Türkiye: Bringing the toilet issue into the election campaign
(Baonghean.vn) - Before the Turkish parliamentary elections on June 7, a debate about the amenities in the presidential palace broke out between the parties. The notable point in the debate was whether the parties revolved around the issue of whether President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's toilet was made of gold or not?
During the election campaign held on June 1, Mr. Kemel Kilicdaroglu - head of the Republican People's, Democratic and Social Party (CHP) criticized President Erdogan for building a huge and overly lavish presidential palace.
| President Erdogan inside his residence |
Mr. Kilicdaroglu said that this was a sign of megalomania as well as proof of Mr. Erdogan's dictatorship. Even in a press conference on May 30, the head of the CHP party strongly condemned the President for "building palaces, buying planes, Mercedes cars... and even making toilets out of gold."
In an interview on state broadcaster TRT, President Erdogan responded to his opponent's accusations by inviting Kilicdaroglu to the presidential palace for an inspection. After that, Erdogan also sent an official invitation to his opponent Kilicdaroglu. President Erdogan even declared that if the toilet in the presidential palace was made of gold, he would be willing to resign as president.
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| Turkish Presidential Palace (photo: Reuters) |
It is known that Mr. Erdogan's presidential palace, which was just inaugurated in the fall of 2014, has an area of up to 150,000 m2 with 1,000 rooms and is worth 615 million USD. And immediately the presidential palace above has become the target of attacks by opposition parties.
Chu Thanh
