Turkish opposition instructed by West to dethrone Erdogan: Minister
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With a much-heated and awaited Turkish presidential election next month, the Interior Minister accuses America and Europe of attempting to depose the Turkish President from power.
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Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu speaks during a news conference in Istanbul, Turkey, August 21, 2019. (Reuters)
Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said the United States and Europe have assigned the Turkish opposition to remove the country’s current President Tayyip Erdogan from power.
"America and Europe gave them instructions to depose Tayyip Erdogan, to remove Tayyip Erdogan from office," The Star newspaper quoted him as saying.
"Why Tayyip Erdogan? Because America does not want him [at his current post], the West does not want him [to be the president of Turkey]. But it does not matter to us. We are following the will of our people," he added.
This comes as the Turkish elections are anticipated to be the most polarized this year, determining the fate of 85 million citizens, and are supposed to be a litmus test for Erdogan's job performance. This will mark the second election since Turkey switched from a parliamentary to a presidential system following a 2017 referendum that granted him broad new powers.
During a press conference at the Turkish Supreme Election Commission’s HQ in Ankara, the head of the country's High Election Board (YSK), Ahmet Yener, recently said the total number of registered voters expected to partake in the May 14 presidential and parliamentary elections has amounted to a total of 64,113,941 votes; 60,697,843 are on Turkish mainland, and the rest are in the diaspora.
The total number of ballot boxes inside the country amount to a total of 191,884, and another 5,040 are outside the country.
In regard to the Turkish citizens who became eligible to vote (i.e. turned 18) since the last elections, Yener noted that 4,904,672 new voters will be participating in the elections for the first time (277,646 of which are in the diaspora) and 47,523 others will be participating in the elections in the event of a second round of presidential elections (2,435 of which are in the diaspora).
Also, about 133,000 voters who reside in the areas destroyed by the February earthquake have transferred their registrations to other states.
Elderly voters (those above the age of 70) amount to a total of 3,180,802 inside the country.
Read next: Turkish Elections 2023: Resurrecting Ataturk or the Empire?
