Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. File photoANKARA, May 5Ankara's mediation in the Russia-Ukraine crisis has raised Turkey's profile as a mediator in the eyes of NATO countries, and President Erdogan seized the opportunity, according to a Financial Times article. as an intermediary in the eyes of the NATO countries, and Erdogan seized this opportunity,» the article reads, translated by the Sözcü newspaper.Erdogan announced progress in Russian-Ukrainian negotiationsThe publication quoted an unnamed opposition official as saying that if elections were held in Turkey last year, the opposition would have had a chance, but now «confidence in this has slightly decreased.» «The biggest concern of the opposition wing causes that Kılıçdaroğlu (Turkish opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu – ed.) will nominate himself against Erdoğan and that Erdoğan will “eat him alive.” Kılıçdaroğlu really wants to be a candidate I have no doubt that he will be the best president, but he has the least chances of winning,» the newspaper quotes the words of an opposition representative. According to him, «whoever is elected as an opposition candidate, he will have to face a cunning and experienced politician who is still the most popular politician in the country, despite inflation, which reached 61 percent in March».
Erdogan launched a special demilitarization operationThe next general elections in the country — both presidential and parliamentary — will be held in Turkey in June 2023. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) previously formed the People's Alliance. Earlier, the head of the Turkish nationalists, Devlet Bahceli, said that the current President of Turkey, Tayyip Erdogan, would be a candidate from the «Alliance of the People» in the upcoming elections. Earlier, on the initiative of the leader of the largest opposition center-left People's Republican Party of Turkey (CHP), Kemal Kılıçdaroglu, meetings were held between the leaders of six opposition parties, in which was attended by the head of the conservative-nationalist «Good Party» (Iyi parti) Meral Aksener, the chairman of the right-wing conservative Sunni Party «Happiness» (SP) Temel Karamollaoglu, the head of the Kemalist-conservative «Democratic Party» Gultekin Uysal, the leader of the liberal «Democracy and Breakthrough Party» (DEVA) Ali Babacan and ex-Prime Minister of Turkey, head of the Future party Ahmet Davutoglu. After the meeting, six leaders of Turkey's opposition parties made a statement about the preparation of a memorandum on the country's transition to a «strengthened parliamentary system of government.» Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24. President Vladimir Putin called its goal «the protection of people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kyiv regime for eight years.» For this, according to him, it is planned to carry out «demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine», to bring to justice all war criminals responsible for «bloody crimes against civilians» in Donbass. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Armed Forces strike only at the military infrastructure and Ukrainian troops and, as of March 25, they have completed the main tasks of the first stage — they have significantly reduced the combat potential of Ukraine. The main goal in the Russian military department was called the liberation of Donbass.
