Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan allegedly sent the chief of general staff Hulusi Akar and presidential spokesperson İbrahim Kalın to Abdullah Gül to dissuade him from running for the presidency, Habertürk daily reported on April 27.
Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the leader of the main parliamentary opposition party CHP, said "The news is true and yet the reporters cannot write about it. An editor in chief reported it and got fired from his job. Reporters should not forget about this dramatic event. No one can send the presidential spokesperson and the chief of general staff to Abdullah Gül while presidential candidates are being discussed." He added "They haven't made any solid statement about this visit. They say 'We sent them to discuss the issue of Syria.' Then, why do you send the presidential spokesperson? Don't we have a minister of the exterior?"
The newspaper removed the news from the website and deleted social media shares of the news. While Barış Erkaya, the editor in chief of Habertürk daily, was dismissed from his duties right after he published the news in question, Erkaya made a statement from his social media account that he resigned from his job "for personal reasons".
Abdullah Gül's name was among those to run as the joint candidate for presidential elections against Erdoğan. On April 28, Gül announced would not be running in the elections since there had been no "widespread agreement and desire" about his candidacy. Abdullah Gül was a founding member of the ruling AKP party and he served as the 11thTurkish President from 2007 to 2014.
