DW Loukianos Lyritsas

“New victory” of Kemal Kilindaroglu against Tayyip Erdogan is expected to show the polls of the second round of the Turkish elections which were set up in the occupied territories and which closed on Thursday night.

More than 140,000 Turks and Turkish Cypriots had the right to vote, a number increased by 34,000 from those who had the right to vote in the 2018 elections.

The prevalence of Kilindaroglu in the polls of the occupied is more than likely, since in the first round of the elections, the candidate of the Turkish opposition received a percentage of 54.16% against the 38.55% received by Tayyip Erdogan.

Under these circumstances, even if Tayyip Erdogan manages to absorb the percentages of Sinan Ogan and Muharrem Ince in total (3.9%-3.44%), his percentage in the second round will not be enough to overcome Kilintsaroglou.

“Financial terror” for the next day

Those who follow the political scene within the Turkish community, interpret the vote for the leader of the Turkish opposition as another message of rejection towards the political Islam imposed in recent years by the Erdogan government on the secular Turkish Cypriot society.

It is also obvious that Kilicdaroglu’s voters mainly include Turkish Cypriots with dual citizenship, Turks who have integrated into the secular lifestyle of the Turkish Cypriot community, and students studying in occupied universities.

At the same time, there is a climate of great concern within the T/C community for the next day of the elections and for the new blows expected in the collapsing economy.

Already, recently, more and more t/c are withdrawing their money from local banks fearing the activation of a capital control policy after a possible victory of Tayyip Erdoğan, while those who still trust the banking system operating in the north are converting deposits them in foreign currency for fear of a collapse of the Turkish lira.