Be it through videos or statements, ringleaders of the PKK terrorist group in the Qandil Mountains are publicly seeking votes for Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu who remains shameless about banking on terrorists, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Tuesday as he lashed out at his main challenger ahead of the presidential face-off this Sunday.
With days left until the critical vote, a controversial video has sparked another spat between the two leaders. The footage featuring Kılıçdaroğlu with PKK ringleaders in Qandil, a northern Iraqi region home to the group’s stronghold from where it plans and launches attacks on Türkiye, as well as nearby cities and towns, appeared in Erdoğan’s campaign videos but it was later revealed to have been heavily edited from two separate videos.
Kılıçdaroğlu, the leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP) and joint contender of a six-party opposition bloc, has condemned the video and Erdoğan for “using fake footage” in his campaign but Erdoğan did not backtrack.
“The video is the product of a couple of witty youths but the message is clear,” he said at a rally in the central Sivas province on Tuesday.
“The terrorists continue their support to Kılıçdaroğlu. They’re openly asking for votes for him and no one in their alliance has ever been ashamed of it, while PKK ringleaders called for bloodshed and revenge,” Erdoğan said.
“But everything they have been trying to cover up has now been exposed. No matter what they do, they cannot hide their collusion with divisive terrorists to assume power and gain seats. The deals they struck with terror groups encouraged by the imperialists they rely on will not do them any good,” Erdoğan said.
For months leading to May 14’s presidential and parliamentary elections, the PKK has been vocal in its eagerness to see Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party (AK Party) “gone.”
Several so-called senior members have expressed open support for Kılıçdaroğlu, and championed him in “ending the AK Party fascism.”
Moreover, the group’s propaganda network, as well as the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), which is widely known for its alleged links to the PKK, worked tirelessly calling for support to Kılıçdaroğlu and vowing to free HDP leader Selahattin Demirtaş and PKK ringleader Abdullah Öcalan, both facing terrorism charges of various degrees.
Their alliance has since sparked fury from CHP and AK Party supporters alike.
Presidential Spokesperson Ibrahim Kalın too dismissed the opposition’s remarks over the debated video. “PKK ringleaders have videos openly endorsing Kılıçdaroğlu’s candidacy. We didn’t film these. This support has been ongoing for months. Why wasn’t the CHP sensitive over this before?” Kalın said.
“President Erdoğan rightfully wants to know whether Kılıçdaroğlu is taking a clear stance against terrorism or not. Kılıçdaroğlu says he is but doesn’t the HDP’s attitude on this issue make matters obvious?” he asked.
Kalın argued that the elements brought together in the video were “real” and the question that must be asked is, “Did the PKK cadres issue these statements or not?”
Addressing the masses in Sivas, Erdoğan further slammed Kılıçdaroğlu over plans for a “Turkic Silk Road” that would connect Türkiye to China through Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and non-Turkic Iran, excluding Azerbaijan.
Pointing out to his administration’s ongoing projects to connect a high-speed railway from central Türkiye to the Baku-Tbilisi route, Erdoğan declared, “We will launch a globally strategic windpipe with this route called the Iron Silk Road.”
The said railway will enable someone setting out from London to travel “all the way to Beijing through our country,” Erdoğan said. “We will accomplish this not by bypassing our brother nation Azerbaijan like the CHP leader but side by side with our Azerbaijani brothers and sisters.”
Similar to how Türkiye helped Azerbaijan liberate its Karabakh region from three decades of illegal Armenian occupation and transformed itself into an energy hub straddling the east and the west, Türkiye will also bolster its transport infrastructure with Azerbaijan, Erdoğan elucidated.
“We will achieve this despite the CHP chair who overlooks Karabakh and the Zangezur Corridor just to look cute for certain people,” he said.
Zangezur was part of Azerbaijan, but in the 1920s the Soviets gave the territory to Armenia, severing Azerbaijan’s link with the Nakhchivan region. During the first Karabakh War in 1992, the railways Azerbaijan built in the region were rendered unusable.
