In his first campaign rally, Turkish PM Erdoğan vows to be an active president

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has vowed to remain active if he is elected president.

"I'm not leaving you. I'm not pausing to serve. I'm not going to rest. In contrary, I'm nominated to a higher post to serve you, my country and my nation, better," Erdoğan said during his first presidential campaign rally in the Black Sea city of Samsun on July 5. 

Presidential elections are scheduled for August 10. If none of the candidates can get 50 percent plus one vote, only the two at the top will be trying their best to win the majority in the second round, on Aug. 24.

The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) had officially announced Ekmeleddin Ä°hsanoğlu, a former secretary-general of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), as their joint presidential candidate on June 16. 

Kurdish problem-focused the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), on the other hand, had nominated its co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş as its presidential candidate on July 1.

"We sided with the nation. The CHP, MHP and HDP sided with the state. This is our difference," Erdoğan said in Samsun, while stressing the symbolism of the city in which Mustafa Kemal Atatürk started Turkey's independence war in 1919.

"I kindly ask you to visit the ballot box and vote on August 10. If there is somebody you know having a vacation, find and tell that they must come to vote," Turkish PM also said.

The participation rate is seen as key for presidential elections. CHP chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu had claimed that İhsanoğlu will win the polls if his party and the MHP can get all their constituents to the ballot box.

Turkey’s ruling Justice...