Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday vowed to take Turkey to a promised “new era” when he assumes the presidency in two weeks after vanquishing his rivals in a historic election victory.
As he took to the balcony of his Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) headquarters in Ankara to give a triumphant midnight speech before tens of thousands of supporters, Erdogan pledged to build a “new Turkey” and reconcile the divided country.
Yet analysts have warned that Erdogan and Turkey may face turbulent times ahead as he prepares to beef up the powers of the presidency, which in recent years has been a largely ceremonial role.
Photo: AFP
Erdogan has served as prime minister since 2003, during which he has sought to modernize Turkey and take a more assertive position on the international stage. He could now serve two five year presidential terms, staying in power until 2024.
Sunday’s polls were the first direct presidential elections in Turkish history — previously, the head of state was chosen by parliament.
“The Turkish people wrote history yesterday,” the pro-Erdogan daily Sabah declared.
Erdogan is to be inaugurated as president on Aug. 28 and attention now turns to who will succeed him as prime minister to take the ruling Islamic-rooted AKP into next year’s legislative elections.
Also closely watched will be the future of outgoing Turkish President Abdullah Gul, a cofounder of the AKP with Erdogan, who has distanced himself from the prime minister and is keeping his future plans tightly under wraps.
Erdogan’s victory was not the landslide many had predicted, but he still managed a comfortable cushion to avoid the need for a second round against main opposition challenger Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu.
Erdogan won 51.74 percent of the vote, Ihsanoglu 38.46 percent and the third candidate, Kurdish challenger Selahattin Demirtas, took 9.80 percent, according to results based on a near total vote count.
Turnout was 73.68 percent, a figure that would be considered high in many countries, but was sharply down on the 89 percent turnout in Turkey’s local elections in March.
Critics complained that the campaign was strongly slanted in favor of Erdogan, whose advertising dominated TV and billboards for days in the runup to the poll.
“Erdogan has become the first president directly elected by the people, after an unfair election process,” the strongly secular Cumhuriyet daily said.
Thousands of Turks took to the streets of Istanbul hooting the horns of their cars and waving Turkish flags to celebrate Erdogan’s victory, while fireworks exploded in the skies above Ankara in celebration.
In his speech, Erdogan sought to promote a message of reconciliation after a sometimes bitter campaign, saying: “We may have different political views, different lifestyles, sects, values, ethnic roots ... but we are all sons of this country ... each of us are the owner of this state.”
During his first term as president, Erdogan will mark being in power longer than Turkey’s first president, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who founded the modern Turkish state in 1923.
Erdogan clearly has his eye on going down in history as a transformative figure like Ataturk, planning eye-poppingly ambitious infrastructure projects, including a new canal for ships in Istanbul, a third airport in the city and a high-speed rail network for the entire country.
Yet many secular Turks bitterly resent his rule and accuse him of squandering Ataturk’s legacy with a gradual move to Islamize the country and impose one-man rule.
Also yesterday, the president-elect announced that four wounded Palestinians from the Gaza Strip had been flown into Ankara for medical treatment, with more expected.
“Our wounded from Gaza have started to come,” Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Ahmet Davutoglu said at Ankara’s Esenboca International Airport, where he greeted the Palestinians before they were taken to the hospital.
“In the first stage we plan to bring to Turkey, and treat, maybe 200 patients,” Davutoglu said, adding that more patients would be brought by planes in groups of about 40 after agreeing the move in talks with Israel and Egypt.
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