Victory in the Run-off: Erdogan Calls for a “Century of …

The challenger Kilicdaroglu cannot end the 20-year rule of the head of state – many Kurds in particular do not trust him. Erdogan faces another five-year term – and is already starting his next election campaign.

Nothing loves Recep Tayyip Erdogan more than election campaigns. His victory in the Turkish presidential election run-off was barely confirmed on Sunday night when the 69-year-old began campaigning for next year’s local elections, in which he wants to reclaim Istanbul for his Justice and Development Party. In his victory speech to tens of thousands of supporters at the presidential palace in Ankara, he said he wanted to be president for all Turks, but berated the opposition as complicit with terrorists. He accused German, British and French magazines of trying to overthrow him: “They lost too.”

Erdogan said in Ankara that there is no problem that Turkey cannot solve. He promised the rapid reconstruction of the earthquake zone in the southeast of the country and help the people mitigate the effects of high inflation. With Sunday’s election, voters heralded “Türkiye’s century.” In his first speech in Istanbul after the election, he got his supporters in the mood for local elections in the spring, in which he wants to take back the Bosphorus city for his AKP: “We have 2024 ahead of us,” he said. “With you we go to new victories.”

The president has been in power for 20 years and shaped the republic founded a hundred years ago more than any Turkish politician before him. After his victory on Sunday he will be able to rule until 2028; He has already discussed a constitutional amendment that would allow him to serve another term after that. In any case, he is not thinking of quitting: “We will be together until the grave,” he said in Istanbul.

According to the provisional final result of the Ankara Electoral Commission, Erdogan won 52.1 percent over his rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who received 47.9 percent. Thus, Erdogan failed to achieve his result in the last elections in 2018, when he received 52.6 percent in Turkey’s first run-off for the presidency. Voter turnout was 85.7 percent, down from 88.8 percent in the first round of voting on May 14. Erdogan’s strongholds were in central and northern Anatolia and in Turkey’s southeastern earthquake zone. Kılıçdaroğlu won in large cities such as Istanbul and Ankara, on the Aegean coast and in the Kurdish region.

Most Austrian Turks vote for Erdogan

Erdogan also scored a clear victory in Austria – after more than 91 percent of the ballot boxes were counted, 73.88 percent of Turks abroad in Austria voted for the incumbent, and 26.12 percent voted for his rival, Kemal Kilicdaroglu. However, these votes did not change anything in the outcome of the elections: the gap between Erdoğan and Kilicdaroglu was about 2.2 million votes.

However, according to election observers, the elections took place with “undue advantages” for Erdogan. The monitoring mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Council of Europe said in Ankara on Monday that media bias and restrictions on freedom of expression have led to uneven competitive conditions. According to observers, Erdogan used the official missions of the election campaign. “This, together with the continued use of public funds for campaign purposes, gave the incumbent an undue advantage.” Supporters of some opposition parties continue to face intimidation and harassment. The run-off elections also took place in an environment that “does not, in many respects, provide the conditions for democratic elections.”

Kilicdaroglu: “The most unfair election” in Turkish history