Turkey"s supreme election council chairman: Erdoğan officially wins Turkey"s presidency The chairman of Turkey’s supreme election council, Ahmet Yener, announced that incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has won Turkey’s presidency in a runoff election with 52.14% of the votes, Reuters reports. With 99.43% of ballot boxes opened, Erdoğan’s rival Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu received 47.86% of the votes, Yener said. The two candidates have a gap of over 2 million votes and the remainder of the uncounted votes will not affect the result, said Yener. Rishi Sunak speaks with Erdoğan Rishi Sunak has spoken with President Erdoğan to reiterate the “strong relationship” between the UK and Turkey as “economic partners and close Nato allies”, Downing Street has said. “Prime Minister Rishi Sunak spoke to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan this evening to congratulate him on his re-election,” a spokeswoman said. “The prime minister reiterated the strong relationship between the United Kingdom and Turkey, as economic partners and close Nato allies. “He reflected on Turkey’s ongoing recovery from the devastating earthquakes earlier this year and pledged the UK’s continued solidarity with the Turkish people. “The leaders agreed to continue working closely together to address shared challenges.” President Biden has joined leaders from around the world in sending congratulations to Erdoğan on his re-election. In a tweet, he said he looked forward to “continuing to work together as Nato Allies on bilateral issues and shared global challenges”. With an initial count confirmed by the country’s supreme election authority, which announced a victory for Erdoğan, we are already starting to see the beginning of what another term for Turkey’s longest-serving leader might look like. The Turkish lira, already in crisis, slipped below 20 to the dollar as the votes were counted this evening, in a sign of further crisis to come. Economists from Bloomberg previously estimated that the Turkish central bank has spent more than $177bn supporting the lira since December 2021. While the opposition were defeated in the second round vote, the conditions challenging Erdoğan’s control and prompting one of the most concerted challenges to his rule in decades appear set to remain. Turkey remains a fiercely polarised country, where the opposition secured just under 48% of the vote. Erdoğan also appears happy to stoke culture war forces to shore up support from his base, once again inviting his supporters to brand every opposition party as “LGBT” in a call and response during his victory speech atop a car in Istanbul. A victorious Erdoğan also received congratulations from many international leaders whom he was previously happy to spar with in order to project power at home, notably the Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, and the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen. The Swedish prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, also congratulated Erdoğan, telling him “our common security is the future priority”, a clear reference to his country’s bid for Nato accession, which has been held up by the Turkish president for over a year. Those congratulations will no doubt be well received by Erdoğan, who is likely to view them as an endorsement that his often combative and bombastic methods on the international stage have brought results in his favour at home and abroad. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak congratulates Erdoğan The UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, has sent his congratulations to Erdoğan on his victory. In a tweet, he said he looked forward to continuing collaborations on issues including trade and shared security threats. Summary It is slightly past midnight in Turkey where incumbent president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been declared the winner of the presidency. Here is where things stand: The chairman of Turkey’s supreme election council, Ahmet Yener, announced that incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has won Turkey’s presidency in a runoff election with 52.14% of the votes, Reuters reports. With 99.43% of ballot boxes opened, Erdoğan’s rival Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu received 47.86% of the votes, Yener said. The two candidates have a gap of over 2 million votes and the remainder of the uncounted votes will not affect the result, said Yener. Speaking to supporters on top of a bus on Sunday evening, the incumbent president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, thanked voters for giving him the responsibility to rule for an additional five years. Erdoğan, who has ruled the country for two decades, thanked Turks for voting and declared Turkey as the only winner in the runoff presidential election. “We have completed the second round of the presidential elections with the favour of our people,” Erdoğan said. Turkey’s opposition candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu vowed to continue to lead his struggle following early results that showed him trailing behind and losing to incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in what he called was the “the most unfair election in years”. Kılıçdaroğlu, who received around 47.9% of votes in the country’s runoff election, said the results showed people’s will to change an authoritarian government. He is saddened by the “troubles” awaiting Turkey, he added, according to Reuters. Somalia’s president has also congratulated Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The two countries developed close ties after Erdoğan became the first head of state outside Africa to visit the country in almost two decades in 2011. The bilateral relationship between the countries initially started out with humanitarian support but has developed a military component where the Turkish army trains Somali soldiers in their fight against the al-Qaida-affiliated al-Shabaab, as well as a burgeoning trade relationship and state-building support. The Qatari emir, Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, and