Countdown to Turkey’s big double election day, and the German press continues extensive coverage of developments that may usher in changes to the country and its society after 21 years of Erdogan’s rule. The Süddeutsche Zeitung also leaves nuggets of hope for the power that the secular element of Kemal Atatürk’s country continues to have that the Turkish president has not been able to bend.

“Turkey fought for a modern state”

“From a European point of view, Turkey could have been a hopeless case,” the commentator points out. “A country where democracy no longer had any hope. A country, almost like Russia, which was so firmly in the hands of an autocratic leader. But in reality, things have always been different in Turkey, even in the darkest years after the 2016 coup attempt, when Erdogan was at the height of his power. He was never undisputed. Yes, it could happen that this country sends its pension leader. There are several reasons for this, including historical ones. Turkey has a democratic tradition, Already in the Ottoman Empire, it was a western-oriented country, with middle-class intellectuals who got a constitution from the sultan and a parliament. This happened in the middle of the 19th century. Later, when the sultan again showed a desire for autocratic rule, the Young Turks rebelled. And they won. That was in 1908.”

What is the commenter’s conclusion? That “despite the blows and mistakes, Turkey itself fought for a modern state. And today’s secular Turks still have a national hero who is very present, a saint in the person of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the state. A who 100 years later is still a bit older than the great Erdogan. This part of Turkish society has remained intact,” the Munich newspaper continued in its commentary. “Atatürk’s old party, the CHP, systematically took 20% to 25% of the vote in the last elections, never more, but never less. Erdogan also knew he could never completely eliminate the opposition. If anything another, the secular way of thinking sharpened under his leadership. The world finally saw how the president is Islamizing the country. Or rather he tried, because Erdogan’s grand Islamization plan found resistance from Turkish society”.

“It’s time to retire”

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung parallels the years of Erdogan’s rule with those of the Russian president, wondering what the Turkish president is still trying to secure by remaining in power. Regarding his financial performance, the columnist argues that it would be wrong to attribute all the responsibility for the misery to him. “The economic consequences of the pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine have hit Turkey, although as an emerging country it has shown itself to be resilient. Industry, the engine of the (export) economy, is working, tourism has recovered. Despite everything , his policies have led to difficulties that are greater than they should be. It has made very little use the great potential of the country with its young population… The farcical idea of ​​his economic theory that high inflation is fought with low interest rates, stokes the fire of devaluation… making life difficult for millions of families”. And the columnist continues: “Erdogan wants to continue his failed economic and financial policies. This is another reason to wish his opponent the Kemal Kilicdaroglu good luck… now the country has come to withdraw, Turkey needs a new beginning”.

The newspaper Die Welt makes a detailed presentation of Erdoğan’s biography, “a journey into the past that shows why Turkey and Europe are facing a fatal electoral showdown”, as its columnist points out. The journey starts from the house where he was born in the Black Sea province of Rizunda, his passion for football as a youth, his unexpected election as the mayor of Istanbul, the “golden years” that followed his victory in the 2002 parliamentary elections with the abolition of the death penalty, the fight against torture, the strengthening of the Kurdish language. In fact, in 2004 the then chancellor Gerhard Schroeder awarded him the “European of the Year” award, praising him as a “great reformist politician”. Shortly afterwards, Brussels and Ankara officially started accession negotiations. To transform himself into a “man against his people” in the biggest rift since the failed July 2016 coup and what followed turned the Turkish president into a “man against the rest of the world”.