Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won a runoff election on Sunday, extending his rule until 2028. Erdogan overcame Turkey’s economic crisis and the most powerful opposition alliance ever against his Islamic-rooted party. He celebrated with his supporters after leading a chorus of his campaign song. Erdogan beat secular opposition challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu by four percentage points, according to near-complete results. World leaders such as Russian President Vladimir Putin and former US President Donald Trump congratulated Erdogan on his victory.
Kilicdaroglu pushed Erdogan into Turkey’s first runoff on May 14 but was unsuccessful in narrowing the margin in the second round. Opposition supporters viewed the election as a chance to save Turkey from being turned into an autocracy by a man whose consolidation of power rivals that of Ottoman sultans. Erdogan is lionized by poorer and more rural swathes of Turkey’s society because of his promotion of religious freedoms and modernization of once-dilapidated cities in the Anatolian heartland.
However, Erdogan’s crackdowns on dissent and pursuit of a muscular foreign policy have caused growing concern in the Western world. Erdogan 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 defense bloc. However, Turkey’s unravelling economy will pose the most immediate test for Erdogan. The annual inflation rate touched 85 percent last year, and Turkey must now hike interest rates or abandon its attempts to support the lira.
