The upcoming air shows of a group of Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) pilots have been cancelled allegedly due to photos showing them shaking hands with main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) presidential candidate Muharrem İnce at an airport.
İnce greeted the pilots of the SoloTürk airshows and shook hands with them at Samsun Airport on May 19 as he was returning from Youth and Sports Day celebrations in the Black Sea province.
CHP deputy Barış Yarkadaş tweeted on Friday that the upcoming air shows of the SoloTürk pilots were cancelled because of their encounter with İnce.
“This is called fear,” Yarkadaş said.
In a similar development the dean of İstanbul University’s Cerrahpaşa Faculty of Medicine, Professor Alaattin Duman, was removed from his post several hours after İnce paid a visit to the campus on Thursday.
In the meantime, the TSK released a statement on Friday denying the claims and saying that the air shows had been cancelled on May 12.
Turkey will hold snap presidential and general elections on June 24. The ruling Justice and Development Party’s presidential candidate is its leader and incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Erdoğan has attracted widespread criticism for using state resources for his presidential campaign while leaving no room for the candidates of the opposition to run their campaigns freely.