Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Monday, Oct 06, 2025

Turkiye’s third candidate open to endorsement talks

Turkiye’s third candidate open to endorsement talks

A little-known nationalist who helped push Turkiye’s election to a runoff told AFP on Tuesday he could throw his support behind either President Recep Tayyip Erdogan or his secular rival.
Entering the campaign at the last minute, Sinan Ogan, 55, won 5.2 percent of the vote in Sunday’s landmark election, helping deprive Erdogan of a first-round victory for the first time in his 20-year rule.

Erdogan finished with 49.5 percent while Kemal Kilicdaroglu secured 44.9 percent, a disappointing finish after polls suggested the opposition leader could win.

In an interview with AFP, Ogan said he expected to do even better, voicing hopes that he could be elected president one day.

“I expected even more — around 10-11 percent of the vote,” said Ogan, a secular nationalist who was expelled from a far-right party that has since joined Erdogan’s ruling alliance in parliament. Running as an independent, Ogan said he was open to dialogue but may take a few days to make up his mind about who — if anyone — to endorse.

“A decision will be made after talks with both Mr. Erdogan and Mr. Kilicdaroglu,” he said.

“We may say we don’t support either of them.”

A Turkish official told AFP that Erdogan’s Islamic-rooted party will soon make a statement about possible talks with Ogan.

Ogan, who speaks English and studied in a top Moscow university, said his voters included “Turkish nationalists as well as young people who find us more
intellectual and who are fed up with the old faces in politics.”

Matt Gertken, chief political strategist at BCA Research, suggested that Ogan mostly took votes away from Erdogan, whose base is comprised of nationalists and religious conservatives.

“In the second round, Erdogan will not necessarily win the majority of Ogan’s votes, but only one-fifth of those votes would grant him the presidency, other things being equal,” Gertken said.

Ogan entered parliament as a member of the ultranationalist MHP party in 2011.

He fell out with the party’s leadership after criticizing the MHP’s poor performance in 2015 polls.

Ogan was expelled from the party but then readmitted after winning a court battle.

Two years later, he was expelled again for opposing a 2017 constitutional referendum that expanded Erdogan’s presidential powers.

Ogan came under pressure to drop out of the race after a fourth candidate, the nationalist Muharrem Ince, ended his campaign just four days before the election.

Asked if he was ready to make up with Erdogan after feuding with his coalition allies, Ogan said: “There can be no room for resentment, if you aspire to rule the state.”

Ogan said anyone he supports must firmly renounce “terrorism” — the term Turkish politicians use to refer to banned Kurdish militants who have been fighting for greater autonomy.

He has reservations about Kilicdaroglu’s ties with the pro-Kurdish HDP party, which endorsed the opposition leader’s candidacy last month.

But he also opposes Erdogan’s alliance with Huda-Par, a far-right group with links to the Kurdish Hezbollah movement, which has no ties to the Lebanese group of the same name.

“We want an approach taken against all kinds of terrorist organizations,” he said, urging political parties to “distance themselves from terror.”

The HDP party is facing a possible court ban over its alleged ties to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), listed as a terrorist organization by Ankara and its Western allies.

“I am against any organization that does not distance itself from terrorism,” he said.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Syria Holds First Elections Since Fall of Assad
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
UK, Canada, and Australia Officially Recognise Palestine in Historic Shift
New Eye Drops Show Promise in Replacing Reading Glasses for Presbyopia
Dubai Property Boom Shows Strain as Flippers Get Buyer’s Remorse
Top AI Researchers Are Heading Back to China as U.S. Struggles to Keep Pace
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
UAE-US Stargate Project Poised to Make Abu Dhabi a Global AI Powerhouse
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Kuwait opens bidding for construction of three cities to ease housing crunch.
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
Turkish authorities seize leading broadcaster amid fraud and tax investigation
Qatari prime minister says Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Big Oil Slashes Jobs and Investments Amid Prolonged Low Crude Prices
Social Media Access Curtailed in Turkey After CHP Calls for Rallies Following Police Blockade of Istanbul Headquarters
Did the Houthis disrupt the internet in the Middle East? Submarine cables cut in the Red Sea
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Iran Faces Escalating Water Crisis as Protests Spread
More Than Half a Million Evacuated as Typhoon Kajiki Heads for Vietnam
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Cristiano Ronaldo Makes Surprise Stop at New Hong Kong Museum
×