World Bulletin / News Desk

Turkish opposition presidential candidate Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, the main rival to presidential favorite Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has stirred controversy ahead of the August 10 elections after posing with a magazine which many non-Turks in the country consider an 'utlra-nationalist' publication.

Former Organization of Islamic Cooperation chief, now the joint candidate of Turkey's two main opposition parties - Republican People's Party (CHP) and National Movement Party (MHP) - was seen posing with the Turksolu magazine which featured him on the front cover during a campaign tour of Istanbul on Sunday.

The magazine had previously called for birth control for Turkey's Kurdish population and to not trade with them. In the past, the magazine had also publish offensive articles about the Alevi community and the Dersim massacre. It had also called for a military coup against the government.

Turksolu magazine articles editor Ozgur Erdem, who gifted Ihsanoglu with a copy of the magazine, shared the photopraphs on his Twitter page.

Earlier in the day, Ihsanoglu said to CNNTurk that should he be elected president, he would make surethat Turkey remained neutral in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Saying that Turkey would not be helping the peace process by picking sides, he urged Turkey to take a mediator role and to have good relations with all nations in the Middle-East.