Turkish Prime Minister and AK Party presidential candidate Recep Tayyip Erdoğan yesterday addressed a huge crowd in Turkey's central Anatolian city of Yozgat as part of his presidential election campaign for the Aug.10 election. Chanting "Turkey is proud of you," Yozgat residents welcomed Erdoğan.

Slamming the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) announcement of former Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, Erdoğan denounced the CHP and MHP coalition over the presidential election and added that the nation will give the opposition parties a lesson at the ballot box.

He noted that CHP was against electing the president by popular vote, as evident from its negative stance towards the amendments raised in parliament on the presidency election issue in previous years.

Touching on economic issues, social problems, bans and violations in "old Turkey," Erdoğan said that the nation decided to change its destination after electing the AK Party as the ruling party 12 years ago.

Referring to İhsanoğlu's remarks that he is not the candidate of one of the opposition parties, but an inclusive candidate for the sake of the nation, Erdoğan asserted that İhsanoğlu cannot say that he is the candidate of CHP because his father was expelled from Turkey due to CHP's policies years ago.

Erdoğan said that the nation is the decision-maker for who will be president and added that the president will not be monopolized by certain circles in the country. Asserting that CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli are scared of the presidential election, the prime minister said that the opposition parties will experience a huge disappointment on Aug. 10 and the presidential ballot box will cause the opposition parties' leaders to leave their posts.

Regarding the controversy that the president should be unbiased and above politics, Erdoğan said that the president should side with the nation, freedom and for the sake of the country.