As Turkey prepares to mark the first anniversary of the February 6, 2023 earthquake – which killed more than 53,500 people in the country’s southeast – controversy is mounting over comments made by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan this weekend.
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With our correspondent in Istanbul, Anne Andlauer
Visiting Hatay on Saturday, the city is most impressive Earthquake of February 2023, Recep Tayyip Erdogan handed over the keys to 7,000 new homes to disaster victims. But he also took the opportunity to campaign for local elections on March 31, suggesting the city would have received more aid if he had not led the opposition. ” I have to tell you the truth: if the central government and the local government do not work together, nothing will reach this city. Did Hatay receive anything? Hetay remained alone », unclear to the president.
On the eve of the commemoration of the devastating earthquake, and less than two months before municipal elections, some Turks are at a loss for words. Especially since Recep Tayyip Erdogan He made his pronouncement only after calling on residents of Hatay, the worst-hit province, to vote for their party’s candidate, not the outgoing mayor, an elected official from the opposition.
At the head of the town hall, Özgür Özel, the leader of the main opposition party, the CHP, accused the head of state of intimidating voters. ” Political blackmail to ask for votes! Hatay voters across political stripes will give him the best answer on March 31, It promises. Can we play politics with earthquakes? Can we threaten earthquake survivors? Blackmail them? Can we have so little moral conscience? No, this man has no heart! He has a stone for his heart! »
The CHP itself has been criticized for choosing to field its outgoing mayor, Lutfu Sawas, in Hatay’s elections, regardless of his possible role in the scale of the disaster.
