Turkish economy to start to rise next year: Erdoğan

MANISA

The Turkish economy will start to rise in the next year as the current difficulties have already begun to ease, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said, stressing the government is capable of resolving all the problems of Türkiye.

“We will see altogether that the economic difficulties will ease by the end of the year, and that we will begin to rise again starting next year,” Erdoğan said in his rally in the Aegean town of Manisa on Feb. 27.

Erdoğan, also the chairman of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), is campaigning for the upcoming local elections that will be held on March 31.

“Each of our citizens will get the share he or she deserves by the growth and strengthening of our country. We did this in the past, and we will succeed again,” the president stressed.

Türkiye has of course problems to solve, and it can tackle them by not falling into pessimism, Erdoğan suggested. “It’s us who have the will to solve them. Do our pensioners have difficulties? We’ll overcome together. Are our tradesmen in need? We will help them. Do our youngsters have dreams? We will realize them together,” Erdoğan said.

The government has also provided security by cracking down on the terrorists, the president stressed. “We’ll do the same when needed. Where is the terroristan? Where are terrorist organizations? They are all eliminated.”

“We have introduced the vision of 'Century of Türkiye' to do all these. We will not allow these permanent problems to cast a shadow on this vision,” he stated.

Erdoğan criticized the main opposition Republican People's Party for secretly allying with the Democratic Equality Party (DEM) in some constituencies, such as Istanbul and Mersin.

“We have not forgotten the clandestine alliances of 2019 polls,” Erdoğan said, recalling the previous municipal elections in which some opposition parties have nominated joint candidates in big metropoles.

“On the other hand, the AKP and the Nationalist Movement Party [MHP] is running a transparent People's Alliance for their mayoral candidates. This alliance has no secret agenda. Everything is happening in front of our people,” he said.