Elections to be like general polls: Turkish PM

BİTLİS

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan addresses the crowd in the eastern town of Bitlis. AA photo

The upcoming local elections have become like a general election, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on March 11 during a rally in eastern province of Bitlis, telling his supporters that they would vote not only be voting for their local municipality but also for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

“Are you ready to crown the city with the AKP?” Erdoğan asked, saying the election on March 30 was “not ordinary” and had became like a general election. He urged people to vote for the AKP and to disappoint the opposition parties’ “dissension plans.”

He stressed the investments that had been made in the city, underlining his party’s moves to give equal education to female students with headscarves and to abolish cram schools. Erdoğan highlighted what he said were the AKP’s four principles: One nation, one country, one flag, one state.

“We love each other for the sake of Allah. We don’t recognize any other flag besides ours. Some other flags were brought to the meetings of other parties. You will answer them on March 30,” he said. The prime minister also targeted Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, saying he would not surrender “to any power other than Allah,” and slammed opposition parties for uniting against the AKP.