Why did Erdoğan win?
The LRB Podcast
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The Anti-Syrian Rhetoric of the Second Round
There are 3.6 million Syrian refugees currently in Turkey and both candidates in the second round made anti-refugee rhetoric part of their appeal. I think that Turkey is in fact a very xenophobic society it's something that is easily recognizable, he says. The presence of large numbers of Syrian refugees from the war has been "a sort of a thorn in the society" Erdogan was able to run by pretty much saying that he would not be pledging to send all the Syrians home which was more or less what the opposition ended up pledging.
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