In Erdogan stronghold, adulation and unease ahead of Turkey runoff

that overshadowed the daily worries of Turkey’s citizens, stung by economic hardship and still grieving the staggering loss from earthquakes that killed more than 50,000 people a few months ago.

Erdogan seemed to acknowledge the unsettled state of the electorate Tuesday, imploring his loyalists to do more to get the word out. Generations of people from Sivas had migrated to Istanbul, Turkey’s most populous city, over the years, and they needed to be convinced too, he told the crowd. But he too had voted for the president, he said. Among the opposition, “there is no leader.” Certainly not Kilicdaroglu: “The candidate was the wrong candidate,” he said.

And Kilicdaroglu was an easy mark for Erdogan, who has belittled him for years and cast him during the campaign as both a terrorist and a quisling for Western interests — accusations that stuck in the minds of some voters. “He comes here for opening ceremonies. He is the one who had the Nation’s Garden made,” she said, referring to the park where she strolled Wednesday, across the street from a high-speed railway station Erdogan had also brought to the province. The city’s soccer stadium, the province’s first airport — all were built during his 20 years in power.

But presidential enticements did not fix what ailed the city, including a high unemployment rate that had forced hundreds of thousands of residents to leave Sivas and settle elsewhere in Turkey, including in Istanbul. Yonca Kurum, 27, who is unemployed, said her primary worry was “job opportunities,” and that she was torn about who to vote for in the runoff, and was considering not voting at all.

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