As if it were a concert, more than a million people gathered this Sunday at the old Atatürk International Airport in Istanbul to listen to its president Recep Tayyip Erdogan before the May 14 elections in Turkey.
The red flags occupied an entire runway in an electoral act that brought together people of all ages, from families to youth groups. All of them gathered with the sole objective of listening to the Head of State during a meeting that lasted more than an hour and a half.
Erdogan wanted to demonstrate once again the power of convening and conviction that he has in his country, before elections that have become a challenge for him and his government team.
The polls predict a very close competition in the presidential and parliamentary elections that will be held this Sunday, May 14. The candidate Kiliçdaroglu is starting with a slight advantage over the current president who is running for re-election.
As soon as the event began, the party of the political leader, the AKP, announced that it was "the meeting of the century" and announced that the number of attendees exceeded one million. Likewise, more than 10,000 buses had been rented from the 39 neighboring municipalities of Istanbul to facilitate participation.
Dressed in a blue jacket and sunglasses, the president began his speech with the following statements: "Istanbul! If you agree with us, we will surely win!"
During the meeting Tayyip Erdogan appealed to his conservative Muslim voter base and accused the opposition of being "pro-LGBT", while intensifying his rhetoric against his opponents.
Likewise, he also took the opportunity to attack his main electoral rival, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who heads the main opposition alliance. “My people will not allow drunkards and alcoholics to go on stage,” Erdogan also said.
"My nation will give the necessary response on May 14. We will not allow Kilicdaroglu, who is hand in hand with the terrorists, to divide our homeland," the president added.
At the same time as this event, the mayor of Istanbul and a member of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), Ekrem Imamoglu, staged another electoral event in the city of Erzurum. The candidate was stoned by a group of 150-200 people, initially without the police intervening, the CHP reported to the Efe agency. 17 people were injured and 15 have been arrested this Monday for the events.