the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, have congratulated Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Al-Thani tweeted: “My dear brother Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, congratulations on your victory, and I wish you success in your new term, and that you achieve in it what the brotherly Turkish people aspire to in terms of progress and prosperity, and for the strong relations of our two countries to further development and growth.” Orbán echoed the sentiments, writing: “Congratulations to President @RTErdogan on his unquestionable election victory!” It has not been lost on analysts in Greece that President Erdoğan will begin his new five-year stint in power exactly 100 years after the establishment of the Republic of Turkey. “He will lead his country for the next five years and he begins his new term precisely in the year that he wanted, that is a century after the creation of the Republic of Turkey,” noted Giorgos Tsogopoulos, a senior fellow at the Athens-based think tank Eliamep. Meral Akşener, leader of the opposition alliance member IYI Party, congratulated Erdoğan at a press conference she held in Ankara. “I hope that our nation’s decision will benefit our country” Akşener said. Due to disagreements over Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu’s candidacy, Akşener had quit the opposition alliance. She later rejoined after securing concessions over her preferred candidates both running as vice presidential candidates. It has not been lost on analysts in Greece that President Erdoğan will begin his new five-year stint in power exactly 100 years after the establishment of the Republic of Turkey. “He will lead his country for the next five years and he begins his new term precisely in the year that he wanted, that is a century after the creation of the Republic of Turkey,” noted Giorgos Tsogopoulos, a senior fellow at the Athens-based think tank Eliamep. “His political success is undisputed. Not only has he not lost the elections, he has endured even when his political opponents rally to dethrone him,” he added. Greece’s political leadership has yet to congratulate the newly elected Erdogan. Following its own inconclusive general election on May 21, Turkey’s neighbour and historic Nato rival has a caretaker government. Led by a senior judge, Ioannis Sarmas, the interim administration will lead the country to repeat polls on June 25. Former prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, whose centre right New Democracy party triumphed in the election but failed under a system of proportional representation to win a parliamentary majority, has said he will extend a “hand of friendship” towards Turkey if he is voted back into office. “But I’m not naive. I know that foreign policies of countries don’t change from one day to the next,” he told AP in an interview ahead of the 21 May vote. “I would hope that the next Turkish government would overall reconsider its approach towards the West, not just towards Greece, towards Europe, towards Nato, and towards the United States. But again I have to be a realist and not be too naive, and that is why we will continue with … our firm foreign policy. That means we will continue to strengthen our deterrence capabilities and our defense capabilities.” Deniz Barış Narlı Meral Akşener, leader of the opposition alliance member IYI Party, congratulated Erdoğan at a press conference she held in Ankara. “I hope that our nation’s decision will benefit our country” Akşener said. Due to disagreements over Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu’s candidacy, Akşener had quit the opposition alliance. She later rejoined after securing concessions over her preferred candidates both running as vice presidential candidates. “We did not allow any power, ambition, or personal greed to stand in the way of our nation’s demands and wishes. For this reason, we have received harsh criticism from time to time and paid the price for this,” Akşener said. More world leaders have congratulated Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, with French president Emmanuel Macron and Armenian prime minister Nikol Pashinyan hailing further cooperation between their countries and Turkey. “There are great challenges that France and Turkey will overcome together. The return of peace to Europe, the future of our Eurasian Alliance, the Mediterranean sea. We will continue to move forward together with President Erdoğan, to whom I convey my congratulations on his re-election,” wrote Macron. Meanwhile, Pashinyan wrote: “Congratulations to President @RTErdogan on his re-election. Looking forward to continuing working together towards full normalisation of relations between our countries.” Currently, Turkey and Armenia have almost no diplomatic relations as a result of a tumultuous history between the two countries including Armenian genocide and the ethnic and territorial conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Opposition presidential candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu’s gave a speech intended to console his supporters from the Ankara headquarters of his Republican People’s Party (CHP). “In this election, the will of the people to change an authoritarian government has clearly emerged, despite all the pressures. We have experienced the most unfair election process of recent years...despite this climate of fear, I would like to thank all the leaders of our alliance and our citizens. The Republican People’s Party and the Nation’s Alliance will continue to struggle with all of their members. We will continue to be the pioneer in this struggle, until real democracy comes to our country. My biggest sadness is the trouble waiting for this country,” he said. The 74-year-old longtime CHP leader also gave few suggestions that he might step down following his defeat, despite his candidacy previously causing a rift among his opposition alliance amid allegations that other opposition figures stood a better chance of beating Erdoğan. “I want to see our 25 million citizens who have voted for me standing tall and proud, our