The presidential and parliamentary elections to be held on 14 May in Turkey are supposed to completely change the history of the country, so the USA and Europe are increasing their pressure on Ankara. According to the news of TASS, this opinion was expressed by the Minister of Interior of Turkey, Süleyman Soylu, a member of the Justice and Development Party of the current President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
“Türkiye is changing its history. With the May 14 elections, this will change completely. This is not Erdogan’s choice, but the choice of future generations of Turkey, its full independence, so the United States and Europe are putting pressure on him,” he said.
“America is losing its authority, the whole world hates it,” and Europe is “not what it is, it’s part of a convoy of America with no idiosyncrasies,” he said.
“European leaders are constantly being discredited, the continent’s population is aging, they are experiencing difficulties in economic development and will continue to do so. “Europe has become America’s pawn in Africa, all African countries hate the states that exploit them,” he said.
Earlier, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had said that he would no longer receive US Ambassador Jeff Flake after the diplomat met with his opponent, Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu in the upcoming elections.
Despite the fact that a total of four candidates have registered for the presidential elections, the conflict between Erdoğan and Kılıçdaroğlu will be the main duel on 14 May.
The leader of the CHP is the only candidate of the Turkish opposition.
On the eve of the election, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu promised voters to increase public welfare spending and to wipe out loans to low-income Turks.
The opposition leader also plans to triple the share of social security spending to 12% of the state budget, increasing it to $300 billion.
Kılıçdaroğlu also pointed to the negative effects of the Erdogan cabinet’s monetary policy – inflation in Turkey, which has already reached 80.21 percent on an annual basis, breaking the record for the last 23 years.
In May 2022, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu accused President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s family of taking millions of dollars to the United States and developing a plan to flee the country if they lost the presidential election.
Erdogan has lived up to his campaign promises, announcing in September a $50 billion plan to build half a million new homes and 50,000 office buildings.
According to Bloomberg, the move aims to attract low-income local voters.