Presidential Communications Director Fahrettin Altun strongly criticized columnist and commentator Fareed Zakaria, who tried to defame the latest elections in Türkiye.
Columnist Zakaria, “who has a historical past of plagiarism, ‘borrows’ a web page from the speaking factors of self-proclaimed Türkiye specialists and supposedly goal journalists in Washington to make bogus accusations towards the Turkish individuals,” Altun stated on Twitter.
“The textbook definition of a sore loser. I received information for you, Fareed: The Turkish individuals have spoken by free and honest elections-a proper they compelled the single-party regime to concede by arduous work and sacrifice.”
His remarks got here a day after Zakaria, a columnist and CNN host, shared a video on Türkiye’s Might 14 parliamentary and presidential elections, claiming that they’re “free but additionally profoundly unfair.”
Altun stated the Turkish individuals gave President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Folks’s Alliance a parliamentary majority plus Erdoğan himself a snug lead for his reelection within the first spherical, headed towards a runoff this Sunday, Might 28.
Altun on Sunday wrote the Turkish individuals “will solid their votes for a stronger and extra impartial Türkiye that performs a stabilizing function in its area and worldwide. Liberating Türkiye from the yoke of home and overseas tutelage has been the essence of President Erdoğan’s decadeslong goal.”
“That is the rationale the Turkish individuals alone chart our nation’s future course and why individuals like Fareed have been rendered totally irrelevant.”
This Sunday, Might 28, Erdoğan will face Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the chief of the principle opposition Republican Folks’s Get together (CHP) and joint candidate for the six-party opposition Nation Alliance, in a runoff vote.
Erdoğan completed the primary spherical with 49.52% of the vote, whereas Kılıçdaroğlu got here second at 44.88% and Sinan Oğan of the ATA (Ancestral) Alliance received 5.17%.
Oğan on Monday endorsed Erdoğan for the runoff, saying: “We consider that our determination is the proper determination for our nation and nation.”
In the meantime, Ümit Özdağ, head of the Victory Get together (ZP) as soon as endorsed Oğan because the presidential candidate as a part of the ATA Alliance stated Oğan’s assist for Erdoğan displays solely “his political preferences” and that he’ll make a separate announcement scheduled for Tuesday.
From 2012 to 2014, Zakaria was stricken by a number of cases of plagiarism, which he known as a “horrible mistake,” however led to his non permanent suspension from Time journal and CNN and the attaching of cautionary labels on a few of his different work.