The municipal election campaign in Turkey is in full swing. The elections scheduled for next Sunday are going to be a decisive battle for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his AKP party. A possible defeat at these polls will probable mark the beginning of the end of Erdogan's era, while the recent Gezi protests and corruption scandals are not promising for the AKP.
According to VK expert Kirill Popov, the prime minister is trying to mobilize his supporters using harsh rhetoric and measures, such as the recently-announced decision to block Twitter.
Erdogan is trying to show the people that Turkish society is surrounded by enemies and have to be united and to offer their support to the authorities, the expert says. It's not clear whether Erdogan will succeed or not, he believes.
Moreover, another question is what the prime minister will do if his party wins again, how he will justify his policies, Popov says.
