What to Watch for in Turkey’s Presidential Election

Turkey’s presidential elections were held yesterday, yielding inconclusive results that necessitate a run-off election in a couple of weeks. The Turkish electoral system requires a presidential candidate to obtain half of the vote to win office. If none of the nominees reach the 50 percent mark, a follow-up election is held two weeks later.

The two leading candidates are the incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has been in office for the past 20 years, and Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, leader of the Republican People’s Party.

Erdoğan served as the prime minister for 11 years after first winning the 2003 election. He became president in 2014. If reelected, it will be his third consecutive presidential term.

But Erdoğan’s popularity has recently taken a hit. In the past year and a half, Turkey’s economy has plummeted. Erdoğan’s interest rate cuts resulted in inflation spiking to over 85 percent last October.

While it is unclear which candidate will pull ahead, one thing Bible prophecy is clear on is which nations Turkey will ally with in the end time.

Turkey is currently a member of nato. It has received nuclear weapons from the United States, which the U.S. is supposed to maintain control over, in theory. In reality, Turkey will soon betray the United States.

Erdoğan has close ties with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. An overwhelming 99 percent of Turkey’s population is Muslim. These religious differences are one of the primary factors that keep Turkey from becoming a member of the EU, which is strongly intertwined with the Catholic Church (request our free book The Holy Roman Empire in Prophecy for proof).

Turkey will not become a full member of the EU, but the Bible prophesies of another emerging European alliance that Turkey will play a leading role in. Psalm 83 prophesies of a group of nations in Europe and the Middle East, led by Germany, that aims to destroy the modern-day nations of Israel. Turkey will be a crucial player in this alliance.

As the run-off elections unfold in the next two weeks, watch Turkey for the converging of this alliance. To learn why Turkey plays such a massive role in the world, read our article “Pivotal Power.”