A student living in a student dormitory in Ankara that was visited by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for a pre-dawn meal, or sahoor, in the early hours of Friday has claimed that although the visit was presented as spontaneous, it was in fact planned.
Erdoğan visited the state-run Hüseyin Gazi Student Dormitory in the Altındağ neighborhood of Ankara after one of the students, Güngör Atak, wrote to him from his Twitter account, saying, “Mr President, we would be very pleased if we can host you one night at our Hüseyin Gazi Dormitory and have sahoor together?”
Sahoor is the meal consumed early in the morning by Muslims before fasting during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, which is currently being observed by Muslims around the world.
“If the tea is ready, I am coming,” Erdoğan tweeted in response to the student’s invitation.
However, another student staying in the same dormitory later wrote from the popular online platform ekşisözlük that preparations at the dormitory for Erdoğan’s visit began at 10 p.m. although Atak conveyed his invitation at 1 a.m.
The student wrote that cigarette butts were removed, the terrace was cleaned and the cutlery was put on the tables, adding that Erdoğan’s visit was expected and had nothing to do with the student’s invitation from Twitter.
The student writing on ekşisözlük also shared a video he shot while Erdoğan was in the cafeteria chatting with students.
Turkey will hold snap parliamentary and presidential elections on June 24.
Erdoğan is the presidential candidate of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
When elections are approaching, it is usual for Erdoğan to make such “unplanned” visits to the ordinary people, with many seeing them as an effort by Erdoğan to show himself as a modest politician who mingles with the people.