The image puzzled as much as she questioned. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, re-elected Sunday with more than 52% of the vote for a new 5-year term at the head of the country, was seen at the exit of his polling station distributing notes of 200 pounds (9.29 euros) to residents present at the vicinity of the place.
This practice contrasts with the modalities known in France, where this practice could be akin to corruption and where candidates for elections are subject to a reserve period within 48 hours before the election and can only speak publicly after the polls close. However, in Turkey, there is nothing illegal about it.
President Tayyip Erdogan was seen handing out small amounts of cash to supporters, something that has become a tradition for him, after casting his vote in a runoff election as he seeks a third term https://t.co/DM7VCR8xW5 pic.twitter.com/SztpkeQ3Qh
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 28, 2023
To understand how this is possible, one must first watch the video in detail. If the crowd seems to be massed around the Turkish president, there are above all little girls in the front row. And it is to them that Recep Tayyip Erdogan distributes tickets, not to adults, whose hands he is content to shake. He had already done the same thing on the occasion of the first round of the Turkish presidential election on May 14, as relayed by our colleagues from Liberation.
For adults, chess and Internet data
And again, no scandal: it is a common and widely accepted practice in Turkey that consists of "giving pocket money to the youngest on the occasion of holidays and important occasions," explains to the Parisian journalist Ragıp Soylu, head of the Turkish bureau of the independent website Middle East Eye. "Recep Tayyip Erdogan has simply gotten into the habit of doing it wherever he goes."
According to him, if Kemal Kiliçdaroglu did the same, it would not give rise to a scandal in the country either. "Some might criticize him because he represents a more modern face of politics, whereas Erdogan is more traditional," he acknowledges, but this remains within a commonly accepted tradition. Indeed, there is no law prohibiting this type of practice in Turkey and even for Erdogan's opponents, it is not considered corruption, Soylu said.
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Images that therefore challenge from the French point of view, but which have nothing abnormal on the Turkish side. Adults do not receive money, as can be seen in the videos: "Erdogan could give money to adults if they asked for it, but there would have to be a valid reason. In general, when he receives such requests, he asks his advisers to take charge of the problem of the person concerned, "summarizes the Turkish journalist.
Instead, the Turkish president and his government resort to gifts to locals, such as "tea or chess." Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu, for example, "offered up to 12 gigabytes of free internet data to anyone who wanted it," says Ragıp Soylu.
