Meet Turkey’s Gandhi: 74-year-Old Kemal Kilicdaroglu Who Gave Erdogan A Run For President Post
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan faced his most difficult election test in 20 years as he missed winning the polls all because of his main rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu who received 44.88% of the votes in Sunday’s voting. All eyes are now on runoff election to see if Kemal manages to unseat President Tayyip Erdogan after 20 years in power and halt his government’s increasingly authoritarian path.
On the other hand, incumbent President Erdogan received 49.51% of the votes, while the third candidate, Sinan Ogan, received 5.2%. A May 28 runoff between Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Kemal Kilicdaroglu has been confirmed to decide who becomes Turkey’s next president.
The shock came for Turkey’s longest-serving leader as opinion polls before the election gave Kilicdaroglu a slight lead, with two polls on Friday showing him above the 50 per cent threshold needed to win outright.
Following Sunday’s election, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country showed it has an “advanced democratic culture”.
“With the maturity it showed yesterday, Turkey has shown that it is one of the countries with the most advanced democratic culture in the world,” Erdogan said in a tweet on Monday. He said that he will emerge victorious in the May 28 runoff.
- 74-year-old Kemal Kilicdaroglu who heads a six-party alliance is the leader of the centre-left, pro-secular Republican People’s Party, or CHP.
- Kemal is the candidate of the opposition parties forming a coalition against President Erdogan.
- He is known as “Turkey’s Gandhi” and emerged as a prominent rival to long-standing President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
- A former civil servant, Kemal aimed to reverse crackdowns on free speech and address democratic setbacks.
- He also sought to revive Turkey’s economy, which has been affected by high inflation and currency devaluation.
- He is married to Selvi and has three children.
- Kemal studied finance and previously headed Turkey’s social security system.
- He also ran for Istanbul mayor in 2009.
- In 1994 he was chosen as “Bureaucrat of the Year, by a financial magazine, and throughout his long career, he has been fighting corruption.
Why Is Kemal Kilicdaroglu Called Turkey’s Gandhi?
- He is often referred to as ‘Turkey’s Gandhi’ because of his mild manners and physical resemblance to Mahatma Gandhi.
- As per Reuters, he is called so because “of a passing resemblance with his (Gandhi’s) slight, bespectacled appearance”.
- He is a reserved intellectual who always remains calm, something that earned him the nicknames of “Gandhi Kemal”, “Turkey’s Gandhi” or the “quiet force.”
- Can Dundar, a former editor of the Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet, wrote for The Washington Post in 2017 that Kilicdaroglu came to be referred to as Turkey’s ‘Gandhi’ soon after he took over the leadership of the CHP in 2010, but “the moniker had more to do with his faint physical resemblance to the Indian independence leader than with any similarities in revolutionary credentials or background”.
- Described to be “modest”, he once said, “We didn’t have a fridge, washing machine or dishwasher.”
- His “march for justice” in 2017 was a defining moment for him where he protested the imprisonment of a member of parliament from his party.
- This march showcased his leadership qualities and willingness to confront Erdogan.
