Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says »the door is closed» for U.S. Ambassador to Ankara Jeff Flake following his meeting with Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader and main opposition presidential candidate Kemal Kiliçdaroglu.
»We have to teach America a lesson in this election. It is a disgrace. We have to use our heads. It is the ambassador. The person to meet with is the president,» Erdogan has said, Turkish television channel TRT Haber reported.
Thus, he stressed that Flake »has to know what his tasks as ambassador are» and stressed that »he will not meet with him anymore». »He has to know his place. He has to learn how an ambassador works,» he concluded.
The ambassador recently held a meeting with Kiliçdaroglu, the unity candidate chosen by a platform of six opposition parties for the May 14 elections, in which he will try to wrest power from Erdogan.
The latest polls on voting intentions point to a close race between Erdogan and Kiliçdaroglu, who has asked for support from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) – the second largest opposition party in Parliament – which has ruled out presenting its own candidate.
To emerge victorious in the first round of the presidential election, candidates must win more than 50 percent of the support. Otherwise, the junta, which has rejected the appeals lodged by the opposition against Erdogan’s candidacy, has scheduled a run-off election for May 28.
Opponents insist that Erdogan is in violation of the Constitution, which provides for a maximum of two terms. However, Erdogan has shielded himself behind the 2017 constitutional reform and pointed out that this amendment reset the counter to zero.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
