President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan held a press conference at the Presidential Complex following his meeting with Chairman of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Devlet Bahçeli.

Underscoring that despite the deficiencies of the current system, they always preferred to hold on until the elections in November 2019 as per their promise to the nation, President Erdoğan said: "However, both our cross-border operations in Syria and the incidents of historic importance centering around Syria and Iraq have necessitated Turkiye to overcome uncertainties without delay. The transition into the new system of governance has begun to grow more and more urgent in order for new decisions concerning our country’s future to be taken and executed in a stronger manner. We have taken into consideration these facts while thoroughly discussing the call made yesterday by Mr. Bahçeli. And we, in the end, have reached an agreement on welcoming the snap election proposal given the picture our country is faced with."

"In a period of accelerating developments in Syria, and during which we need to make critical decisions in all areas from macroeconomic balances to great investments, we must remove the topic of elections from our country’s agenda as soon as possible,” President Erdoğan said.

"We decided to hold the elections on June 24, 2018. I hope this decision will yield beneficial results for our country and nation," President Erdoğan announced. (ILKHA)