Facing a sea of umbrellas in the steady rain, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the Turkish opposition's challenger to Recep Tayyip Erdogan in next month's polls, smiles and promises "the return of spring."

He calls the rain "pretty" even though it refuses to stop, dousing the crowd gathered in the northwestern city of Canakkale to hear the discreet 74-year-old, whose azure campaign posters announce: "I am Kemal, I am coming!"

The choice of Canakkale owes nothing to chance for Kilicdaroglu, who heads the Republican People's Party (CHP) of modern Turkey's founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

It was here, at the entrance to the Dardanelles Strait, that Ataturk -- then a young commander -- distinguished himself in 1915 by repelling the Allied forces' advance on the rumps of the Ottoman Empire during World War I.

"I do not order you to attack, I order you to die!" Ataturk told his troops.

Nothing that dramatic happened on stage of Kilicdaroglu's campaign stop this week, where he was framed by the Turkish flag and portraits of Ataturk.

Kilicdaroglu emerged flanked by the two shining stars of the CHP -- Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu and his Ankara counterpart Mansur Yavas -- who had both unseated Erdogan's allies in watershed municipal polls in 2019.