Turks were voting yesterday in a presidential runoff that could see Turkish President Rcep Tayyip Erdogan extend his rule into a third decade and persist with Turkey’s increasingly authoritarian path, muscular foreign policy and unorthodox economic governance.
Erdogan, 69, defied opinion polls and came out comfortably ahead with an almost five-point lead over his rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu in the first round on May 14.
However, he fell just short of the 50 percent needed to avoid a runoff, in a race with profound consequences for Turkey itself and global geopolitics.
Photo: Reuters
His unexpectedly strong showing amid a deep cost-of-living crisis and a win in parliamentary elections for a coalition of his Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party, the Nationalist Movement Party and others, buoyed the veteran campaigner who says a vote for him is a vote for stability.
The election would decide not only who leads Turkey, a NATO-member country of 85 million, but also how it is governed, where its economy is headed after its currency plunged to one-10th of its value against the US dollar in a decade, and the shape of its foreign policy, which has seen Turkey irk the West by cultivating ties with Russia and Persian Gulf states.
In the city of Diyarbakir in the mainly Kurdish southeast, retiree Faruk Gecgel, 54, said he voted for Erdogan as he did two weeks ago.
“It is important for Turkey’s future that the president and parliament, where he has a majority, work together under the same roof. So I voted for Erdogan again for stability,” he said.
Housewife Canan Tince, 34, said she voted for Kilicdaroglu, who on May 14 received nearly 72 percent support in the city — a stronghold of the main pro-Kurdish opposition party.
“Enough is enough. Change is essential to overcome the economic crisis and problems that Turkey faces, so I voted for Kilicdaroglu again. We are hopeful and determined,” she said.
Kilicdaroglu, 74, is the candidate of a six-party opposition alliance, and leads the Republican People’s Party created by Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. His camp has struggled to regain momentum after the shock of trailing Erdogan in the first round.
The initial election showed larger-than-expected support for nationalism — a powerful force in Turkish politics which has been hardened by years of hostilities with Kurdish militants, an attempted coup in 2016 and the influx of millions of refugees from Syria since civil war began there in 2011.
Turkey is the world’s largest host of refugees, with about 5 million migrants, of whom 3.3 million are Syrians, according to Turkish Ministry of the Interior data.
Third-place presidential candidate and hardline nationalist Sinan Ogan said he endorsed Erdogan based on a principle of “non-stop struggle [against] terrorism,” referring to pro-Kurdish groups.
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