Erdogan’s win brings vastly larger powers
ANKARA, Turkey — The nation’s voters gave President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a decisive victory in national elections Sunday, lengthening his 15-year grip on power and granting him vastly expanded authority over the legislature and judiciary.
The election was the first to be held since Turkish voters narrowly approved a referendum last year to give the president — once a largely ceremonial role — sweeping executive powers. Erdogan will also have a pliant Parliament, with his conservative party and its allies having won about 53 percent of the vote in legislative elections Sunday.
Erdogan has overseen a crackdown on lawyers, judges, civil servants and journalists under a state of emergency declared after a failed coup two years ago. His critics had portrayed Sunday’s election as their last chance to prevent Turkey from becoming an authoritarian state.
The victory has potentially grave consequences for cooperation within NATO, security in Iraq and Syria, and control of immigration flows into Europe.
Turkey has continued to cooperate with its Western partners on counterterrorism efforts, but Erdogan has tested the NATO alliance by drawing closer to President Vladimir Putin of Russia, buying an advanced Russian missile defense system and planning a Russian-built nuclear reactor in Turkey.
As in other countries where strongmen have gained at the ballot box, many Turkish voters appeared to have accepted Erdogan’s argument that strong centralized authority was essential to forge a strong state and guard against the threat of terrorism.
The results released by the official Anadolu news agency showed Erdogan with just under 53 percent of the vote, enough to spare him from a runoff against his leading rival, Muharrem Ince, who won nearly 31 percent.
“It seems the nation has entrusted me with the duty of the presidency, and to us a very big responsibility in the legislature,” Erdogan said. “Turkey has given a lesson of democracy with a turnout of close to 90 percent.”
Opposition parties initially called his claim of victory premature, but after midnight, Bulent Tezcan, vice chairman of Ince’s party, the Republican People’s Party, conceded defeat in a brief televised speech.
“Our citizens should not be provoked, whatever the result is,” he said, urging his supporters to continue their campaign for democracy through peaceful means.