TURKISH PRESIDENT RECEP Tayyip Erdogan has appealed for national unity after winning a historic run-off election that extended two decades of his transformative but divisive rule until 2028.
The 69-year-old overcame Turkey’s worst economic crisis in a generation and the most powerful opposition alliance to ever face his Islamic-rooted party on his way to his toughest election win.
Streets erupted in car-honking jubilation and tributes poured in from across the world as Turkey’s most important leader in modern history led a sea of supporters in celebratory song outside his presidential palace in Ankara.
“We should come together in unity and solidarity,” Erdogan told the chanting and flag-waving crowd. “We call for this with all our heart.”
Near-complete results showed Erdogan beating secular opposition challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu by four percentage points.
Traffic on Istanbul’s iconic Taksim Square ground to a halt and huge crowds of singing and flag-waving supporters gathered across Turkey.
“Our people chose the right man,” 17-year-old Nisa Sivaslioglu said in the Turkish capital.
“I expect Erdogan to add more to the good things he has already done for our country.”
World leaders have extender their congratulations to Erdogan following the election.
“I look forward to continuing to work together as Nato Allies on bilateral issues and shared global challenges,” US President Joe Biden tweeted as Erdogan spoke, making no mention of recent tensions in the bilateral relationship.
UN chief Antonio Guterres said through a spokesman that he “looks forward to further strengthening the cooperation between Turkiye and the United Nations”, using an alternate spelling for Turkey.
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, which Erdogan aspires for Turkey to join, said the bloc wanted to strengthen ties with the country.
“I congratulate (Erdogan) on winning the elections. I look forward to continue building the EU-Turkiye relationship,” she said in a tweet.
“It is of strategic importance for both the EU and Turkiye to work on advancing this relationship, for the benefit of our people.”
Russia’s Vladimir Putin said the outcome showed the support for Erdogan’s “efforts to strengthen state sovereignty and pursue an independent foreign policy”.
Congratulations to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Türkiye on his re-election.
— President Biden (@POTUS) May 28, 2023
I look forward to continuing to work together as NATO Allies on bilateral issues and shared global challenges.
Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he wanted to keep working with Erdogan “for the security and stability of Europe”.
French leader Emmanuel Macron said the two nations had “immense challenges” to work on together.
Writing on Twitter, Macron said these included the “return of peace to Europe”.
“With President Erdogan, who I congratulate, we will continue to move forward,” he said.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted: “I am confident that our bilateral ties and cooperation on global issues will continue to grow in the coming times.”
Leaders across Europe and the Arab world also sent their congratulations – as did former US president Donald Trump.
Turkey’s longest-serving leader was tested like never before in what was widely seen as the country’s most consequential election in its 100-year history as a post-Ottoman republic.
Kilicdaroglu pushed Erdogan into Turkey’s first runoff on 14 May and narrowed the margin further in the second round.
Opposition supporters viewed it as a do-or-die chance to save Turkey from being turned into an autocracy by a man whose consolidation of power rivals that of Ottoman sultans.
Kilicdaroglu’s brief concession statement expressed “real sadness about the big difficulties awaiting the country” with Erdogan.
The opposition leader had re-emerged a transformed man after the first round.
The 74-year-old former civil servant’s message of social unity and freedoms gave way to desk-thumping speeches about the need to immediately expel migrants and fight terrorism.
His right-wing turn was targeted at nationalists who emerged as the big winners of the parallel parliamentary elections.
Analysts doubted Kilicdaroglu’s gamble would work.
His informal alliance with a pro-Kurdish party, which Erdogan portrays as the political wing of banned militants, left him exposed to charges of working with “terrorists”.
And Kilicdaroglu’s courtship of Turkey’s hard right was hampered by the endorsement Erdogan received from an ultra-nationalist who finished third two weeks ago.
“Erdogan played the nationalist card quite skilfully,” Chatham House associate fellow Galip Dalay told AFP.
“The opposition could not come out with an alternative agenda item that could overshadow (Erdogan’s) narrative, despite the fact that Turkey is experiencing a very bad economic situation.”
Erdogan is lionised by poorer and more rural swathes of Turkey’s fractured society because of his promotion of religious freedoms and modernisation of once-dilapidated cities in the Anatolian heartland.
But he has caused growing consternation across the Western world because of his crackdowns on dissent and pursuit of a muscular foreign policy.
He launched military incursions into Syria that infuriated European powers and put Turkish soldiers on the opposite side of Kurdish forces supported by the United States.
His personal relationship with Putin has also survived the Kremlin’s war on Ukraine.
Turkey’s troubled economy is benefiting from a crucial deferment of payment on Russian energy imports that helped Erdogan spend lavishly on campaign pledges this year.
Erdogan also delayed Finland’s membership of Nato and is still refusing to let Sweden join the US-led defence bloc.
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