Andrew Wilks

Turkey’s forth­right sup­port for Pales­tine could af­fect­ing ef­forts to re­vive ties with Is­rael.

As one of few coun­tries that have con­tact with both Hamas and Is­rael, Turkey would like to ne­go­ti­ate a last­ing peace.

Au­thor­i­ties, how­ev­er, point to wide­spread de­struc­tion, low funds and dwin­dling out­side help as ob­sta­cles to their work.

Kil­ic­daroglu is fac­ing ques­tions over his lead­er­ship of the CHP, hav­ing not won a na­tion­al elec­tion since 2010.

Eco­nom­ic con­cerns and re­la­tions with the West lie at the top of Er­do­gan’s agen­da af­ter pres­i­den­tial elec­tion vic­to­ry.

Er­do­gan de­clared win­ner by Supreme Elec­tion Coun­cil af­ter un­of­fi­cial vote count.

Nei­ther can­di­date crossed the 50-per­cent mark for an out­right win on May 14, trig­ger­ing an un­prece­dent­ed run-off vote.

Vot­ers find it hard to res­ur­rect en­thu­si­asm of first round ahead of pres­i­den­tial run-off be­tween Er­do­gan, Kil­ic­daroglu.

CHP, YSP voiced con­cerns and lodged com­plaints over dis­crep­an­cies be­tween record­ed count and votes reg­is­tered.

Er­do­gan’s cam­paign so far fo­cus­es on cer­tain key ar­eas, many de­signed to shore up na­tion­al­ist and con­ser­v­a­tive sup­port.