Morsi was murdered: President Erdoğan
ISTANBUL
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on June 19 said Egypt's only democratically-elected President Mohamed Morsi was murdered.
"Morsi did not die a natural death, he was killed," he said at an event in Istanbul.
Erdoğan also on vowed to pursue justice for this sudden and unexplained death.
"Turkey will do whatever it takes to prosecute Egypt [regime] in international courts," he said, in a no-holds-barred address, urging the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to take action.
Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically-elected president, died on June 18 during a court appearance.
Security forces have been accused of murdering Morsi after friends and colleagues say police failed to administer first aid fast enough when he collapsed, according to the Independent newspaper.
Prison guards allegedly left the 67-year-old Muslim Brotherhood leader “slumped on the floor” of his courtroom cage for more than 20 minutes, despite other defendants calling for help.
Erdoğan slams CHP mayoral candidate İmamoğlu for ‘HDP support’
Erdoğan also condemned Ekrem İmamoğlu, the mayoral candidate of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), for getting backing from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), while accusing him of also receiving support from foreign countries.
“Support for the CHP candidate comes from either Qandil [Mountains where the outlawed PKK has its headquarters]; Selo [nickname of jailed former HDP co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş], the former leader of the party who is under the guidance of Qandil, or from abroad,” he said. The government accuses the HDP of having direct links with the PKK, which is listed as a terrorist group by Turkey, the EU and the U.S.
In a tweet on June 18, Demirtaş for the first time openly called on HDP voters to vote for İmamoğlu.
Erdoğan warned supporters of the CHP and Felicity (Saadet) Party against voting for a candidate who “cooperates with terrorist organizations.”
“Why are all those foreign circles so closely interested in who will run Istanbul? Are we showing interest in who gets elected as mayor of London, Berlin, Paris, Vienna, Amsterdam or Brussels?” he also said, criticizing foreign countries for showing interest in the municipal rerun election in Istanbul.
“If the issue is about service to Istanbul, there is no better option than the ruling Justice and Development Party’s [AKP] Binali Yıldırım,” Erdoğan said.
Erdoğan also denied claims that Syrian refugees in Turkey were receiving salaries. “This time they made up a lie that as if we were paying salaries [to Syrians]. We don’t pay salaries to Syrians. These are all lies. We pay salaries to our poor citizens,” he said.