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He paces back and forth on stage, listing his achievements for Turkey: New roads, better hospitals, more public transportation, more airports. At every rally, he hammers home the same message -- he has transformed Turkey into a new modern nation.

In almost every speech, 64-year-old Erdogan disparages what he calls "old Turkey," a place where garbage piled up on the streets, public hospitals were overrun, and roads were dimly-lit, single-lane death traps.

That message of transformation has delivered Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) 12 electoral victories over the last 16 years, making Erdogan the Turkish Republic's longest-serving leader since it was founded in 1923.

Erdogan's grandiose rallies have become an expected part of any Turkish election, but they appear to have been eclipsed Wednesday, as main opposition candidate Muharrem Ince drew what looked like the largest crowd in the elections period yet.

In the town of Izmir, hundreds of thousands of Ince supporters in a sea of red Turkish flags stretched for kilometers down a promenade on the Aegean coast, as the charismatic former high school physics teacher promised to end the nepotism of the Erdogan government.

"Erdogan is tired, he has no joy and he is arrogant," he said.

"On the one hand you have a tired man, and on the other you have fresh blood."

Erdogan has consolidated power at every step of his career. He has crushed anti-government protests, and in 2013 he evaded a corruption investigation into his inner circle. After a failed military coup to remove his government from power in 2016, he eliminated his opponents by firing tens of thousands of government workers, gutting public institutions, jailing critical voices, and clamping down on the media. He narrowly won a referendum last year that will change Turkey's parliamentary system to an executive presidency, giving whoever wins Sunday's vote sweeping new powers.

But Erdogan's mantra of development and growth has lost some of its luster recently as Turkish people feel the pinch of a faltering economy.

The lira has lost some 20% of its value since the year began, inflation is at 12% and interest rates are around a painful 18%. Some voters are tiring of what they see as Erdogan's power-grabbing.

"It's a situation where Erdogan can't blame anyone else. It's not like the government is run by someone else so he can turn around and say 'elect me so I can improve the economy.' That's his weak spot and he knows it," said Asli Aydintasbas, a Senior Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

But at the Istanbul rally, diehard Erdogan supporter Gulbahar Turan is sure Erdogan's AKP can continue to deliver. She says foreign intervention -- not government mismanagement -- is what's driving the economic woes.

"These are games by foreign powers, but they should know even a dead Erdogan would get votes," Turan said.

Erdogan's biggest threat

Polls in Turkey are typically partisan and unreliable, but Erdogan appears to be in front. Some polls suggest he will fail to win 50% of the vote, and that will mean a run-off round on July 8. This could be a particularly dangerous position for Erdogan to find himself in, as most opposition parties have vowed to galvanize their supporters to whoever challenges the incumbent leader.

Opposition candidates and parties are trying to steal support from Erdogan on all fronts. Conservative nationalist Meral Aksener threatens him from the center right, while Temel Karamollaoglu from the Islamist Felicity Party could also drive pious conservatives away from the AKP.

But Erdogan's biggest threat is the formidable Ince, who has galvanized the center-left around the CHP.

In the past, the CHP fielded fairly drab candidates. This election is the first in which the party has chosen someone charismatic, Aydintasbas said.

"We are already seeing the results in the sense that this is a race between Muharrem Ince and Erdogan. And that's never happened before. Erdogan had it too easy and he basically ran against himself," Aydintasbas said.

Ince is a not an obscure name in Turkey; the 54-year-old has served as a member of parliament for the last 16 years. He has managed to broaden his party's appeal beyond its usual base of secular upper-middle-class voters to include pious Muslims and Kurds.

"Former leaders of the party were bureaucrats or statesmen," said Behlul Ozkan, a political scientist from Marmara University. "Ince, with his rural family roots, his truck driver father and headscarf-wearing mother and sister is different from his predecessors."

During the holy month of Ramadan, when Ince made appearances with his sister who wears a headscarf, he made clear he would continue to guarantee women's right to wear the Islamic headdress in public spaces, including universities.

The Islamic headscarf was prohibited in public life in the aftermath of a soft coup in 1997. Women who wore it were barred from going to university, practicing medicine and law, and serving as members of parliament, until Erdogan started lifting those restrictions in 2013.

Ince has been reaching out to the Kurds, Turkey's largest ethnic minority, whose vote is usually split between Erdogan's AKP and the pro-Kurdish leftist Peoples' Democracy Party (HDP).

