ISTANBUL: Tens of thousands of supporters of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday massed in Istanbul for his last big rally in Turkey’s largest city one week ahead of presidential elections.
Erdogan is widely expected to win the elections to become modern Turkey’s twelfth president and staged a suitably presidential-style mass rally in the Istanbul suburb of Maltepe.
Brandishing Erdogan flags with his election slogan “national will, national power” and wearing Erdogan baseball caps, tens of thousands of people crammed into a vast outdoor sports complex.
A sea of people packed tightly together in the humid summer temperatures greeted Erdogan, who in his usual style prowled around the stage with a microphone and roused supporters with his earthy rhetoric.
“It will perhaps be our last rally in Istanbul. But I am not saying farewell to Istanbul, to you,” he shouted, his voice hoarse from campaigning.
“God willing, it is my will to be buried in this city. I am here not as the prime minister, not as the presidential candidate, but as Erdogan from Kasimpasa,” he said.
AFP
