ANKARA, May 16. /TASS/. Incumbent Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that he is expecting to win the presidential runoff on May 28.
"We fought hard [in the first round], without any provocations and disregarding any pressure; we neither gave in to despair nor surrendered to difficulties. We have already started preparing for [the second-round vote on] May 28. The time has now come to crown the success we achieved on May 14 by securing an even bigger victory," he wrote on his personal Twitter account.
The Turkish leader pointed out that, "the second round will take place on May 28, the day after the 63rd anniversary of the May 27 [1960] coup d'etat." "We are an alliance that prioritizes the national will and a love of serving the country and the nation. The only way that we can repay the debt to our people, who up to the present have been protecting us and who have stood up to the tanks when it became necessary, is simply by continuing to keep our noses to the grindstone and working hard," Erdogan noted.
The May 27, 1960, coup d’etat in Turkey was the first such military coup to occur since the declaration of the Republic of Turkey in 1923. It was carried out by a group of military officers who ousted Prime Minister Adnan Menderes. Back then, Turkey’s government was focused on improving the country’s deteriorating economic situation and resolving acute social and political problems. One of the coup plotters’ claims against Menderes was that he wished to build closer ties with the Soviet Union. Erdogan has repeatedly brought up this chapter in Turkish history in his re-election campaign, highlighting the undemocratic character of the events surrounding the coup, which resulted in Menderes being tried, sentenced to death and hung.
The incumbent Turkish president received 49.51% of the vote in the first round of the presidential election on May 14, while the main opposition leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, garnered 44.88%. Sinan Ogan, who ran under the banner of the ATA Alliance, received 5.17%. A given presidential candidate had to receive more than 50% of all votes to win outright in the first round.