Turkey’s Erdogan celebrates election triumph, extending 20-year rule
President Tayyip Erdogan and his supporters yesterday celebrated an election win extending his rule into a third decade while Turkey’s opposition, once optimistic of winning, braced for “difficult days” against an increasingly autocratic government.
His opponent, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, said it was the most unfair election in years but did not dispute the outcome, which gave Erdogan a mandate to pursue policies that have polarised Turkey and strengthened its position as a regional military power.
The election had been seen as Erdogan’s biggest political challenge, with the opposition confident of unseating him and reversing his policies after polls showed a cost-of-living crisis left him vulnerable.
But he prevailed with 52.2% of the vote, to Kilicdaroglu’s 47.8%.
It reinforced his image of invincibility in the deeply divided Nato-member country, whose economic, security and foreign policy he has redrawn.
Pro-government newspapers, part of an overwhelmingly pro-Erdogan media landscape that supported his election campaign in the nation of 85-million people, cheered his victory.
“The man of the people won,” the Sabah newspaper headline said.
“We opened the door to the Turkish century.”
“Victory is Erdogan’s again, the winner is Turkey,” the Hurriyet daily said alongside a photo of the huge crowd which gathered outside the presidential palace in the capital Ankara overnight to hear his triumphant speech.
“The winner is our democracy,” Erdogan told the crowd.
“Now is the time to put the disputes and conflicts of the election period to one side and unite around our national goals.”
The lira slipped to a record low of 20.065 against the dollar. It has lost 90% of its value in the last decade, buffeted by rampant inflation.
Its most recent losses were driven by uncertainty about what an Erdogan win would mean for economic policy.
Critics have blamed his unorthodox, low-interest-rate economic policy, which the opposition had pledged to reverse, for the currency’s woes.
Erdogan said inflation, which hit a 24-year peak of 85% last year before easing, was Turkey’s most urgent issue.
The prospect of five more years of Erdogan rule was a harsh blow to an opposition which accused him of undermining democracy as he amassed ever more power — a charge he denies.
Though he called for unity, Erdogan accused Kilicdaroglu and the opposition of siding with terrorists.
Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish party, parliament’s third largest, was among opposition parties opposed to Erdogan and is accused of links to Kurdish militants, which it denies.
“For the opposition, very difficult days are ahead,” Atilla Yesilada, analyst at GlobalSource Partners, said, forecasting more judicial moves against the Kurdish party and saying it was not clear whether the opposition alliance would hold.
Kilicdaroglu’s defeat will likely be a cause for concern among Turkey’s Nato allies which have been alarmed by Erdogan’s ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who congratulated his “dear friend” on his victory.
US President Joe Biden wrote on Twitter: “I look forward to continuing to work together as Nato allies on bilateral issues and shared global challenges.”
US relations with Turkey have been impeded by Erdogan’s objection to Sweden joining Nato as well as Ankara’s close relationship with Moscow and differences over Syria.