Erdogan rival says has evidence of Russia's online campaign ahead of Turkey vote
The Hindu
Kemal Kilicdaroglu said his party has concrete evidence of Russia’s responsibility for the release of “deep fake” online content ahead of Sunday’s presidential elections.
Kemal Kilicdaroglu, main challenger of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, said on Friday his party has concrete evidence of Russia's responsibility for the release of "deep fake" online content ahead of Sunday's presidential elections.
Asked why he tweeted on Thursday that Russia was responsible, he told Reuters: "If we did not have it [concrete evidence], I wouldn't have tweeted." The party did not contact the Russian embassy in Turkey over the issue, he added.
"We find it unacceptable for another country to interfere in Turkey's election process in favour of a political party. I wanted the whole world to be aware of this, that is why I made this call openly by a tweet," he said in an interview.
Mr. Kilicdaroglu's comments were made ahead of a statement by the Kremlin which denied Russia's interference in the Turkish presidential election, saying the allegations were false and had been concocted by liars.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the people who had passed on such allegations to Mr. Kilicdaroglu were liars and that Russia valued its ties with Turkey enormously.
In his office in Ankara, Mr. Kilicdaroglu - who is leading Erdogan in most opinion polls - stressed that Turkey has close economic links with Russia and signalled that he would pursue a fine balance in foreign policy over relations with Moscow.
"We want to maintain our relations, we don't want to break our friendly relations but we will not allow interference in our internal matters," he said. Mr. Kilicdaroglu also said he would push for another peace initiative between Russia and Ukraine once he wins the Sunday vote.
With a new government in place in Delhi, Singapore hopes to schedule the Ministerial Roundtable with India shortly, says Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan. In an exclusive interview, he speaks about the impact of the elections on ties, the “missed opportunity” of RCEP and the new buzz around Andhra Pradesh’s capital Amaravati.