In a rare occurrence for a CHP politician, the turnout at an Ince rally in the predominantly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir was high.

The Kurdish vote is pivotal in the outcome of the parliamentary election. If the HDP crosses a 10% threshold, it will win seats and could deprive the AKP of its parliamentary majority. If it fails to get into parliament, the AKP will sweep up those seats.

'People are sick and tired': Ince

"Erdogan, people are cooking stones instead of food. People are cooking their worries instead of food. Look at the prices of potatoes, of onions. There is no bread!" Ince shouted out over the crowd at a recent campaign rally in the southern city of Antalya.

"Come, let's have a debate. Let's talk about the struggle of getting by, of paying the rent, of sending the kids to school."

In an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour, Ince said it was time for change.

"I believe in the power of the street. I believe in our people's wish for change. People are sick and tired. Turkey is sick and tired. Institutions have been taken over. Turkey's democracy has been destroyed. A single man rules over Turkey. Turkey has to find a way out of this," he said.

He is reaching out to Turkey's youth as well. A group of students hanging out at an Istanbul cafe say they don't know much about the old Turkey Erdogan talks about -- to them the old Turkey was the one of several years ago, when there were greater civil liberties. They refuse to give their names, lamenting the loss of freedom of speech.

"I don't want to give you my name because I need to think about my future," said a 22-year-old physiology student. "That is a worry I just don't want to have anymore."

Another student said that providing services and development should be expected from a government, not something for Erdogan to brag about. "Roads, roads, roads. I don't want to talk about that. I want to talk about more," he said.

But development is a message that has worked for Erdogan for 16 years. Back at his rally in Istanbul, as his opera house presentation draws to a close, he asks, "How do you like that?" to the crowd, which roars back with approval.

He calls out to the control room again for his next presentation, new building plans for an island development and then another for a park.

CNN's Isil Sariyuce contributed to this report.

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Erdogan's gamble on snap elections in Turkey could backfire - CNN

Ankara (AFP) - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared Saturday that his country would not be cowed by the United States, his latest broadside in the bitter feud between Ankara and Washington.

The two NATO members are at odds over Turkey's detention of an American pastor, which has triggered a trade row and sent the local currency the lira into a tailspin.

"We will not surrender to those who present themselves as a strategic partner while at the same time trying to make us a strategic target," Erdogan said at a congress of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

"Some people threaten us with economy, sanctions, foreign currency exchange rates, interest rates and inflation. We know your shenanigans and we will defy you."

At the end of congress, delegates unanimously re-elected Erdogan as head of the AKP, the state news agency Anadolu reported.

Last week, US President Donald Trump said he had doubled the tariffs on aluminium and steel tariffs from Turkey, prompting Ankara to sharply hike tariffs on several US products.

And Turkey on Friday threatened to respond in kind if Washington imposed further sanctions, while a court rejected another appeal to free pastor Andrew Brunson, who has been held for almost two years on terror charges.

The lira has nosedived against the dollar, dropping as much as 20 percent on one day last week. It sunk to a low of well over seven to the dollar earlier this week but was trading at just over six to the dollar on Friday -- a loss of 40 percent since the start of the year.

The collapse of the currency has been blamed both on the tensions with the United States and Erdogan's increasing hold on Turkey's economy and his refusal to allow the central bank to raise interest rates.

Meanwhile, Erdogan told the AKP congress that Turkey would press on with and expand its cross-border military operations.

Turkey sent troops into northern Syria two years ago to fight against the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG).

The YPG forms the backbone of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Kurdish-Arab alliance that has received extensive backing from the US-led coalition in the battle agains the Islamic State group.

But Turkey accuses the YPG of being the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a rebel group blacklisted by Ankara and its Western allies.

The Turkish army has also increased its strikes against PKK rear bases in the north of Iraq in the past few months.

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Erdogan vows Turkey will not be cowed by US - yahoo.com

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On Friday, the Turkish lira suffered its biggest one-day devaluation in nearly two decades, dropping more than 14 percent against the dollar. The minister of finance the son-in-law of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan couldnt avert the slide, delivering a halting speech that did little to boost confidence.

But Erdogan, as he so often does, placed the blame on a foreign scapegoat: the United States.

Shame on you, shame on you, he declared at a rally. "You are swapping your strategic partner in NATO for a pastor.

