Erdogan courts evasive youth vote ahead of 2023

Erdogan courts evasive youth vote ahead of 2023

ANKARA: Yusuf Ziya Guler is one of nearly seven million Turks who grew up with Recep Tayyip Erdogan as their only leader and who can vote for the first time in general elections due by mid-2023. Like his peers, Guler has faded memories of Turkey’s economic revival during Erdogan’s first decade in power – and a clear impression of the turmoil during his second one.

“I am pessimistic about the future,” said the 20-year-old medical student, adding he was skeptical of all political parties. “We’re an unpredictable country. Forget about what will happen after I graduate, I don’t even know what will happen in five months,” he told AFP.

Analysts think Gen Z voters – as politically diverse as Turkey itself – hold one of the keys to Erdogan’s tricky path to presidential re-election and his ambition to keep his Islamic-rooted party in power for a third decade running. But unlike the youth of 2002, when Erdogan’s rise represented a break from systemic corruption and economic stagnation, today’s teens appear more tempted to blame his government for their woes.

These include runaway inflation, a battered currency and an economy in which more than 40 percent of the workforce earns the minimum wage. “Today’s