Gonca Tokyol

"Citizens know that this government failed to help them. But they were also skeptical about the CHP's ability to rule. Yet, lately, people have started to see their problems can be solved with a CHP administration," says Kaftancıoğlu, the de-facto head of the main opposition party's İstanbul organization.

Türkiye is often criticized for increasingly curtailing the freedoms of its citizens, especially by the Western world. Yet for tourists coming from Iran, a neighboring country that has been ruled by an Islamic regime since 1979, Türkiye provides many more freedoms than they have back home.

According to polls, neither President Erdoğan nor the opposition candidate will achieve a clear victory without HDP votes in the next year's election. Despite this forecast, the HDP has yet to hear from the opposition bloc.