The pastor in question is Andrew Brunson, an American clergyman who has been in Turkish custody since 2016. He is charged with espionage and other crimes charges that he and U.S. officials reject. Attempts to win his freedom have so far failed.

According to my colleagues, Ankara hoped to swap Brunson for Hakan Atilla, a banker convicted in the United States for his role in a scheme that skirted U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil. But the Trump administration resents Turkeys use of Brunson as a political hostage. A high-level meeting in Washington last week with a visiting Turkish delegation ended abruptly after the Americans demanded the pastors immediate release.

President Trump then announced increased tariffs on Turkish aluminum and steel, which sent the value of the lira plummeting to a historic low. Turkeys economic woes are of its own making, but the tariffs made things worse and Trump was only too happy to take credit.

Erdogan continued his complaints in a New York Times op-ed, railing against unilateral actions against Turkey by the United States, our ally of decades. He recited the familiar catalog of affronts, including Washingtons unwillingness to hand over Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim cleric accused of fomenting a failed 2016 coup against Erdogan, and continued American support for Syrian Kurdish factions. He then delivered a clear threat, urging Washington to give up the misguided notion that our relationship can be asymmetrical and come to terms with the fact that Turkey has alternatives.

If the United States wont change its approach, Erdogan warned, Turkey will start looking for new friends and allies. Indeed, the Turkish president has beefed up ties with Russia, attempted to mend fences with key Western European governments and, as a significant importer of Iranian oil, could undermine American efforts to isolate Tehran.

But this posturing will win him even more enemies in Washington, where Erdogan is already a deeply unpopular figure. Congress has passed legislation making a critical sale of F-35 jets to Turkey contingent upon terms that include Brunsons immediate release. Erdogan critics in U.S. foreign policy circles loathe his creeping authoritarianism. And Trump, unlike previous presidents, has shown an endless willingness to bully erstwhile allies whenever he disagrees with them.

Washington has generally tried to calm global markets in such moments, especially when investors are gripped by fear of contagion, noted the Wall Street Journal. Trump instead squeezed Ankara further. This had global ramifications: Turkeys wobbles stoked wider fears of fragility in other emerging markets and raised alarms among some major European banks that hold Turkish debt.

In an interview with Bloomberg News, Aaron Stein, a Middle East expert at the Atlantic Council, suggested that Erdogan had badly miscalculated the situation. The power balance is asymmetric, totally in the U.S. favor, Stein said. There are no guard rails to escalation on the U.S. side, and thats where the Turks have completely, completely messed up in their understanding of whats going on in the U.S.

Erdogans appeals to NATO partnership ring especially hollow, given both Erdogans testy relations with Europe and Trumps carping about the alliance. "For an administration or a president that doesnt give much value to NATO, the value of Turkey as a staunch NATO ally also has declined, Jacob Funk Kirkegaard of the Peterson Institute for International Economics told Bloomberg News. The Trump administration isnt going to walk an extra mile to save an organization it doesnt value.

Analysts hope cooler heads prevail. Turkeys economic and legal problems are obvious, but sanctions by the U. S. are unlikely to help anything, observed Turkish commentator Mustafa Akyol. Rather they may be counterproductive, boosting Turkeys nationalist mood and pushing the country further towards the Russian axis. More diplomacy is needed, not sanctions.

But productive diplomacy is in short supply. Much of Erdogans politics now hinge on stirring nationalist sentiment to justify his tightening grip on the country. He won re-election in June with the backing of ultra-nationalists, arguing that greater control would help him steer Turkeys flagging economy out of trouble. Instead, things have only gotten worse.

The current crisis is the culmination of Erdogans reckless stewardship. Fixing it will take years a task that will require new leadership and an entirely different mentality, wrote Aykan Erdemir, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington and an Erdogan critic.

Nevertheless, even as Turkey suffers, Erdogan may not take much of a political hit. Turkeys toothless opposition ... fails to provide much hope, Erdemir noted. Without strong political forces to push him out, Erdogan will almost certainly continue to dig himself and the Turkish economy into a deeper hole.

Trump also may gain more by refusing to compromise. He may relish the chance to act tough and appeal to his core supporters by squeezing a prominent Muslim leader over the fate of an American pastor.

Backing Brunson plays to the American presidents base all the more conspicuously so given that NASA scientist Serkan Golge, a dual TurkishU.S. citizen, is also being held in Turkey, serving out a seven-and-a-half-year sentence for charges similar to those being brought against Brunson, wrote Elmira Bayrasli, a professor of international affairs at Bard College.

