By Athena Papakosta

Recep Tayyip Erdogan is trying to rally the nationalists. The elections are next Sunday, May 28, Sinan Ogan’s precious votes are now in his quiver and all he needs is to continue to “play” the cards that gave him victory in the first round of the presidential and parliamentary elections in Turkey . Anti-Westernism is undoubtedly one of them.

“You see that all the magazines of the West had front pages with the headlines “Let Erdogan go”. They don’t want us because we paid our debt and took the IMF out of Turkey,” he said, referring to the extensive reports in Western media that he believes tried to influence public opinion before the elections in the country, on May 14.

The Turkish president insists on repeating his commitments to the development of Turkey’s defense industry by talking about frigates and submarines pointing out that “we will become more powerful in the seas”. At the same time, however, he does not limit himself to the above and presents himself as the liberator of Hagia Sophia (which he converted from a museum to a mosque), adding that “they hate us because we liberated Hagia Sophia”.

At the same time, Sinan Ogan turns into a fellow traveler and promotes the doctrine of the Blue Homeland.

“We must continue and support the foreign policy steps taken by our country and especially our positions on the Blue Homeland. The gaps must be filled and everyone must take their responsibilities”, he pointed out characteristically, while the opposition united against Erdoğan is also showing its nationalist teeth in turn. This time through Meral Aksener, head of the so-called Good Party which comes from the nationalists of the Nationalist Action Party (MHP).

Ms. Aksener said that “half of the Blue Motherland was lost” because as she argued, the agreement between Greece and Egypt abolished it, destroying the Turkish president’s plans for this particular doctrine.

But Turkey’s ruling party is investing in the power of image and is proceeding with the second test launch of the Typhoon ballistic missile in the Black Sea, and the country’s interior minister, Suleyman Soylu, goes so far as to claim that the United States is engaged in drug trafficking internationally while underlining that “ we are not fighting against the PKK but against the USA” since, as he added, “they come and do everything near the border”.

Terrorism was not absent from Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s messages against the West. “As long as the people stand by us,” he said, “we will face the terrorist organizations, the imperialists and the loan sharks.”

In his interview on state television TRT, the Turkish president also spoke against his presidential rival, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, repeating the claim that he is linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). We also heard the Erdogan argument at the start of the pre-election period in the neighbor and while the six-party opposition had criticized him at the time, he again invokes a fake video which shows the head of the opposition with a Kurdish fighter.

This time the Kilicdaroglu attacked Erdogan calling him a “forger” pointing out “I am tired of being slandered but he is not tired”. The reaction of the director of communication of the Turkish presidency, Fahrettin Altun, who, via Twitter, responded that “the people will teach a lesson” to those who insult the Turkish president.