What Happens to İhsanoğlu’s Symbolic Donation

Presidential candidate Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu symbolically donated 1,000 liras each to his opponents. Selahattin Demirtaş and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan responded to this gesture. 

“The other one [Erdoğan] has a lot of it [money]. Feel free to send his share to me as well,” Demirtaş said jokingly. 

Erdoğan, on the other hand, returned the donation through his lawyers. 

Erdoğan’s lawyer Ali Özkaya said the following: “Upon the request of our prime minister, this donation has not been admitted to his presidential campaign and returned to Mr. İhsanoğlu with acknowledgement.” 

While Demirtaş responded his opponent via twitter, Erdoğan didn’t make a statement. 

The incident came into surface when Okan Konuralp from Hürriyet newspaper broke the news. 

It was noted that İhsanoğlu made the symbolic donations in order to wish them “a campaign in gentlemanly manner”. (BK/BM)

* Click here to read the article in Turkish.