Of course, she noted, theres a key difference: Golge is Muslim, unlike Brunson, whom Trump has called a great Christian and innocent man of faith. The Trump administration has said nothing about Golges detention.

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Erdogan fights a losing battle with Trump - The Washington Post

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - President Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that Turkey would boycott electronic products from the United States, retaliating in a row with Washington that has helped drive the lira to record lows.

The lira has lost more than 40 percent this year and crashed to an all-time low of 7.24 to the dollar on Monday, hit by worries over Erdogans calls for lower borrowing costs and by worsening ties with the United States, a major NATO ally.

The liras weakness has rippled through global markets. Its drop of as much as 18 percent on Friday hit European and U.S. stocks as investors fretted about banks exposure to Turkey.

On Tuesday the lira recovered some ground, trading at 6.3300 to the dollar at 1947 GMT, up some 9 percent from the previous days close and having earlier touched 6.2995.

It was supported by news of a planned conference call on Thursday in which the finance minister will seek to reassure investors concerned by Erdogans influence over the economy and his resistance to interest rate hikes to tackle double-digit inflation.

Erdogan says Turkey is the target of an economic war, and has made repeated calls for Turks to sell their dollars and euros to shore up the national currency.

Together with our people, we will stand decisively against the dollar, forex prices, inflation and interest rates. We will protect our economic independence by being tight knit together, he told members of his AK Party in a speech.

The United States imposed sanctions on two Turkish government ministers over the trial on terrorism charges of U.S. evangelical pastor Andrew Brunson in Turkey, and last week Washington raised tariffs on Turkish metal exports.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Turkeys economic woes were not started by U.S. sanctions.

Economists would certainly tell you that what is happening in Turkey goes far beyond the United States recent policies and imposition of various policies, Nauert told a press briefing.

The White House said on Tuesday President Donald Trump was frustrated that Turkey had not released Brunson.

The president has a great deal of frustration on the fact that Pastor Brunson has not been released as well as the fact that other U.S. citizens and employees of diplomatic facilities have not been released, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told a briefing.

A White House official said the United States was warning more economic pressures may be in store for Turkey if it refuses to release Brunson.

It was unclear whether Erdogans call for Turks to sell dollars would be widely heeded, but a Turkish news agency said traders in Istanbuls historic Eminonu district converted $100,000 into lira on Tuesday.

Chanting Damn America, they unfurled a banner saying we will win the economic war, the Demiroren agency said. Amid calls to burn the dollars, the group headed to a bank branch where they converted the money, it said.

Erdogan also said Turkey was boycotting U.S. electronic products. If they have iPhones, there is Samsung on the other side, and we have our own Vestel here, he said, referring to the Turkish electronics company, whose shares rose 5 percent.

His call met a mixed response on Istanbul streets.

We supported him with our lives on July 15, shopkeeper Arif Simsek said, referring to a failed 2016 military coup. And now we will support him with our goods. We will support him until the end.

But shopkeeper Umit Yilmaz scoffed. I have a 16-year-old daughter. See if you can take her iPhone away ... All these people are supposed to not buy iPhones now? This cant be.

Erdogan said his government would offer further incentives to companies planning to invest in Turkey and said firms should not be put off by economic uncertainty.

If we postpone our investments, if we convert our currency to foreign exchange because theres danger, then we will have given in to the enemy, he said.

Although the lira gained some respite on Tuesday, investors say measures taken by the central bank on Monday to ensure liquidity failed to address the root cause of lira weakness.

What you want to see is tight monetary policy, a tight fiscal policy and a recognition that there might be some short-term economic pain - but without it theres just no credibility of promises to restabilize things, said Craig Botham, Emerging Markets Economist at Schroders.

Dollar-denominated bonds issued by selected Turkish banks continued to fall on Tuesday, although sovereign bonds steadied.

U.S.-Turkish relations have been hurt by a series of issues from diverging interests in Syria, Ankaras plan to buy Russian defense systems and the detention of pastor Brunson.

U.S. national security adviser John Bolton on Monday met Turkeys ambassador to the United States to discuss Brunsons detention. Following the meeting, U.S. officials have given no indication that the United States has been prepared to give ground in the standoff between the two countries leaders.

Ankara has repeatedly said the case is up to the courts and a Turkish judge moved Brunson from jail to house arrest in July.

