Erdoğan’s advisor threatens opposition: ‘Illegitimate uprisings will be crushed very hard’

Duvar English

In his new scandal, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s advisor Ayhan Ogan on Aug. 30 threatened the opposition. 

In a social media post, Ogan compared the results of the 2023 general and presidential elections, and the 2024 local elections, and said “Some opposition politicians have become overconfident and aggressive,” after the latter.

In the 2024 elections, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) could not become a leading party in an election for the first time since its foundation in 2001, following the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP).

Ogan said 27.8 million people voted for Erdoğan and 25.5 for Kılıçdaroğlu in the 2024 presidential election, whereas 26.9 million people voted for the ruling People’s Alliance, including the AKP and MHP, and 19 million for the opposition Nation Alliance, including CHP and İYİ, in the general election. 

He then said 17.3 million people voted for the CHP in the 2024 local elections, 16.3 for the AKP, and 2.3 for the MHP. 

While 53.5 million voters in total voted in the 2023 elections, this figure was 46 million in the 2024 local election.

“As you can see, the opposition did not increase its votes. AKP voters did not go to the polls,” he claimed.

“Social memory records their outrageous behaviors and comments, the state takes note of them. Illegitimate uprisings will be crushed very hard,” Ogan threatened.

During the 2023 elections, Ogan declared millions of citizens who voted for opposition candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu in eastern Turkey as members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).