Turkish presidential candidate, the main rival of Recep Tayyip Erdogan from the united opposition, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu accused Russia of interfering in the upcoming elections. He wrote a post about it on Twitter in Russian.
“Dear Russian friends, you are behind the montages, conspiracies, Deep Fake content and recordings that were exposed yesterday in this country. If you want to continue our friendship after May 15, keep your hands off the Turkish state. We continue to stand for cooperation and friendship,” he wrote.
On May 7, Turkish President Erdogan showed his supporters a video in which Kılıçdaroğlu encourages viewers to vote. A few seconds later, Murat Karayila, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, which is recognized as terrorist in the country, appears on the video.
On May 8, Deutsche Welle journalists found out that this video was edited from two different parts to accuse the head of the CHP in connection with Kurdish militants.
The Kılıçdaroğlu post was published after another candidate, Muharrem Ince, withdrew from the election. He explained that he was withdrawing his candidacy because of a fake photo of a sexual nature, and said that he had been slandered and harassed for a month and a half.
“Fake accounts, fake videos, photos… they took a video from an Israeli porn site and put my face on it. Unfortunately, some in Turkey have shared them for the sake of being in the so-called opposition,” he said. According to polls, Inche's rating is about 2%.