Erdogan’s meeting with Ogan Friday
Turkish elections
Turkey’s Electoral Council confirms the results of the first round, according to which the Turkish president received 49.24% of the vote, and his rival Kılıçdaroğlu received 45.07%.
Turkey’s Supreme Electoral Council confirmed, on Friday, the results of the first round of the presidential elections in which neither the incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan nor his main rival, opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, obtained the required majority to achieve an outright victory.
The council announced that Erdogan won 49.24% of the vote, while Kilicdaroglu got 45.07%, and a third candidate, the nationalist politician Sinan Ogan, got 5.28%, which necessitated a run-off on May 28 between the two top contenders.
Ogan, a former academic who was backed by an anti-immigrant party, may hold the key to winning the run-off now that he is out of the race.
Speaking to Turkish media earlier this week, Ogan listed the conditions for winning his support, including taking a hard line against the PKK, as well as setting a timetable for repatriating millions of refugees, including some 3.7 million Syrians.
Opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu
On Thursday, Kilicdaroglu modified his more inclusive and softer speech to appeal to nationalist voters, pledging to return millions of refugees and rejecting any possibility of negotiating peace with the Kurdish militants.
Meanwhile, Erdogan said in an interview with CNN broadcast on Friday that he would not yield to Ogan’s demands, adding, “I am not a person who likes to negotiate in this way. The people will be the king-makers.”
However, on Friday, a surprise meeting took place between Erdogan and Ogan in the latter’s office in Istanbul. No comments were made after the meeting, which lasted about an hour.
On Friday, the Anatolia News Agency quoted him as saying, “We have prepared housing construction projects in Syria for the return of nearly a million refugees, and we will ensure the return of refugees to their countries.”
Later, Erdogan said in his interview with “CNN” that Turkey would encourage one million Syrian refugees to return to their homes.
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2023-05-19 18:11:00