Brunsons lawyer said on Tuesday he had launched a fresh appeal to a Turkish court for the pastors release.

Additional reporting by Ece Toksabay in Ankara, Ezgi Erkoyun in Istanbul and Steve Holland and Lesley Wroughton in Washington; writing by Humeyra Pamuk and Dominic Evans; editing by Gareth Jones and James Dalgleish

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Erdogan says Turkey will boycott U.S. electronics, lira ...

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to boycott iPhones in a demonstration of defiance as the U.S. held firm to its demand that Turkey release an evangelical pastor and Turkish executives called for action to bolster the lira.

Erdogan said the nation of 80 million people would stop buying American electronics, condemning the "explicit economic attack" against his country. The lira lost a quarter of its value this month as Donald Trump doubled tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminum imports and slapped sanctions on two ministers. It rebounded on Tuesday as Turks sold dollars.

"There is a cost for those who are plotting the operation against Turkey, Erdogan said in the first of two speeches in Ankara, without specifying when the boycott would start or how it would be enforced. Singling out the iPhone, he suggested Turks buy Samsung Electronics Co. or locally made Venus Vestel smartphones instead.

While even a widespread Turkish boycott would do little to dent U.S. economic interests, it shows Erdogan refusing to give in to market turmoil thats pushed borrowing costs to record highs and threatens to descend the nation into a financial crisis.

Erdogans boycott is reminiscent of the decision by President Vladimir Putin to ban food imports from countries that slapped sanctions on Russia in 2014 over its annexation of Crimea. The difference is that unlike Russia, the U.S. and Turkey are NATO members. Erdogan warned that the U.S. is putting decades-old alliances at risk and pushing Turkey to seek allies elsewhere.

While diplomatic tensions rage, the currency rallied for the first time in a week as Turks cashed in dollar savings to take advantage of the huge slump in the local currency. Speculation is also growing that Turkish policy makers will heed calls from corporate and banking executives to raise interest rates to stem the rout. The lira jumped 5.9 percent to 6.5028 per dollar by 6:03 p.m. in Istanbul.

Bonds also recovered, with the yield on 10-year notes falling 132 basis points to 21.37 percent. The cost of insuring the nations debt against default fell off 10-year highs.

The latest attack on the economy showed that the dollar is no longer a "trustworthy" currency and is instead being used as a tool for political punishment, Finance Minister Berat Albayrak said at a conference in Ankara he as attending alongside Erdogan. "Were going to continue to take steps to protect the lira," he said.

Tensions between the two NATO allies have intensified amid a dispute over the detention of Andrew Brunson, whom Turkey accuses of aiding a failed coup. Trumps top national security aide warned Turkeys ambassador on Monday that the U.S. has nothing further to negotiate until Brunson is freed, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Policy makers need to adopt a series of measures so that the situation doesnt make permanent damage to the real economy," the Union of Chambers and Commodities Exchanges of Turkey and the Turkish Industry and Business Association said in a joint statement.

They called on the government to cut spending, improve ties with the European Union, bring to an end the spat with the U.S. and chart out a clear plan to bring inflation -- which soared to a 15-year high of almost 16 percent in July -- back to single digits permanently.

A similar plea came from the nations banks, including the second-largest by assets, Turkiye Garanti Bankasi AS. While Turkeys central bank has raised lending rates by 500 basis points this year to 17.75 percent, it hasnt acted since the latest turmoil began with U.S. sanctions on the interior and justice ministers on Aug. 1.

Something has to be done about interest rates, Ali Fuat Erbil, Turkiye Garantis chief executive officer, said in an interview aired by NTV. Besides fiscal discipline, monetary tightening is the remedy. Is there need for that? Yes there is.

While Erdogan didnt address their concerns in his speeches on Tuesday, he suggested Turks have already begun responding to his call to convert foreign exchange into lira because it would be tantamount to "surrendering" if they did otherwise.

Citizens tend to have bank accounts in various currencies so how they move their money does have a meaningful impact on the liras trajectory. Local individuals and businesses sold an estimated $50 million to $60 million of foreign exchange on Tuesday morning, according to an Istanbul-based currency trader who declined to be named as they were not authorized to speak to the media.

With assistance by Asli Kandemir, and Constantine Courcoulas

(Updates with finance minister comment in eighth paragraph.)

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Erdogan to Boycott iPhones as Turkeys Feud With U.S ...