Key Players in Turkey Vote
Millions of Turks go to the polls next Sunday for what could be one of the most crucial elections in the country's modern history.
The vote was called after the Justice and Development Party (AKP), indomitable for 13 years, lost its majority in a June election and then failed to form a power-sharing government.
Turkey is now more divided than ever, its security forces again at war with Kurdish rebels and battling the jihadist threat from the Islamic State (IS) group.
Here are the key players to watch:
- Recep Tayyip Erdogan: The 'Sultan' both revered and reviled -
As prime minister and now president, the charismatic but brash Erdogan has dominated Turkish politics for more than a decade but he is an increasingly polarizing figure.
His supporters hail him as a transformative leader who ended years of political instability and modernized the country, dragging it out of an economic quagmire.
But many denounce him as an autocrat who has cracked down on opponents and the media and is bent on Islamizing the staunchly secular country. Accused of absurd extravagance over his vast presidential palace, he was also severely damaged by a corruption probe in his final months as premier.
His goal of strengthening the powers of head of state from what is largely a ceremonial role into a U.S.-style executive presidency was scuttled by the June vote -- but he continues to play a major role in politics.
Erdogan, 61, won friends and foes when he embarked on peace talks with Kurdish rebels to try to end three decades of conflict, but the 2013 truce was shattered this year after a July bomb attack set off a wave of tit-for-tat violence.
- Ahmet Davutoglu: The faithful lieutenant -
The head of the outgoing government may well have to fight for his job if, as opinion polls predict, the AKP again fails to win an outright majority on Sunday.
The 56-year-old former foreign minister, a faithful Erdogan ally, failed in a month of political negotiations to forge a coalition government after the June 7 election, prompting the government to call a new vote -- Turkey's fourth since March last year.
Davutoglu's usually mild-mannered demeanor belies his abilities as a tough negotiator and strategic thinker who has sought a pivotal role on the world stage as a mediator in Middle East conflicts.
The former academic was the chief architect of a "zero problems with neighbors" foreign policy but the Arab Spring left Turkey isolated in the region, while relations with the U.S. and EU have cooled.
The opposition accuses Davutoglu's government of complicity with IS, and holds him personally responsible for bringing Turkey into the Syrian quagmire when he was foreign minister.
- Selahattin Demirtas: The man to beat -
The rising star of Turkish politics, Demirtas led his pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) to a remarkable breakthrough in the June poll, securing 80 seats in parliament and stripping the AKP of its majority.
A 42-year-old human rights lawyer, Demirtas is known as the "Kurdish Obama" for his smooth rhetorical skills, and the HDP has succeeded in attracting large numbers of non-Kurdish voters with a message of sexual equality, gay rights, secularism and socialist economics.
But he has made a dangerous enemy of Erdogan and the AKP, which accuses the HDP of being an accomplice to the "terrorists" of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
Demirtas and his party have accused Erdogan of presiding over a "mafia state" after the massive bombings on an Ankara peace rally on October 10 which killed 102 people, many of them HDP members.
- The PKK: Ankara's longtime foe -
The PKK, considered a terrorist group by Turkey and its Western allies, has waged an armed campaign seeking greater autonomy for Kurds in the southeast since 1984.
After almost three years of peace talks, the PKK tore up a 2013 truce and resumed attacks against Turkish security forces after July's bombing on pro-Kurdish activists in the town of Suruc on the Syrian border killed 34 people.
The PKK accuses the Turkish authorities of collaborating with IS jihadists, who are battling fellow Kurdish fighters in Syria.
The military has launched raids on PKK bases both in Turkey and across the border in the mountains of northern Iraq, dashing hopes of a peace deal to end a rebellion that has killed more than 40,000 people.
After the Ankara bombing, the PKK announced a unilateral ceasefire, a move seen as an attempt to calm tensions in the restive southeast ahead of the election.
PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, who could hold the key to reviving peace talks, is sidelined and increasing isolated in a heavily fortified island prison.
- Islamic State: The new threat -
Turkey was chastised by its NATO allies for not taking a tougher line against IS as it seized swathes of northern Iraq and Syria and battled Kurdish militias.
Ankara, which vehemently opposes the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, denies the claims and says it has categorized IS as a terrorist group since October 2013.
Erdogan was pressed into taking military action against the jihadists in the aftermath of the Suruc attack, but used the offensive to also target PKK fighters in Iraq.
Since the Ankara bombing, Turkey has stepped up its hunt for IS suspects -- rounding up dozens in a series of police raids in the week before the election.
Media reports say security forces fear an IS cell are preparing a spectacular attack such as hijacking a plane or a boat.
Source: Agence France Presse
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