Turks vote amid unprecedented prosperity
Many voters in Sunday’s poll will look no further than surging economy when casting their vote.
For many voting in Turkey’s parliamentary elections on Sunday, the country’s economic achievements over the past decade will be in the forefront of their minds.
Turkey has seen its gross domestic product more than treble – from $232bn to $797bn – since Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the incumbent prime minister, took office in 2002.
That has fuelled a surge in GDP per capita, from just $3,500 per annum to more than $10,000.
Foreign investment in the Turkish economy has also rocketed, from $1.1bn to $9bn.
In a country where many remember life on the breadline, it is Erdogan’s success in providing so many of his country’s citizens with the necessities of life that will earn him their votes.
“In the past we used to queue for gas, tea, sugar. Today you can buy as much as you want,” said Nizam, a barber in Istanbul.
Now Erdogan has grander plans for the city.
A tunnel is already being dug under the Bosphorus, and plans have been announced to build a multibillion-dollar shipping lane bypassing the city that would dwarf the Suez Canal.
Al Jazeera’s Muhammad Vall reports from Istanbul.