President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday arose as champ of the country’s official political race, substantiating himself tough against the resistance coalition as he expands his standard into a third 10 years.
According to the official results, opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu won with 47.9% of the vote, while Erdogan won with 52.1% of the vote.
Erdogan’s victory once again demonstrated the leader’s durability, which analysts say is rooted not only in the ways in which he consolidated power over time but also in the enduring loyalty of his core support, despite a deadly earthquake and a plummeting local currency.
“This is a significant accomplishment in light of the wear and tear that comes with 20 years in power. Can Acun, a researcher at the Foundation for Political, Economic, and Social Research (SETA), an Ankara-based pro-government think tank, stated, “It also signifies the failure of the opposition bloc.”
The opposition warns of “difficult days ahead.”
Erdogan began to celebrate his victory as soon as preliminary results showed him leading, despite Kilicdaroglu’s warning of “hard days ahead.”
According to analysts, Erdogan’s decision regarding his next steps may be influenced by his victory margin.
The pioneer won with “neither an avalanche nor a tight edge,” said Soner Cagaptay, senior individual at the Washington Organization for Close to East Strategy, which he says will probably mean the same old thing.
He asserted that because Erdogan will be attempting to regain popularity in Istanbul and Ankara, two crucial cities that he lost to the opposition, this indicates that, in the context of Turkey, he is likely to intensify his unconventional economic policies and continue his crackdown on the opposition.
Murat Somer, a political science professor at Istanbul’s Koc University, anticipates that Erdogan will take a more assertive stance toward the opposition and those who disagree with him.
Somer stated to CNN, “Erdogan is likely to continue his unconventional economic policies because these actually serve his interests.” However, in order to resolve the currency crisis, he will need to combine them with conventional methods.
The Turkish president has recently considered himself the “adversary of loan fees,” which he sees as the reason for expansion.
Reuters reported that as Erdogan declared victory, the Turkish lira fell to near-record lows on Sunday, hitting 20.05 to the dollar, close to its 20.06 record low on Friday.
Additionally, Somer drew attention to the potential repercussions of Erdogan’s victory, stating that it might inspire additional world leaders to undermine democracy.
“The egalitarian czar who defied each just guideline and standard during the mission won and the resistance who joined to remake a vote based system lost,” he said.
Korhan Kocak, an associate teacher of political theory at New York College Abu Dhabi in the Unified Bedouin Emirates, stresses over Erdogan’s moves after the political race.
Erdogan has made it abundantly clear for more than a decade that he has a majoritarian conception of democracy: According to Kocak, “those who do not belong to what he views as the “virtuous” majority are entitled to neither say nor consideration.”
Concern has also been expressed by others who have been at the forefront of Erdogan’s political crackdowns.
Addressing CNN before the political race results emerged, Ceylan Akca, a Diyarbakir parliamentarian for the Green Left Party, under which up-and-comers of the supportive of Kurdish People groups’ Progressive faction (HDP) are running, communicated dread for her party on the off chance that Erdogan wins.
Before Erdogan’s victory on Sunday, the HDP had been struggling for a long time to survive.
According to Akca, if Erdogan wins, he will most likely intensify his persecution of the HDP and the Kurdish community.
Acun stated, “Erdogan has always been a pragmatic leader, not one driven by revenge,” but it is unknown how Erdogan will deal with the opposition.
He added that while the strongman is likely to focus on the economy, the fight against terrorism “may intensify.”
severe polarization
The two election rounds’ outcomes, according to analysts, demonstrate the country’s growing polarization.
Judd King, a senior adjunct professorial lecturer at the American University in Washington, DC, said, “Turkey has been a deeply polarized society for at least the last 40 years or so, and only increasingly so.” In the same way that anti-secularists would never vote for the secularist party, ultra-secularists would never, ever consider voting for Erdogan.
And keeping in mind that a considerable lot of Erdogan’s faultfinders are bothered, others saw no feasible choice other than the president.
King stated that Erdogan has, particularly during the early days of his rule, earned the loyalty of the country’s conservatives over time.
He said that his base of supporters is diverse and generally supportive of religion, but ideologically they range from nationalists to those who actively oppose secularism.
A considerable lot of Erdogan’s allies were content with his initial accomplishments, particularly those that gave strict privileges and opportunities to the country’s Muslim greater part. The Turkey that Erdogan took over in 2003 advocated a stricter form of secularism than the majority of Western nations. The Islamic headscarf for women was outlawed in parliament, universities, and other government institutions, minimizing the role religion played in public life. Women who adhered to their religious beliefs and desired a higher education were forced to either remove the hijab or travel abroad for school.
Erdogan gradually lifted those restrictions after assuming power. While he didn’t challenge the nation’s naturally revered secularism, religion started to assume a greater part out in the open, as well as his own way of talking.
His efforts to officially accept religion were regarded as a reestablishment of the conservatives’ dignity, gaining him a large, fervent following.
King stated that even those who did not initially recognize Erdogan’s appeal “really came to value him” because he earned their loyalty “with years and years of providing all these services.”
The political race results may likewise be a catastrophe for Western partners who trusted a post-Erdogan period would see Turkey turn back to its conventional partners in the West, particularly in the midst of the president’s fellowship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
King said that Erdogan’s recent moves in foreign policy may have given Turkey a kind of independence that many of his supporters appreciate, despite his disagreements with the West.
These voters believe that their nation has received recognition that has been long overdue and did not appear to be achievable. What’s more, Erdogan is the man that conveyed that to them.”
Erdogan’s foreign policy is unlikely to change, according to Cagaptay.
“[Erdogan’s] value-based international strategy, where it sets Russia and the US in opposition to one another to get what he needs” is probably going to proceed, he said.
