Erdogan after crushing secularist challenger
It’s business as usual for man who has never lost at the polls
ballot papers. Supporters of Mr Erdogan and his Islam-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) say he has brought prosperity and stability. But critics accuse him of authoritarianism. He has put some 160,000 people in jail in a purge since the failed 2016 coup.
In parliamentary elections the AKP won 42.5 per cent but was expected to retain control with ally the Nationalist People’s Party. The CHP was on 23 per cent and the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party — whose presidential candidate Selahattin Demirtaş campaigned from jail — got 12 per cent. His bodyguards handed out presents to the crowds — toy cars for the boys, Anna and Elsa dolls from the film Frozen for the girls. When even the machine of state is doing your campaigning for you, the opposition never stood a chance.
And yet it had seemed so promising for them. Just 24 hours earlier a million people turned out for a rally on the water’s edge to hear Erdogan’s main challenger speak.
They filled the park, stopped the traffic and roared their support but it wasn’t to be. Muharrem Ince was the former physics teacher hoping to rewrite history. Not this time.
Despite Ince’s momentum, in the end the maths predictably worked in Erdogan’s favour. He might have purged his critics, locked up thousands of opponents and curbed a free press, but Erdogan is also undoubtedly popular here and many trust him as a leader of stability. With new executive powers, he will be able to put his people into all the top jobs across Turkish society — his grip on power is tightening.
Erdogan’s Turkey is facing immense challenges though — unemployment is around 10 per cent, inflation is in double figures, the violent conflict with the Kurds drifts on and relations with Nato allies, especially the US, aren’t good.
From my hotel window I can look down on the Bosphorus as it cuts between east and west. It’s early morning now and life is much quieter after the noise of celebration last night.
A container ship sails through to the Black Sea, a few cars speed across the bridges that bring the two continents together in this great city — Turkey today is a divided country, geographically and politically.
⬤ Alistair Bunkall is Defence and Security Correspondent for Sky News