Young Turk voters show deep divisions of Erdogan era

ANKARA: Student Sena Su Baysal, 18, a first-time voter in Turkey’s election on Sunday, doesn’t know life before President Recep 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 her home here. “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 here.

Like the rest of the country, Turkish teenagers taking part for the first time in elections on Sunday 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