Turkish youth voted mainly in favor of the People’s Alliance in last week’s critical elections, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Saturday.
“Contrary to what is claimed and believed, in the elections, we received the greatest support from our youth,” Erdoğan said at a meeting with 1,500 young Turkish people in quake-hit Adıyaman province.
Saying that he aimed to start his first visit to the earthquake zone with the youth, the president added: "With the support and energy we will receive from you, we will revisit our earthquake zone cities, Adıyaman, Kahramanmaraş, Hatay, Gaziantep, Malatya and Sivas.”
Erdoğan also accused the opposition of infusing the youth with pessimism and said that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), on the other hand, had been walking arm in arm with the youth since the beginning.
“We have always worked to expand the vision of our youth with technology, sports, art and culture.”
He emphasized that the government would bring significant parts of defense industry manufacturing sites to the region within this scope.
“For example, we are establishing a cable and connector production facility in Adıyaman and creating a software campus.”
Speaking on education, Erdoğan said that in the coming period, the AK Party would expand alternative education opportunities and focus on raising quality in a way that will compete with the world.
“We have now become an attractive country for both citizens and individuals raised outside of Türkiye, which had been losing its educated people to other countries in the past,” Erdoğan underlined, hoping to shape the country with the youth in the future.
Similarly, Erdoğan had given important messages to the youth on Saturday, calling on Türkiye’s youth to head to polls on May 28 for the runoff presidential elections.
Erdoğan said that in the 21 years that his AK Party had been in government, they had worked to protect the freedoms of young people.
In the statement he released on his Twitter, Erdoğan urged the youth to “not pay attention to the lies of those who want to share their political failures with you and the dark picture they are trying to paint.”
Erdoğan noted that during the 21 years they had been in government, “We did not interfere with the lifestyle of any of (our youth), nor did we allow anyone to interfere with another’s dress, way of thinking, expectations and tastes.”
“In addition to the many works, investments and projects we have brought to our country, we have worked hard so that you can express your ideas freely and live your youth freely and to the fullest,” he said.
“We are taking firm steps toward our goals with 208 universities, 96 technoparks, 316 design centers and 1,249 R&D centers.
“With Teknofest, where more than 1 million young people compete, we have platforms where you can showcase your potential and compete with the world. Moreover, thanks to our National Technology Move, we are becoming a country that not only consumes technology but designs, develops and produces it,” Erdoğan stated.
Conversely, the president also spoke on the negative sentiment and insults directed at quake victims by opposition voters.
Supporters of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) led Nation Alliance sent insulting and threatening messages targeting voters in earthquake-hit provinces for voting in favor of Erdoğan. Some said that quake survivors who voted for the ruling party should have died in the deadly Feb. 6 earthquakes.
“I hope May 28 will be the first answer to the immoral people who insulted our earthquake victims,” Erdoğan said.
Nine out of 11 provinces hit by the deadly disaster voted for the AK Party. Main opposition CHP Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu won 71% of the vote share in Diyarbakır and 48.1% in Hatay province.
Erdoğan is also planning to visit Hatay province on Sunday to participate in the opening of the Defne State Hospital – a 300-bed hospital whose foundations were laid on March 24 following the devastating earthquakes. The hospital has been completed in 60 days.
The Feb. 6 twin earthquakes ripped through 11 provinces, killing over 50,000 people. They toppled hundreds of thousands of buildings and devastated the region’s infrastructure.
Erdoğan’s People’s Alliance won a majority in Parliament, while the presidential race is headed to a second round on May 28.
No candidate won an outright majority in the first round held on May 14, although Erdoğan was leading. He will face Kılıçdaroğlu, the leader of the main opposition CHP and joint candidate for the six-party opposition Nation Alliance, in the runoff vote.
