Highlights: A year after the earthquake in Türkiye, Erdogan provokes controversy. Turkish President Recep Tayyip took advantage of his visit to Hatay to campaign for the municipal elections. He suggested that the city would have received more aid if it had not been led by the opposition. Özgür Özel, leader of the CHP, the main opposition party at the head of Hatay town hall, accused Erdogan of using political blackmail to demand votes. The CHP itself is criticized for having chosen to present its outgoing mayor, Lütfü Savas, in the elections in Hatay.

As Turkey prepares to commemorate the first anniversary of the earthquake of February 6, 2023 – which killed more than 53,500 people in the south-east of the country – a controversy is growing around comments made…

A year after the earthquake in Türkiye, Erdogan provokes controversy

As Turkey prepares to commemorate the first anniversary of the earthquake of February 6, 2023 – which killed more than 53,500 people in the southeast of the country – a controversy is growing around comments made this weekend by the president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip took advantage of his visit to Hatay to campaign for the municipal elections. AFP - HANDOUT

By: RFI Follow

With our correspondent in Istanbul,

Anne Andlauer

Visiting Hatay on Saturday, the city most affected by

the February 2023 earthquake

, Recep Tayyip Erdogan handed over the keys to 7,000 new homes to victims of the disaster. But he also took the opportunity to campaign for the local elections on March 31, suggesting that the city would have received more aid if it had not been led by the opposition. “

I have to tell you a truth: if the central government and a local government do not work together, then nothing can reach this city. Did Hatay receive anything? Hatay remained alone

,” said the president.

On the eve of the commemorations of the devastating earthquake, and less than two months before the municipal elections, the words that do not get across among some Turks. Especially since

Recep Tayyip Erdogan

said them just after calling on the inhabitants of Hatay, the most damaged province, to vote for the candidate of his party and not for the outgoing mayor, an elected official from the opposition.

Özgür Özel, leader of the CHP, the main opposition party at the head of Hatay town hall, accused the head of state of threatening voters. “

He is using political blackmail to demand votes! Hatay voters, from all political stripes, will give him the best answer on March 31,

he promises.

Can we play politics with the earthquake? Can we threaten earthquake survivors? Blackmail them? Can we have such little moral conscience? No, this man has no heart! He has a stone for his heart!

The CHP itself is criticized for having chosen to present its outgoing mayor, Lütfü Savas, in the elections in Hatay, without taking into account his possible role in the scale of the disaster.

A year after the earthquake in Türkiye, Erdogan provokes controversy

A year after the earthquake in Türkiye, Erdogan provokes controversy

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