While the candidate of the main opposition alliance in the Turkish elections, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, unconvincingly pointed to the Kremlin’s influence in the propaganda in favor of the incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, this influence suddenly manifested itself where it was least expected.
We are talking about a candidate who came third in the presidential elections with 5.2 percent of the votes and who some are now trying to present as the decisive factor in the outcome of the second round — Sinan Ogan.
Sinan Ogan not only defended his dissertation at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), that forge of Russian Foreign Ministry personnel. But he was also involved in the activities of the platform of pro-Putin politicians and experts, the «Valdai Club,» through which Kremlin narratives were promoted in international politics.
One could say that these two circumstances should be overlooked, because it doesn’t matter where someone studied or what clubs he belonged to. But in the case of a Turkish citizen like Sinan Ogan, this choice definitely raises questions.
Even more so when it comes to his affiliation with a Kremlin-backed platform that was created at the beginning of the Kremlin’s aggressive policies. It might have been possible to ignore this somehow if it had no consequences for his activities as a Turkish politician.
But these consequences are obvious, because Sinan Ogan is currently promoting exactly the same narratives in Turkish politics that were promoted by other well-known and obvious Kremlin agents before him.
In fact, we have written several times on this site about the subversive activities of the Perinçek father and son in Turkish politics. In these elections, their party did not succeed (as usual, they are more successful in non-electoral politics), specifically by refusing to participate in the ruling alliance due to the presence of religious parties in it — Yenidan Refah and Huda Par.
Together, these parties managed to secure 9 parliamentary seats, which caused a real hysteria among radical secularists. And the 4 seats of the Kurdish Islamic party Huda Par caused a double hysteria among the radical secularists and secular militant nationalists for whom there is no difference between the Kurdish leftist terrorists of the PKK-HDP and the Kurdish Muslim patriots of Huda Par.
If the Perinçeks are excluded from the elections, many consider Sinan Ogan’s success to be resounding. And what are his programmatic demands, especially to the two candidates who made it to the second round in exchange for his support? Well, essentially the same demands as the Perinçeks — apart from the deportation of Arab refugees and other foreigners, the abandonment of «Islamism» in favor of ultra-secular nationalism.
At the same time, Kremlin-controlled media such as Sputnik, which enthusiastically promotes Sinan Ogan, highlights his foreign policy program — «Eurasianism» and strengthening relations with Russia and China. Oh, how Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu missed the «Russian trace» in the wrong place. Maybe he did it on purpose because his program is not so different from Ogan’s program in principle.
The only thing that separated them was that Kılıçdaroğlu had to seek support from the Kurdish electorate and tried to use the HDP for this purpose, which did not suit Ogan, who created an image for himself as an uncompromising Turk. And now, on the eve of the second round, it will be difficult for him to abandon this constituency.
On the other hand, Kılıçdaroğlu might take this step because Erdoğan has successfully mobilized a significant part of the Kurdish electorate thanks to Huda Par. So let’s see who the MGIMO graduate and «Valdai Club» participant will end up supporting in the second round.
This will be especially interesting considering that the «Kremlin Muslims» are trying to portray the situation as if the Kremlin is clearly supporting Erdoğan in these elections. And another important point.
We have repeatedly stated in our publications that we consider the strategic rapprochement between Turkey and Azerbaijan to be extremely important. But on a Sunni-Islamic basis, which is facilitated today by the growing number of Azerbaijani Sunnis, especially those who live in Turkey.
And that is why it is worrying that not only a graduate of MGIMO and a participant in the «Valdai Club» is trying to assume the role of a representative of Turkish Azerbaijanis in Turkish politics, but also an active Shiite lobbyist in Iğdır who has clashed with the local Sunni Diyanet Mufti on this issue.