“That compounds with widespread anger about the refugee crisis and the visibility of Syrian refugees in the major cities, where they stoke economic anxiety among Turks struggling to make ends meet and cultural resentment among those feeling that traditional Turkish culture is threatened,” he told Arab News. Controversial moves such as turning the Hagia Sophia into a mosque are viewed as attempts to bolster support by pandering to religious conservatives.
Hoffman said the dynamism of the early AKP years is mostly gone — people have become accustomed to services provided by the government and are now more focused on the petty corruption they see in daily life, whether preferential treatment for AKP officials or the need to “know someone” to get a job.