ANKARA, Jun 23 Incumbent Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's candidacy for a third term is legal, said Minister of Justice Bekir Bozdag. Earlier, the leader of Turkey's largest opposition center-left Republican People's Party (CHP), Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, said that Erdoğan's candidacy in the upcoming presidential elections in 2023 is illegal, according to him, Erdoğan should dissolve parliament to decide on early elections, and then he himself can run. «Our candidate is President Erdogan, his candidacy is legitimate,» Bozdag was quoted as saying by Haberler.com. The next general elections in the country — both presidential and parliamentary — will be held in Turkey in June 2023. The AKP and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) had previously formed the People's Alliance. Earlier, Turkish nationalist leader Devlet Bahceli said that Erdogan would be the People's Alliance's candidate in the upcoming elections. The Turkish president himself did not comment on his nomination for a long time, but at a meeting with supporters, unexpectedly for everyone, he announced that he intended to fight for the post of head of state, calling on his main rival Kemal Kılıçdaroglu to announce the name of the opposition candidate. A number of opposition media and social networks are actively circulating the news about the high probability of early elections in the country, when the incumbent president will be the candidate from the ruling party. June, 21:59Erdogan confirms that there will be no early elections in Turkey
