2023-05-13 20:04:00
The Green MP was turned away at Istanbul airport by the Turkish authorities, while she was traveling to the country for the elections.
By MR with AFP
© JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP
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LGreen MP Sandra Regol said she was turned back at Istanbul airport on her way to Turkey for Sunday’s elections. The elected representative of Bas-Rhin had been invited by the pro-Kurdish left party HDP. Faced with the refusal of the authorities to let her enter the territory, Sandra Regol castigated a “grotesque situation”.
“I have been notified of a ban on access to the territory. Kept overnight on site, I was sent back by the first plane this morning, 14 hours later, ”she explained on Twitter. The MP claims to have had “no information on this ban, any more than the French authorities who discovered it at the same time” and “sought all evening for a diplomatic solution”.
READ ALSOElections in Türkiye: the West holds its breathShe is concerned about this “permanent” access ban which was notified to her “orally”. “Nobody was able to give me an explanation”, she adds, assuring that she had “never been arrested, never been accused, never been prosecuted by the Turkish authorities”.
An electoral challenge for Erdogan
Sandra Regol had already been to Turkey for the elections five years ago and “there had been no problem”, she assures us. Already on Monday, the OSCE parliamentary assembly had denounced Turkey’s refusal to accredit two Scandinavian deputies who were to come and observe the presidential election to be held on Sunday.
READ ALSOElections in Turkey: “Since 2017, the institutions are no longer democratic”The ballot promises to be particularly tight. The opposition candidate, Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, represents the most difficult electoral challenge for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan since he came to power in 2002. In 2018, Ankara had already blocked the way to two parliamentarians, a German and a Swede.
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