Erdogan’s challenger, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, promises to turn Turkey back into a more democratic state. The opposition leader is also aiming for admission to the European Union.
A few days before the elections in Turkey, presidential candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu promised the citizens that he wanted to govern the country more democratically than the incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. One wants to “snatch Turkey away from an authoritarian leadership,” said Kilicdaroglu in an interview published on Monday by ARD “Tagesthemen”. He wants to fully implement “all democratic standards of the European Union”.
At the same time, he reaffirmed his plan to send the many refugees from Syria back to their homeland and to enter into negotiations with the government in Damascus.
With a view to dealing with the imprisoned ex-head of the pro-Kurdish HDP, Selahattin Demirtas, and the businessman and human rights activist Osman Kalava, he said he wanted to comply with the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights. He had demanded the release of the two. Both went to prison under Erdogan, and in speeches he repeatedly stylized them as enemies of the state.
On May 14, 60.7 million eligible voters in Turkey and around 3.4 abroad are called upon to elect a president and a new parliament. Polls predict a close race between Erdogan and Kilicdaroglu, who is running as the candidate of an alliance of six parties with different ideological leanings.
Source: Stern
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