Candidate Sinan Ogan announces support for Erdogan in Turkish presidential elections’ second round

Candidate for the first round of the Turkish presidential elections, Sinan Ogan, announced his support for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the second round of the presidential elections, which will be held on the 28th of this month.

In a press conference held on Monday afternoon, Ogan said that the Turkish opposition “could not convince us and could not obtain a majority in Parliament,” stressing that the new president must be in agreement with Parliament.

Ogan said that the second round of the presidential elections is of great importance, “so we conducted extensive consultations with officials in the ancestral coalition.”

He explained that the decision to support Erdogan was after consulting with officials in his party, noting that he had held meetings with the candidates of the Public Alliance and the People’s Alliance.

The presidential candidate of the Grandfathers Alliance added that his position stems from his endeavor to preserve “the gains achieved by our republic,” stressing that he did not ask for any positions, “and what matters to us is Turkish interests.”

Regarding the issue of refugees, the Turkish nationalist politician said that refugees should be deported from Turkey, “because it is a matter of national security for our country,” and that there should be a timetable for the deportation of refugees to their countries.

Ogan stressed the need for the Turkish national defense industries to continue.

Ogan – who split from the nationalist movement, the party allied with President Erdogan’s camp – won 5.17% of the vote, according to the non-final official results of the first round that took place on May 14.

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great effect

Observers believe that Ogan’s guidance to the voters who cast their votes for him in the first round in favor of one of the candidates in the second round could have a significant impact on determining the identity of Turkey’s next president, while others believe that he does not have such influence.

In the first round, President Erdogan and his most prominent rival, opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, did not obtain the absolute majority (more than 50% of the vote) needed to win, and therefore they qualified for a decisive second round on May 28.

In the first round, which was held last Sunday, Erdogan received 49.51% of the vote, while Kilicdaroglu got 44.88%.

Ogan is a Turkish nationalist academic, researcher and politician of Azerbaijani descent, a former member of the Turkish National Movement Party, and a former parliamentarian. He ran for the Turkish presidential elections in 2023 on behalf of the Grandparents Alliance (ATA), an alliance that includes extremist nationalist parties, the most important of which is the Zafar Party, which calls for the deportation of refugees from the country.