Erdogan Calls for Unity and Setting Aside Differences in His Victory Speech

Turkish President-elect Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced today (Sunday) that he won the second round of the presidential elections in Turkey, to continue his two-decade rule.

“Our nation has entrusted us with the responsibility of ruling the country for the next five years,” he said from the roof of a bus parked in front of his residence in Istanbul, amid a crowd of his supporters. He added, “We will fulfill all the promises we made to the people,” stressing that “every electoral process is a renaissance.”

He continued, “These elections showed that no one can attack the gains of this nation.”

Erdogan delivered his “victory” speech at the presidential palace in the capital, Ankara, in front of more than 300,000 of his supporters.

And he continued, saying: “No one lost today more than 85 million Turks. One of the most important requirements of the responsibility that our people assigned to us is not to be angry with anyone.”

With regard to the Syrian refugees, Erdogan said that his country will ensure a “safe and voluntary” return for them to their country.

He added, “Through a new project that we are implementing with Qatar, we will ensure the return of an additional one million Syrian refugees within a few years.”

The Turkish president said that confronting inflation is “our priority, and it is not a difficult matter,” stressing that the coming period will witness a reduction in inflation rates.

He also stressed the importance of security and stability for the economy.

Earlier today, Erdogan expressed his thanks to those who voted for him in the run-off.

“I thank those who once again transferred to us the responsibility of ruling Turkey for the next five years,” Erdogan said, addressing crowds of his supporters outside his home in Istanbul.

Erdogan added, “We completed the second round of the elections by winning thanks to the support of our people,” stressing that “the victor today is only Turkey.”

The Turkish president made it clear that his party will work a lot from now on to win the municipal elections scheduled for 2024.

Thousands of Erdogan supporters took to the streets in several states of the country to celebrate his victory.

Earlier today, the head of the Turkish Elections Authority said that the authority did not record any negative events during the voting process.

More than 64 million citizens inside and outside Turkey enjoy the right to vote in the presidential elections. The official Anadolu News Agency stated that Erdogan, 69, won 52.1 percent of the vote, compared to 47.9 percent for his opponent, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, 74, after counting about 99 percent. of ballots. Erdogan’s supporters came out to celebrate in Turkey’s main cities.

Traffic came to a halt in Istanbul’s famous Taksim Square, and large crowds gathered outside the presidential palace in Ankara.

For his part, opposition leader Kilicdaroglu announced that he would make a statement later today.

Turkey’s longest-serving leader has been put to an unprecedented test, and this election is widely seen as the most important in the republic’s history since it was proclaimed a century ago.

Kilicdaroglu formed a powerful alliance of former Erdogan allies, secular nationalists, and conservatives.

On May 14, he succeeded in reaching the second round for the first time in the history of the presidential elections in Turkey, and narrowed the margin further in the second round.

However, neither the desire for change and openness on the part of a part of the electorate, nor the sharp inflation, nor the restrictions imposed on freedoms and excessive presidential powers, succeeded in changing the political landscape.

failed maneuver

The repercussions of the devastating earthquake in February, which killed at least 50,000 people and displaced 3 million people, also did not contribute to the decline in the popularity of “President” Erdogan, who issued the election results in the affected provinces, which he pledged to rebuild quickly.

Erdogan’s conservative Islamist Justice and Development Party lost seats in parliament, but retained the majority with its allies.

For his part, Kemal Kilicdaroglu suffered defeat despite his attempt to attract more voters in his campaign for the second round of elections.

The former government employee changed his focus from talking about social unity and freedoms to talking more about the need to get immigrants out of the country and combat terrorism.

By doing so, he aimed to polarize the nationalist right-wing voters who had made gains in the parliamentary elections.

But analysts have questioned the success of Kilicdaroglu’s gambit, as his informal alliance with a pro-Kurdish party that Erdogan portrays as a wing of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has left him vulnerable to accusations of working with “terrorists”.

Nor was his flirtation with the Turkish hard right given the support Erdogan received from the ultra-nationalist candidate Sinan Ogan, who came third in the first round of elections two weeks ago.

Some opposition supporters appeared already defeated after they left the polling stations.

“Today is not the same as last time,” said Bayram Ali Yus, in an anti-Erdogan neighborhood in Istanbul. I was more excited then.” He added: «The result seems more clear now. However, I cast my vote.

“Keep what you check”

Recep Tayyip Erdogan enjoys wide support among the poorer and more rural segments of Turkish society because of his promotion of religious freedom and the modernization of the once-crumbling cities in the interior of Anatolia.

“It was important for me to preserve what was achieved over the past 20 years in Turkey,” voter Mehmet Emin Ayaz told AFP in Ankara. The 64-year-old added: “Türkiye is not what it used to be. There is a new Türkiye today.”

Erdogan has been criticized for his crackdown on part of the opposition and for his controversial foreign policy.

He maintains good personal relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which were not affected by the war on Ukraine.

Turkey’s troubled economy benefits from delayed payments for Russian energy imports, which helped Erdogan spend handsomely on his campaign pledges this year.

He also delayed Finland’s membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and still refuses to accept Sweden’s accession to the US-led defense alliance.