If Erdogan doesn't pull another rabbit out of the hat, Turkey will elect a new parliament and president on May 14, 2023.

These elections in the 100th anniversary year of the founding of the republic are the opportunity to put an end to Erdogan's more than 20-year reign.

The outcome will be as important for the country as it is for Erdogan's future fate.

Voters decide how Turkey enters its second century.

Will it become a dictatorship with Erdogan, who has led the country into autocracy - or can things still be turned around?

The voters' response will not only affect Turkey, it will be felt throughout the civilized world.

On the Turkish version of the column


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Today, less than four months before the election date, things are not looking too rosy for Erdogan.

No poll indicates a win.

He has ensured that his competitors have been put behind bars or banned from politics, that proceedings have been initiated against the Kurdish party HDP, that the electoral law has been changed in his favor and that a censorship law for the press has been introduced under the pretext of fighting disinformation.

Lately he's been printing money for nothing to bribe voters.

But none of these measures brought Erdogan as much support as a message from Sweden.

For Erdogan, it was a stroke of luck that a right-wing extremist politician, for whatever reason, burned the holy book of Islam in front of the Turkish embassy.

Now he rails against the land

Erdogan is always on the lookout for "external enemies" for his election campaign.

Even with the economic downturn, for which he himself is responsible, he tries to argue with a look abroad.

He says the West is not self-determined at all, claiming: “The people there are on the streets, homeless and hungry.

That's how it is in France, in England, in Germany..." In Turkey, more than half of the population lives below the poverty line, but according to Erdogan, "the world is talking about the crisis, while we are talking about historic success".

He boasts of government aid to the people struggling against poverty, to whom he was unable to bring prosperity.

He announced that by 2022, 2.8 million households would have received subsidies for electricity costs.

At the same time he acknowledged that ten million citizens are not in a position to

Anyone who wants to avoid the economic and social ruin Erdogan has caused will choose one of the two remaining alternatives, antidepressants or abroad.

According to recently released figures, our country's 85 million people consumed 60 million boxes of antidepressants in one year.

And according to EU figures, the number of asylum seekers from Turkey rose by 46.5 percent to 924,000 within a year.

Germany is the number one destination.

The number of those who go much further away for a better future is also increasing.

According to US Customs and Border Protection statistics, 2,000 Turkish citizens entered the US illegally via Mexico in 2020, 5,000 in 2021, and 25,000 in 2022.

These are by no means all adventurous young people.

Among them were 253 children,

who sought refuge in the USA with their families.

And 23 of those who entered the US illegally were actually unaccompanied minors.