On Saturday, Russia expressed its complete rejection of accusations made by Turkish opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu to Moscow, claiming that it interfered in the presidential elections scheduled for Sunday in Turkey.
Kilicdaroglu, the main rival of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said on Friday that his party had overwhelming evidence of Russia’s responsibility for publishing “totally false” content online ahead of Sunday’s vote.
But Russian news agencies quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying, “We categorically reject accusations of interference in the Turkish elections; this is out of the question.”
“We are very disappointed by the statement of the opposition in Turkey,” Peskov said, adding that Kilicdaroglu could not provide evidence of this interference “because it does not really exist.”
Reuters news agency says that Turkey, under Erdogan’s rule, has adopted a balanced diplomatic stance since the Russian war on Ukraine, as it has close relations with the two countries with which it shares views of the Black Sea.
On Friday, Erdogan defended his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in the face of the accusations made by Kilicdaroglu, and said that he did not agree with these accusations, stressing that Turkey’s relations with Russia are no less important than relations with the United States.
At the same time, Kilicdaroglu tried to flirt with Russia, and said that the opposition alliance that he represents sees the need to maintain good relations with Russia and all neighbors, adding that he intends to improve relations with Moscow and solve a number of problems in bilateral relations through dialogue.
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2023-05-13 23:10:01
