Erdogan is Confirmed to Extend His Rule in Turkey
Written by: Rizqi Ashari
After the results of the second round of the Turkish presidential election showed the numbers, the incumbent Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, won the contest for Turkey’s election. With a total of 99.43% of the votes counted, Erdogan, 52.14% of the vote, managed to outperform his rival, Kemal Kilicdaroglu who only won 47.86% (Gul, 2023). With this result, Turkey’s 12th president is set to extend his two-decade reign since he was prime minister.
With the votes accumulated and the results favoring Erdogan, in front of hundreds of thousands of his supporters, he made a speech on the results. “It is not just us who won, Turkey won,” he declared, noting that this was one of the most important victories in Turkish history. He also sang and thanked his supporters for the victory (Kirby, 2023). On the other hand, Kilicdaroglu, who almost certainly lost through the current vote, also commented that he would continue to fight to uphold the democracy that he felt had been absent in the government under Erdogan, “All the means of the state are mobilized for one political party and placed at the feet of one person,” Kilicdaroglu said (Luc, 2023).
With his party, the Adalet ve Kalkınma Partis (AKP), which has been in power in Turkey since 2002, or since Erdogan established his position as prime minister, Erdogan received a large vote from the conservative society that occupies Turkey with approximately 60–70 percent. In addition, during Erdogan’s two-decade journey with the AKP, Erdogan had a large voting base in the central Anatolian region and the Black Sea coastal area which is considered a contributor to the conservative vote and traditional society in Turkey (Rahman, 2023). These voting bases have always consistently contributed to Erdogan’s votes in his elections in Turkey.
During his campaign, Erdogan promised to prioritize the areas affected by the earthquake in February and return Syrian refugees “voluntarily” (Kirby, 2023). These agendas are Erdogan’s provisions to maintain his power in Turkey. The election agenda has shifted from Turkey’s crisis-ridden economy and relief from the February earthquake that killed tens of thousands to topics such as “terrorism” and the fate of refugees in the country (Uras, 2023).
In the 2023 Turkish presidential election, the “terrorism” narratives often thrown at other camps, and Erdogan’s attitude toward refugees in Turkey have become the driving axis of Erdogan’s campaign (luc, 2023). Although in recent times the election agenda is still around Turkey’s crisis-ridden economy, where Turkey experienced the worst inflation in two decades which reached 83.5% in September last year, plus the Turkish Lira exchange rate which continues to weaken against the US dollar (Maruf, 2022).
References
Gul. (2023). Erdogan wins Turkish election, extending rule to third decade | CNN. CNN.https://edition.cnn.com/2023/05/28/europe/turkey-president-runoff-polls-erdogan-intl/index.html
Kirby, P. (2023). Turkish election victory for Erdogan leaves nation divided. BBC News; BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65743031
Luc. (2023). Tok! Erdogan Menang Pemilu Turki, Berkuasa 20 Tahun Lebih. CNBC Indonesia;cnbcindonesia.com.https://www.cnbcindonesia.com/news/20230529053607-4-441266/tok-erdogan-menang-pemilu-turki-berkuasa-20-tahun-lebih
Maruf, M (2022). Inflasi dan Kurs Turki Kacau, Negara Diambang Kebangkrutan.CNBCIndonesia;cnbcindonesia.com.https://www.cnbcindonesia.com/research/20221025080250-128-382244/inflasi-dan-kurs-turki-kacau-negara-diambang-kebangkrutan
RAHMAN, A. (2023). Mengapa Erdogan Selalu Memenangi Pemilu Turki? Kompas.id; HarianKompas.https://www.kompas.id/baca/internasional/2023/05/30/mengapa-erdogan-selalu-memenangi-pemilu-turki
Uras, U (2023). Turkey election: What do Erdogan and Kilicdaroglu have to offer? Aljazeera.com;AlJazeera.https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/5/26/turkey-election-what-do-erdogan-and-kilicdaroglu-have-to-offer
