Turkey held its most important and close election on Sunday (14) since Recep Erdogan came to power 20 years ago. Until mid-morning on Monday (15th local time), there was no consolidated result, but the indication was that the dispute would go to the second round, with a date reserved for May 28th.
Current president, Erdogan had 49.35% of the votes against 44.98% of Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the Republican People’s Party, the CHP, with 97.87% of the votes counted, according to information from the state agency Anadolu.
The CHP accused the agency of not publishing reliable data, but a Turkish electoral authority bulletin, released when 92% of votes had been counted, showed similar percentages.
Kilicdaroglu accused Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) of delaying the count by demanding recounts, especially in opposition strongholds such as the country’s capital Ankara and Istanbul.
“It is a serious matter. Let the votes come and the result be known as soon as possible. The country can no longer tolerate uncertainty. Do not be afraid of the will of the nation,” said the opposition leader.
The current president, in turn, declared in Ankara that he still believed in a victory in the first round. “We believe that we will end this vote with more than 50% of the vote,” Erdogan said.
opposition leader
Kilicdaroglu, a parliamentarian in the Turkish National Assembly since 2002, managed to articulate a broad alliance of opposition parties, but was never elected to an executive post. He was vice-president of the Socialist International between 2012 and 2014.
Kilicdaroglu promised during his campaign that, if elected, he would promote a political opening in Turkey after 20 years of Erdogan rule.
“We will satisfy people’s longing for democracy. This is the biggest change and it will not only be seen here in Turkey but across the world. We are going to bring true democracy to this country,” she said, in an interview with DW.
He also promised greater rapprochement with the West. “We are members of NATO. We are also a country that has applied to join the European Union”, said the opposition candidate, who also mentioned relations with Russia, from whom Turkey bought weapons before the war in Ukraine.
“Of course we would like to have good relations with Russia. We have many businessmen working there. But we don’t think Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is right and we don’t accept that,” Kilicdaroglu pointed out.
Ahead of Sunday’s vote, Kilicdaroglu accused Russia of interfering in the Turkish election, and Erdogan claimed the opposition was working with US President Joe Biden to overthrow him.
Two decades dominance
Erdogan has ruled Turkey since 2003, first as prime minister (2003-2014) and then as president. Leader of the AKP, he promoted a rapprochement between religion and the State (as opposed to the secularism advocated by the CHP) and a democratic deterioration in Turkey, with an increase in arrests, authoritarianism and censorship.
In addition to his authoritarian stance, the popularity of Erdogan, who had won the 2018 presidential election in the first round, has eroded for other reasons.
After the earthquake in February this year in the country and in Syria, which killed almost 51,000 people in Turkey alone, his government was criticized for having, in 2018, applied an amnesty for irregular works (the fragility of Turkish constructions amplified the lethality of the earthquake this year, according to specialists) and the limp emergency response after the earthquake.
Another reason for its declining popularity was inflation, which reached 85% in October, the highest year-on-year level in 25 years. Erdogan has been heavily criticized for his interference with the Turkish central bank to cut interest rates. Inflation decreased in the following months, but remains high: the interannual index was 44% in April.
In foreign policy, Turkey distanced itself from Europe and began to focus on the East, including an intervention in the civil war in Syria, military operations in Iraq and support for Azerbaijan in the conflict with Armenia.
Erdogan caused international embarrassment when he announced that he would deny Sweden and Finland’s applications to join NATO, submitted after Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year. The Turkish endorsement is necessary because the western military alliance only accepts new members if there is unanimity among the countries that are already part of it.
The Turkish president claimed that the two Nordic countries have not heeded requests to extradite people Ankara considers terrorists, especially Kurds, and called on both to lift the arms embargo they had imposed on Turkey in 2019 following the Turkish incursion into northern Syria ( claim that has been met).
In April, Finland joined NATO, but Ankara remains opposed to Sweden’s entry because it claims that Stockholm has not yet met all Turkish security demands.
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