Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan alleged at a rally last week that “Jewish capital” was behind the 'New York Times', which had criticized his leadership of the country ahead of yesterday's parliamentary elections, in which Erdogan's AKP party failed to win an overall election.
Erdogan on Saturday told a rally in the eastern province of Ardahan that the 'New York Times' had taken a consistent stand against Turkey’s leaders since the waning days of the Ottoman Empire. He said the paper's criticism of Turkey went back to Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid II. "Now, they are spitting out the same hatred on me... It's clear who their patrons are. There is Jewish capital behind it, unfortunately."
The New York Times had earlier this week hit back at Erdogan's attacks with a tweet satirising his vast new presidential palace in Ankara. "Which leader has a 1,150-room palace more than 30x the size of the White House?" the paper had tweeted.
The Turkish president, who from 2002 until last year served as Turkish prime minister, has repeatedly made headlines with comments that are criticial of Israel and of Jews.
In his campaign speech on Saturday, Erdogan also took offense at an article in the British newspaper 'The Guardian' which was critical of his rule. "Do you know what a British newspaper says about this election?" Erdogan told the crowd. "It says the not fully-westernized, poor Muslims are not being allowed to manage their own country! Who are you? You are impertinent!" he lashed out against the newspaper. "Know your limits! Since when were you given such authority?"
AKP loses overall majority in elections
The AKP leadership on Monday met to discuss the formation of a new government after losing its overall majority in parliament for the first time in 13 years. Erdogan's party secured 41 percent of the vote, a sharp drop from 2011, and must form a coalition or face entering a minority government.
Erdogan called on all parties to "preserve the atmosphere of stability" in Turkey. "I believe the results, which do not give the opportunity to any party to form a single-party government, will be assessed healthily and realistically by every party," the president said.
