Presidential candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu faced a backlash from the Kremlin following his allegations of Russia's interference in the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections in the country. The Kremlin Friday said that allegations were false and had been concocted by liars.
Kılıçdaroğlu, the main rival of incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, on behalf of the six-party opposition bloc, put up a scathing tweet on Thursday.
"Dear Russian friends. You are behind the doctored videos, fake content, and conspiracies that were made public. If you want to continue our friendship after May 15, refrain from interfering in the Turkish state. We are still in favor of cooperation and friendship," he tweeted on Thursday evening in both Turkish and Russian.
The presidential candidate often complains about fake content targeting his campaign, but his tweet came on the same day when Muharrem Ince, another candidate, withdrew his candidacy, claiming a smear campaign perpetrated by supporters of the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) endorsed by supporters of Kılıçdaroğlu.
The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said the people who had passed on such allegations to Kılıçdaroğlu were liars, and that Russia values its ties with Türkiye enormously.
Kılıçdaroğlu on Friday repeated his claims. "If we did not have concrete evidence, I wouldn't have tweeted," he told Reuters.
The party did not contact the Russian embassy in Ankara over the issue, he added.
"We find it unacceptable for another country to interfere in Türkiye's election process in favor of a political party. I wanted the whole world to be aware of this. That is why I called this out openly by a tweet," he said in an interview.
