Turkish Interior Minister Calls Opposition Presidential Candidate 'US Spokesman'

Faizan Hashmi Published May 25, 2023 | 04:10 PM

ISTANBUL (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 25th May, 2023) Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said on Thursday that the opposition presidential candidate, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, is a "US spokesman" who is "driving with broken brakes."

"The United States is using all the methods to hijack our elections. They lost the first round. Don't misunderstand, it was not Kilicdaroglu who lost the first round, it was Washington. Kilicdaroglu is a spokesman for the US. People may not like us, they may not be happy with our lifestyle, but most of Kilicdaroglu's proposals are what the US and Europe told him," Soylu said in an interview with Turkish broadcaster Haberturk.

As an example, he cited Kilicdaroglu's proposal to withdraw Turkish troops from northern Syria.

Soylu added that the opposition candidate is doing things he should not be doing ahead of the runoff and lacks consistency and sincerity.

The interior minister also said he believed Kilicdaroglu's party, the Republican People's Party (CHP), would soon collapse.

"Kilicdaroglu believes that if he uses all the methods he used within his party in the country's politics, he will succeed. He will gain 'great' experience in the second round. Now he's driving with broken brakes," the minister said.

Soylu added that the candidate who manages to convince his supporters to go to the polls again will win the runoff, and that Erdogan only needs 275,000 more votes to secure victory.

Turkey held parliamentary and presidential elections on May 14. The first round saw incumbent Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan win 49.52% of votes and his main competitor, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, 44.88%. A runoff is scheduled for May 28.