President Erdogan unveils his country’s first aircraft carrier in the run-up to Turkey’s elections. However, experts see it differently.
Istanbul – Turkey presented its own aircraft carrier a few weeks before the elections. Both drones and heavy helicopters could take off and land on the TCG Anadolu warship, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday (April 10) at a ceremony in Istanbul’s Tuzla district. “Our ship is equipped to carry out military and humanitarian operations in any part of the world if necessary.”
Spectacle ahead of Turkey’s elections: Erdogan hopes for votes from the nationalist electorate
Turkey is currently in the election campaign. Parliamentary and presidential elections will take place on May 14th. Erdogan is also hoping for votes from the nationalist electorate. In recent years, Turkey has pursued a sometimes aggressive foreign policy under Erdogan. It is involved in several conflicts in the region, including in civil war-torn Syria.
Relations with neighboring Greece are also difficult, partly because of a dispute over sovereign rights and natural gas deposits in the eastern Mediterranean. Erdogan has repeatedly threatened to fire rockets at Athens. In addition, the Turkish head of state had warned his neighbors against an invasion. After the earthquake disaster in Turkey in February, however, relations between the two NATO partners have eased somewhat.
Türkiye election: Prestige project should help Erdogan to victory
According to the Ministry of Defense, the ship is 230 meters long and 32 meters wide. Experts, on the other hand, see the warship as a prestige project that should help Erdogan to win the upcoming Turkish elections. “The TCG Anadolu is not an aircraft carrier, but a landing ship with a flight platform,” writes former commodore in the Turkish Navy, Türker Ertürk, on Twitter.
“Even the ship number starts with “L”. In other words, the first letter of the English word Landing means landing ship. They call it an aircraft carrier to fool you. They delivered it in a hurry before the election. Without even having tested it,” said the former naval officer. It remains to be seen whether this prestige project will actually help Erdogan win on May 14. In a recent survey by the opinion research institute “Metropoll”, challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu (42.6 percent) is ahead of incumbent Erdogan (41.1 percent). (EP/dpa)