ERDOGAN WINS SWEEPING NEW POWERS
BUT WILL DEPEND HEAVILY ON COALITION PARTNER TO GOVERN TURKEY
Recep Tayyip Erdogan owes his nationalist election ally big time for his victory in Turkey’s presidential vote. His reliance on the party, which shares a similar antagonism toward the West, didn’t end with Sunday’s win.
Turkey’s High Electoral Board declared Erdogan, 64, the winner of Sunday’s vote, which ushers in a new executive presidential system in which the prime minister’s post is eliminated and executive powers are transferred to the president, who rules with only limited checks and balances.
However, his AK Parti failed to win a majority in the parliamentary elections that were also held on Sunday, unexpectedly receiving 7% points fewer votes than in the November 2015 balloting. That makes him heavily reliant on his nationalist MHP partner to push through laws.
The alliance will do little to repair the Nato member’s strained ties with Western allies, which have rarely been worse. Both AKP and MHP draw their biggest support from pious Muslims in the Anatolia heartland, and their leaders harbour similar suspicions about the motives of Turkey’s Western allies. The failed coup attempt in 2016, which the government blames on a US-based Turkish cleric, Fethullah Gulen, only cemented their fears that Turkey is under attack from foes within and abroad.
“We got the message that our nation gave to our party at the ballot box,” Erdogan said as he thanked Bahceli and his followers for their support. “These results mean that we will stand firm against anyone who casts an evil eye on our country, from terrorist organizations to global circles of interests.”
Erdogan’s victory means he will remain president at least until 2023 — the centenary of the founding of the Turkish republic on the ashes of the Ottoman Empire by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Erdogan’s foes accuse him of dismantling Ataturk’s secular legacy by bringing religion back into public life.
He responds to such criticism by saying he is trying to modernise Turkey and improve religious freedoms.
Erdogan’s main rival, Muharrem Ince of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), conceded defeat but branded the elections “unjust” and said the presidential system that now takes effect was “very dangerous” because it would lead to one-man rule.
“There are no significant differences between our records and the Supreme Election Council’s records,” Ince told reporters. “I accept the results of the elections.”
The former physics teacher, who led a robust campaign against Erdogan, called on him to end his divisive policies.
“Be the president of 81 million (Turks), embrace everyone,” he said. “That’s what I would have done if I had won.”
A leading European rights watchdog that sent observers to monitor the voting also said the opposition had faced “unequal conditions” and that limits on the freedom of media to cover the elections were further hindered by a continuing state of emergency imposed in Turkey after a failed 2016 coup.