Tayyip Erdogan tops tight Turkish runoff vote.
1. opposition saw
Many in Turkey’s opposition saw the election as their last chance to prevent Erdogan from turning the country into a dictatorship.On Sunday, Turks went to the polls in a runoff election that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has ruled the country with an Islamic foundation for the past two decades, was heavily favoured to win.Despite having the longest tenure of any NATO leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan easily defeated his secular opponent Kemal Kilicdaroglu in the first round of voting on May 14.Nonetheless, the election was the most challenging Erdogan has faced since the country’s establishment as a post-Ottoman republic a century ago. It led to Turkey’s first-ever presidential runoff.
2.Kilicdaroglu
Kilicdaroglu pieced together an effective combination of secular nationalists and religious conservatives, many of whom had previously supported Erdogan but were now disgruntled.The opposition saw this as their last chance to prevent Turkey from becoming an autocracy under a leader whose rise to power is comparable to that of the Ottoman sultans.Despite this, Erdogan, at age 69, came within a hair’s breadth of an outright victory in the first round.His victory came despite the fact that his country was experiencing a major inflation crisis and that nearly all polls had predicted his defeat.
3. ballot for Erdogan
I plan to cast my ballot for Erdogan. In the working class neighbourhood of Istanbul where the future president grew up playing street football, 24-year-old Emir Bilgin said, “There is no one else like him.”Opponents take a chanceAfter the first round, Kilicdaroglu emerged a new person.Former government official has switched from advocating for social cohesion and democracy to giving desk-thumping lectures about the urgent need to deport migrants and combat terrorism.The nationalists who did well in the parallel parliamentary elections were the intended target of his newfound right-wing stance.
4. secular CHP party
The 74-year-old had always supported the secular CHP party of Kilicdaroglu’s rival, the nationalist leader and military commander Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who founded both Turkey and Kilicdaroglu.However, these had been secondary in his advocacy for the socially liberal ideas held by younger voters and city dwellers.Experts are sceptical that Kilicdaroglu’s risk will pay off.Erdogan accused him of collaborating with “terrorists” because of his informal partnership with a pro-Kurdish party.The government depicts the Kurdish party as the legitimate political arm of terrorist organisations.
5.place three weeks ago.
Kilicdaroglu’s attempts to court Turkey’s extreme right were impeded by Erdogan’s support from an ultra-nationalist, who had previously endorsed Kilicdaroglu’s opponent.Erdogan’s advocacy for religious freedoms and modernization of once-dilapidated cities in the Anatolian heartland have earned him the praise of Turkey’s poorer and more rural segments of society.”It was important for me to keep what was gained over the past 20 years in Turkey,” firm director Mehmet Emin Ayaz told AFP before casting his vote for Erdogan in the capital city of Ankara.Turkey isn’t the same as it used to be. “Today, Turkey is different,” the 64-year-old remarked.
6.transactional
Tense and transactional Because of Turkey’s influence in Europe and the Middle East, the political struggles there are being closely observed in capitals throughout the world.Erdogan’s first decade in power was marked by friendly relations with the West, but his second decade in power saw Turkey become NATO’s problem child.He initiated a slew of military excursions into Syria, angering European powers and placing Turkish troops at odds with US-backed Kurdish fighters.
7. Vladimir Putin
Despite Western sanctions against Moscow, his personal friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin has also endured the Kremlin’s war on Ukraine.This year’s excessive spending on campaign promises by President Erdogan was made possible by a vital delay of payment on Russian energy imports, which has helped stabilise Turkey’s fragile economy.Erdogan has also slowed Finland’s NATO membership and continues to block Sweden’s entry into the US-led military alliance.The Eurasia Group think tank predicted that, if elected, Erdogan would keep seeking to play off major powers against one another.
