Turkish opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said on Friday that he did not baselessly accuse Russia of waging a disinformation campaign alongside the current Turkish president. “If we didn’t have this (concrete evidence), I wouldn’t tweet,” Kılıçdaroğlu told Reuters.
“We consider it unacceptable for another country to interfere in the electoral process in Turkey in favor of a political party. I wanted the whole world to know about it,” Kılıçdaroglu said in an interview with Reuters.
On the eve of Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu in Turkish and Russian:
“Dear Russian friends, You are behind the montages, conspiracies, Deep Fake content and recordings that were exposed yesterday in this country. If you want to continue our friendship after May 15, don’t touch the Turkish state. We continue to uphold cooperation and friendship.
The Kremlin has denied accusations of interference in Turkey’s presidential elections, Russian President’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.
Russia has been accused several times in the past of interfering in foreign elections, including the US presidential election.
The first round of presidential elections in Turkey will take place on May 14. At the same time, elections for 600 deputies of the Turkish parliament will take place in the country.
Erdogan and Kılıçdaroglu are now leading the presidential race, which now has 3 candidates. If no candidate wins more than 50% of the vote in Sunday’s presidential election, a second round between the two candidates with the most votes will be held on May 28.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, 69, has been in power in Turkey for 20 years, and if he wins this election, he will remain in the presidency for another 5 years.
Throughout the presidential race in Turkey, Kılıçdaroğlu accuses Erdogan of authoritarianism. The 74-year-old politician has led the main secular centre-left opposition party, the Republican People’s Party of Turkey (CHP), since 2010. He succeeded in uniting and consolidating Turkey’s scattered and diverse opposition. Six parties united to present a single candidate against Erdogan.
The pro-Kılıçdaroğlu National Alliance, in addition to his party, includes a centre-right party, a nationalist party, an Islamist party and two breakaway parties from Erdoğan’s ruling party.
Kılıçdaroğlu said in his campaign speeches that he aimed to return Turkey to a “strong parliamentary system” with strong checks and balances by abandoning the presidential system introduced by Erdoğan in a 2017 referendum. The National Alliance has also promised voters more rights and freedoms and a return to more traditional economic policies.
In an interview with Reuters, Kılıçdaroğlu pointed out that Turkey has close economic ties with Russia and made it clear that he would strike a good balance in foreign policy with Moscow.
When asked if he would support NATO expansion if elected president, Kılıçdaroğlu replied, “Of course,” without giving further details. “NATO is not only a military organization of the 21st century, but also an organization that defends democracy. We will maintain our relations with NATO in the same framework as in the past,” Kılıçdaroğlu added.
He also believes that the fundamental problem of Turkish foreign policy during the period when Erdogan’s party was in power was the exclusion of the Turkish Foreign Ministry from the process of shaping foreign policy guidelines.
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