Turkish leader says he will do “whatever is necessary” for the vote to take place on May 14, 3 months after earthquakes
The president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said this Wednesday (Mar 1, 2023) that the country will “whatever it takes” for the Turkish elections to take place on May 14, 2023. The head of state demonstrates that the vote will not be postponed due to the earthquakes that hit central Turkey in February 2022.
The statement was given in speech to parliamentarians from Erdogan’s party, the AKP (Turkish acronym for Justice and Development Party).
“This nation […] will do whatever is necessary on May 14th.”said the Turkish president.
Turkish general elections were planned for June 18, 2023. However, on January 22, 2023, Erdogan announced that the elections were brought forward to May 14, almost a month behind the previous date.
“I am grateful to God for walking side by side with you, our young people who will vote for the first time, in the elections that will be held on May 14”, said the Turkish president in a speech in the province of Bursa, about 390 km from the capital Ankara.
The death toll from the February earthquake in Turkey increased to 45,089 this Wednesday (1st March), according to AFAD (English acronym for Emergency and Disaster Management Authority). Adding to the dead in Syria, also hit by the February 6 earthquake, the total number of people who died is more than 51,000.
The February 6 tremors were the strongest recorded in Turkey since 1939, when the country had an earthquake of 7.8 on the Richter scale in the eastern city of Erzincan. About 30,000 people died on that occasion.
The aftershocks hit central Turkey and northwest Syria. The epicenter was in the Turkish region of Gaziantep. The 2nd largest earthquake in the country occurred in Kahramanmaras. It reached 7.5 magnitude.
On Monday (Feb 27), President Erdogan he requested apologies for the delay in helping victims in Adiyaman province due to the tremors at the beginning of the month.
“Due to the devastating effects of earthquakes and bad weather, in addition to the difficulties caused by damaged infrastructure, we were unable to work the way we wanted to in the first few days. […] For that, I apologize”said Erdogan during a visit to the region.
The president has even been criticized for the way the government handled the rescue of earthquake victims.
In his speech on Wednesday (1st March), Erdogan acknowledged the limitations of the search and rescue teams, but stressed that, as soon as the government received news of the disaster, it made efforts to carry out “everything within reach, carrying conditions to the end”.
“These numbers indicate that it is not possible to find in our country enough professional search and rescue teams to respond to a disaster of such huge proportions. […] Of course, we never hide behind these or other excuses.”declared Erdogan.
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