After two decades in power and more than a dozen elections behind him, Turkish authoritarian leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan knows how to gain support.
At the taxi drivers' convention in Istanbul, they couldn't get enough of him.
He controlled the crowd like an orchestra conductor.
They chanted and applauded - and booed the opposition - at every prompt.
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The venue was Istanbul's waterfront convention center, built during his mayoral tenure.
The rally reached its climax when the president uttered the farewell slogan: "One nation, one flag, one homeland, one country."
At that moment, many elderly drivers were already on their feet, waving their fists in the air or raising one hand in greeting.
Ajse Ozdogan, a conservatively dressed woman wearing a headscarf, arrived early with her taxi driver husband to hear her leader's every word.
A crutch was leaning on the seat next to her.
She has trouble walking, but she couldn't help but come.
"Erdogan is everything to me," she says with a broad smile.
"Before, we couldn't get to the hospitals, but now we can move around more easily. We have transportation. We have everything. He repaired the roads. He built mosques. He equipped the country with high-speed trains and subways."
The president's nationalist message appealed to many in the crowd, including Kadir Kavioglu, 58, who has been driving a minibus for 40 years.
"Because we love our homeland and our nation, we stand steadfastly behind our president."
"We are with him every step of the way," he says, "whether the price of potatoes and onions goes up or down. My dear president is our hope."
When Turks went to the polls at the beginning of the month, they did not vote with their wallets.
The price of food is skyrocketing.
Inflation is at an unpleasant 43 percent.
And yet, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan - who controls the economy and much more - broke into the lead with 49,5 percent of the votes won.
Watch the video: How Turkey has changed under Erdogan's rule
A divided country
His rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the secular opposition, won 44,9 percent of the vote.
The electorate is, therefore, divided in this polarized country - two irreconcilably opposed parties, but which share only 4 percent of the vote.
Ultranationalist candidate Sinan Ogan won an unexpected 5,2 percent, moving the election to a second round that will take place on Sunday.
He has now supported President Erdogan.
Erdogan is predicted to win, although the first round of the election has taught an important lesson: take the polls with a grain of salt.
Why did most voters stick with him despite the economic crisis and the government's slow response to two catastrophic earthquakes in February that killed at least 50.000 people?
"I think he is the ultimate Teflon politician [nothing sticks to him]," says Professor Soli Ozel, who teaches international relations at Istanbul's Kadir Has University.
"He also knows how to deal with people. You can't deny him that. It exudes power. That's one thing Kilicdaroglu doesn't have."
Kilicdaroglu, who is supported by a six-party opposition alliance, once exuded hope and the promise of freedom and democracy.
But after his first lap disappointment, he took a sharp right turn.
Now he is less of a caring grandfather and more of a nationalist strongman.
"It's a race to the bottom," claims one Turkish journalist.
"I promise to send all refugees home as soon as I am elected president, period," Kilicdaroglu said at a recent election rally.
This community is now increasingly threatened, according to Mert, who has shoulder-length dark hair and wears earrings.
"Erdogan himself, in every speech he makes, at every gathering he holds, is starting to present us as targets," he says.
"Day by day, the state is turning us more and more into enemies."
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The new Turkish century
"What the government says affects people. You see it reflected in those closest to you, even in your own family. If this continues, what will happen next? In the end, we will live in constant vigilance, eternally tense, eternally afraid," he says.
Zeynep - who has dark hair and expressive hands - still hopes for a new age, but knows it may never arrive
"I'm 21 years old and they've been in power for 20 years," she says.
"I want change, and if I don't experience it, I will be sad and scared. They will attack us even more; will take away even more of our rights. It will ban a lot more things, I think. But we will still achieve something, we will still fight."
On Sunday, voters will head to the polls for their first run-off as their country faces a turning point.
Almost 100 years have passed since Mustafa Kemal Ataturk founded Turkey as a secular republic.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan promises a new "Turkish century" if he is re-elected.
His supporters say he will lead to even more development and a stronger Turkey.
His critics say there will be less Ataturk and more Islamization and a darker future.
Watch the video: The boy who overtook Turkish President Erdogan
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