Sinan Oğan, a minor presidential contender who surprised Turkey with his performance in the country’s groundbreaking elections on Sunday, seeks firm assurances to endorse a candidate in the upcoming run-off vote, Daily Sabah reports.
“We have some preconditions,” Oğan told German Press Agency (DPA) at his Ankara office, singling out fighting terrorism and the return of Syrian and other refugees.
He said constitutional protections to ensure Turkey’s secular principles were also necessary to obtain the support of his ATA Alliance – named after the republic’s founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
Oğan, 56, an ethnic Azerbaijani from Igdir, said he would ask whoever he endorses to sign and share details of an agreement in a “transparent protocol” with the public.
Oğan said both camps congratulated him, but he has yet to start serious negotiations, including a potential position in the new government.
He expects to make a final decision as early as this coming weekend “to avoid uncertainty”.
Oğan’s ATA Alliance, led by ultra-nationalist Zafer (Victory) Party leader Ümit Özdağ, promises to send around 3.4 million Syrian refugees in Turkey back to Syria, reinstate Atatürk’s secular ideology and shut down the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) over its ties to the PKK.
