Erdogan preaches unity after win
Russia’s Vladimir Putin said the outcome showed support for Erdogan’s 'efforts to strengthen state sovereignty and pursue an independent foreign policy'
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won a historic runoff election Monday, extending his two-decade rule until 2028.
The 69-year-old Erdogan defeated secular opposition challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu by four percentage points, according to near-complete results.
Erdogan appealed for national unity after his victory, saying: “We should come together in unity and solidarity. We call for this with all our heart.”
Streets erupted in car-honking jubilation and tributes poured in from across the world as Turkey’s most important leader in modern history led a sea of supporters in a celebratory song outside his presidential palace in Ankara.
“I look forward to continuing to work together as NATO Allies on bilateral issues and shared global challenges,” US President Joe Biden tweeted as Erdogan spoke.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said through a spokesperson that he “looks forward to further strengthening the cooperation between Turkey and the United Nations.”
Russia’s Vladimir Putin said the outcome showed support for Erdogan’s “efforts to strengthen state sovereignty and pursue an independent foreign policy.”
Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky said he wanted to keep working with Erdogan “for the security and stability of Europe.”
Leaders across Europe and the Arab world also sent their congratulations, as did former US President Donald Trump.
Turkey’s longest-serving leader was tested like never before in what was widely seen as the country’s most consequential election in its 100-year history as a post-Ottoman republic.
Kilicdaroglu pushed Erdogan into Turkey’s first runoff on 14 May and narrowed the margin further in the second round.
Opposition supporters viewed it as a do-or-die chance to save Turkey from being turned into an autocracy by a man whose consolidation of power rivals that of Ottoman sultans.
Kilicdaroglu’s brief concession statement expressed “real sadness about the big difficulties awaiting the country” with Erdogan.
The opposition leader had re-emerged as a transformed man after the first round.
The 74-year-old former civil servant’s message of social unity and freedoms gave way to desk-thumping speeches about the need to immediately expel migrants and fight terrorism.
Erdogan is lionized by poorer and more rural swathes of Turkey’s fractured society because of his promotion of religious freedoms and modernization of once-dilapidated cities in the Anatolian heartland.
But he has caused growing consternation across the Western world because of his crackdowns on dissent and pursuit of a muscular foreign policy.
He launched military incursions into Syria that infuriated European powers and put Turkish soldiers on the opposite side of Kurdish forces supported by the United States.
His personal relationship with Putin has also survived the Kremlin’s war on Ukraine.
Turkey’s troubled economy is benefiting from a crucial deferment of payment on Russian energy imports that helped Erdogan spend lavishly on campaign pledges this year.
Erdogan also delayed Finland’s membership in NATO and is still refusing to let Sweden join the US-led defense bloc.