Is this Turkish anti-immigrant party helping Erdogan?
Critics argue that anti-immigrant Victory Party’s leader Umit Ozdag’s opposition has benefited President Recep Tayyip Erdogan so far.
Turkey never had an openly anti-immigrant political party, until the Victory Party (ZP) emerged as an ultranationalist establishment in August 2021. Although the party is part of the opposition, pundits question whether the party’s anti-immigrant stand aids Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Victory Party leader Umit Ozdag, who is a seasoned right-wing nationalist politician and a political science professor, founded the party after he resigned from the opposition Good Party. Ozdag speaks softly but with a simple snarky humor. His party's major slogan is, “The Victory Party will come and refugees will leave.” Ozdag, whose rhetoric is much like any other anti-immigrant far-right European party, paints refugees as the source of almost all of the problems that the country faces.
Popular support for the party varies according to pollsters with estimates ranging from 1% to some 4% — well below the election threshold to enter the parliament — but the party’s impact over Turkey’s political landscape seems stronger, according to experts.
“Just like the anti-immigrant parties in Europe have done, an anti-immigrant party in Turkey influences the agenda of both government and opposition parties,” said Seren Selvin Korkmaz, executive director of the Istanbul-based think tank IstanPol Institute. She told Al-Monitor, “Our field research dating back to 2018-19 indicates that the most prominent issue among voters was the ‘immigration problem.’”
