President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his supporters have celebrated an election victory and extended rule into a third decade, while the Turkish opposition, once optimistic about victory, is preparing for “difficult days” against an increasingly autocratic government.
His opponent, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, said it was the “most unfair election in recent years” but did not dispute the outcome, which gave Erdogan a mandate to pursue policies that have polarized Turkey and strengthened its position as a regional military power.
The election was Erdogan’s biggest political challenge, with the opposition confident of ousting him and changing his policies after polls showed the rising cost of living crisis had left him vulnerable. But he won with 52.2 percent of the vote against Kilicdaroglu’s 47.8 percent.
The image of invincibility
This strengthened his image of invincibility in the deeply divided NATO member country, whose foreign, economic, security and foreign policy Erdogan changed. The pro-government media are cheering his victory.
“The man of the people has won,” reads the headline in the Sabah newspaper. “We opened the door to the Turkish age,” added the newspaper.
“Victory is Erdogan’s again, the winner is Turkey,” writes Hurriyet daily with a photo of a crowd of people who gathered overnight in front of the presidential palace in the capital Ankara to hear his triumphant speech.
“The winner is our democracy,” Erdogan told the crowd. “Now is the time to put aside the disputes and conflicts of the election period and unite around our national goals,” he added.
The Turkish lira has fallen to a record low against the dollar (20,065 to 1), losing 90 percent of its value in the past decade. The recent decline in values has fueled uncertainty about what Erdogan’s victory could mean for economic policy.
Critics have blamed his unorthodox economic policy of low interest rates, which the opposition has promised to reverse, for the currency’s woes. Erdogan said inflation, which hit a 24-year high of 85 percent last year before easing, was an issue that urgently needed to be addressed.
Although he called for unity, Erdogan kept the main theme of his campaign, accusing Kilicdaroglu and the opposition of siding with terrorists. The main pro-Kurdish party, the third largest in parliament, was among the opposition parties and has been accused of links to Kurdish militants, which it denies.
“Difficult days are ahead for the opposition,” said Atilla Yesilada, an analyst at GlobalSource Partners, predicting more court decisions against the Kurdish party and adding that it is not yet clear whether the opposition alliance will remain intact.
Biden’s message
Kilicdaroglu’s defeat is likely to be a cause for concern among Turkey’s NATO allies, who are uneasy about Erdogan’s ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Russian leader congratulated his “dear friend” on his victory.
US President Joe Biden wrote on Twitter:
“I look forward to continued cooperation as NATO allies on bilateral issues and shared global challenges.” US-Turkey relations have been strained by Erdogan’s opposition to Sweden’s NATO accession, Ankara’s close relationship with Moscow and differing views on the war in Syria.
Erdogan’s victory extends his tenure as the longest-serving leader since Mustafa Kemal Ataturk established modern Turkey after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire a century ago.
The result proved wrong the critics who claimed that the voters would punish Erdogan for the authorities’ initially slow response to the consequences of the earthquake, which killed more than 50 thousand people in February. After the first round of elections on May 14, when parliamentary elections were also held, Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) won 10 of the 11 provinces affected by the earthquake.
