Turkey election: President Erdogan holds show-of-force rally in Istanbul one week before poll
Erdogan claims over a million people took part in his rally.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a show-of-force rally in Istanbul on Sunday (May 7), one week before the general election. "Istanbul!" President Erdogan shouted to a sea of supporters at the rally, the news agency AFP reported. "If you say okay, we will win for sure!" Erdogan added. Erdogan's supporters were packed shoulder-to-shoulder across the tarmac of the old Ataturk airport: a tidal wave of Turkish flags and banners with the president's face.
Erdogan and his Justice Development Party charted 10,000 buses to bring in people from 39 provinces for the rally, AFP reported. The Turkish president claimed that over a million people showed up to the event, and said that his government reshaped Turkey.
"I am honoured to be here," said 68-year-old Heyiye Kefal, a disabled pensioner who was transported to the event by a party bus. "We were in bad shape before but today we have everything: freedom and comfort," she added.
On Saturday, opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu held a smaller but still-impressive rally in Istanbul that was attended by thousands of people.
"Are you ready for change? Are you ready to restore democracy?" Kilicdaroglu, the head of Turkey's oldest party- the Republican People's Party- asked his supporters. "Together, we will rule the country with reason and virtue," he added.
Istanbul's mayor Ekrem Imamoglu was the star guest of Kilicdaroglu's rally. Imamoglu was presidential hopeful until a court effectively barred him from higher office in a case stemming from his 2019 victory.
As the mayor spoke, the crowd chanted, "Rights, law, justice" and "Erdogan thief"
The general election in Turkey would be held on May 14. This election is the toughest test for President Erdogan's 20-year rule.
Erdogan and Kemal Kilicdaroglu are locked in a dead heat and probably heading to a runoff on May 28. Polls have suggested that Kilicdaroglu is beating Erdogan by a two-to-one margin among younger voters in Turkey.
"He is like us, he understands people," 20-year-old Aleyna Erdem said of the opposition leader. "Kilicdaroglu will raise the status of women," another voter Mujde Tosun told the news agency.
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