march continues and we remain here,” he added. “I have always fought for your rights, for the law, so that no one can oppress you...So that you can live in peace and plenty, and I will continue to do so.” Former prime minister of Turkey Ahmet Davutoğlu, who also served as President Erdoğan’s foreign minister, hailed the election results which has so far shown Erdogan significantly ahead of his rival Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. In a tweet on Sunday, Davutoğlu wrote: “I wish the election results to be good for our country and our nation. I congratulate our citizens who showed high participation in the elections with great democratic maturity.” He went on to add, “After the final results are announced by the YSK, I will share the comprehensive assessment with the public,” referring to the country’s supreme election council. Faisal Ali Jailed opposition leader Selahattin Demirtaş has released his first statement on the Turkish polls. In a string of tweets he congratulated his supporters for managing to get as many votes as they did despite the fact that they were up against “a huge operational force that has taken over the state.” Demirtaş wrote that the election was “full of inequalities, oppression, incredible lies, slander and smears.” He added: “Even reaching this rate of votes with a principled and moral election campaign against a huge operational force that has taken over the state is considered a miracle.” Signing off, he urged his supporters to “Keep fighting”. Demirtaş was co-chair of the pro-Kurdish HDP party. He was jailed on terror charges in 2016 due to alleged links between his party and the PKK, a Kurdish militant group considered a terrorist organisation in Ankara and the EU. Demirtaş says arrest was politically motivated. In 2020, the grand chamber of the European court of human rights also ruled that Turkey’s detention of Demirtaş was politically motivated. Turkey"s supreme election council chairman: Erdoğan officially wins Turkey"s presidency The chairman of Turkey’s supreme election council, Ahmet Yener, announced that incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has won Turkey’s presidency in a runoff election with 52.14% of the votes, Reuters reports. With 99.43% of ballot boxes opened, Erdoğan’s rival Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu received 47.86% of the votes, Yener said. The two candidates have a gap of over 2 million votes and the remainder of the uncounted votes will not affect the result, said Yener. Opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu vows to continue struggle Turkey’s opposition candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu vowed to continue to lead his struggle following early results that showed him trailing behind and losing to incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in what he called was the “the most unfair election in years”. Kılıçdaroğlu, who received around 47.9% of votes in the country’s runoff election, said the results showed people’s will to change an authoritarian government. He is saddened by the “troubles” awaiting Turkey, he added, according to Reuters. “I ask my 25 million voters. Stand up, and walk proudly” he continued. “I did everything I could to make sure you could live in a fair nation and I will continue to lead that fight,” he added. Kosovo’s president has also congratulated Erdoğan The Turkish text reads: “May the partnership between us continue to get stronger!” Following Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s victory speech, Sinan Oğan, who came third in the first election round, tweeted on Sunday that the “presidential election process has been completed” and went on to declare “Turkish nationalists, Kemalists, the Turkish nation” as winners. “The presidential election process has been completed. According to this result, our voters, who did not spare their support in the first round, continued to support us in the second round and voted for the stability of Turkey. “Our voters abandoned the enthusiasm of those who said that these votes were not given to Sinan Oğan, they trusted us and to a great extent chose where we are. “From here, I would like to express my gratitude to all my citizens who have remained loyal to the plan. Now a new era begins. “The winners were Turkish nationalists, Kemalists, the Turkish nation and the Turkish world, the losers were the lynching culture and the terror-affiliated parties and those who trusted them.” Opposition areas see voter turnout drop Voter turnout was lower in this election overall but the stats show that turnout dropped quite heavily in big cities where Kılıçdaroğlu would have hoped to have stronger support, and in the south-eastern Kurdish-populated regions. Provinces won by Erdoğan didn’t see such a dramatic drop. Here are some figures through Anadolu: Istanbul: Round 1: 90.5% Round 2: 87.2% Izmir: Round 1: 90.2% Round 2: 87.19% Ankara: Round 1: 91.2% Round 2: 87.9% In the Kurdish region, where numbers for voter turnout are generally lower than other parts of the country, there was also a notable decrease. Speculation was rife about whether Kılıçdaroğlu would be able to retain the Kurdish vote if he courted the nationalist voters by working with far-right politician Ümit Özdağ. After the first round, Sinan Oğan, who finished third, endorsed Erdoğan. Oğan led the ATA alliance, which consisted of a small group of marginal far-right parties, including Ümit Özdağ’s Victory party. Kılıçdaroğlu attempted to flank himself from the right and tap into some of those votes but that strategy appears to have caused voter apathy in the south-east. Speaking to Reuters, Reha Ruhavioglu, director of the Diyarbakir-based Kurdish Studies Center, said Kurdish voters lost interest in the opposition alliance as Kılıçdaroğlu drifted right. Demotivation stems from the CHP’s political discourse, which shifted from reconciliation to security politics. Here are some numbers: Diyarbakir: Round 1: 81.7% Round 2: 75.9% Ağrı: Round 1: 72.8% Round 2: 65.8% Mardin: Round 1: 82.7% Round 2: 78.7% Van: Round 1: 78.6% Round 2: 72.2% Siirt: Round 1: 83.3% Round 2: 78.6%