ANKARA (AFP) – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan led Saturday prayers at Istanbul’s iconic Hagia Sophia mosque, ahead of a battle for his political life against his rival on Sunday.
The 69-year-old emulated a ritual that Ottoman Sultans performed before they led their men off to war as he braces for Sunday’s parliamentary and presidential ballot.
Erdogan has never faced a more energized or united opposition than the one led by retired civil servant Kemal Kilicdaroglu and his disparate alliance of six parties.
The Turkish leader excelled at splitting his rivals and forging unlikely unions while winning one national election after another over 21 years.
The six opposition parties have put aside their political and cultural differences and joined forces for the lone task of pushing Erdogan out.
They are officially supported by Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish party — a group that accounts for at least 10 percent of the vote.
The math is not adding up in Erdogan’s favor and most polls show him trailing his secular rival by a few points.
Kilicdaroglu is now desperately trying to break the 50-percent threshold and avoid a May 28 runoff that could give Erdogan a chance to regroup and reframe the debate.
“Are you ready to bring democracy to this country? To bring peace to this country? I promise, I am ready too,” Kilicdaroglu told a rally in Ankara.
Erdogan was put in the uncomfortable position on Friday night television of being asked what he would do if he lost.
The veteran leader bristled and pledged to respect the vote. “This is a very silly question,” he said.
“We came to power in Turkey by democratic means, with the approval of our people. If our people were to change their mind, we would do what democracy requires.”
The Hagia Sophia was built as a Byzantine cathedral — once the world’s largest — before being converted into a mosque by the Ottomans.
It was converted into a museum when Mustafa Kemal Ataturk created a secular post-Ottoman Turkey in 1923.
Erdogan’s decision to convert it back into a mosque in 2020 solidified his hero status among his religious supporters and contributed to growing Western unease with his rule.
“The entire West got mad — but I did it,” Erdogan told an Istanbul rally on Saturday.
Erdogan has played up religious themes and used culture wars to try and energize his conservative and nationalist base.
He brands the opposition as a “pro-LGBT” lobby that takes orders from outlawed Kurdish militants and is bankrolled by the West.