By Ece Toksabay and Daren Butler
ANKARA (Reuters) – President Tayyip Erdogan and his supporters on Monday celebrated an election victory extending his rule into a third decade as Turkey’s opposition, once optimistic about victory, braced for “difficult days” against a government increasingly autocratic.
His opponent Kemal Kilicdaroglu said it was “the most unfair election in years” but did not contest the result, giving Erdogan a mandate to pursue policies that have polarized the Turkey and strengthened its position as a regional military power.
The election had been seen as Erdogan’s biggest political challenge, with the opposition confident of unseating him and reversing his policies after polls showed a cost-of-living crisis had left him vulnerable .
But he won with 52.2% of the vote, against 47.8% for Kilicdaroglu. This reinforced his image of invincibility in the deeply divided NATO member country, whose foreign, economic, security and foreign policy he reshaped.
Pro-government newspapers, part of a predominantly pro-Erdogan media landscape that backed his election campaign in the country of 85 million people, cheered his victory.
“The man of the people has won”, read the headline of the Sabah newspaper. “We have opened the door to the Turkish century.”
“Victory is Erdogan again, the winner is Turkey,” the Hurriyet daily said alongside a photo of the huge crowd that gathered outside the presidential palace in the capital Ankara overnight to hear his triumphant speech.
“The winner is our democracy,” Erdogan told the crowd. “Now is the time to put aside the disputes and conflicts of the election period and unite around our national goals.”
The lira slipped to a record high of 20.065 against the dollar. It has lost 90% of its value over the past decade, rocked by the currency crisis and runaway inflation.
Its most recent losses were driven by uncertainty about what an Erdogan victory would mean for economic policy. Critics blamed his unorthodox, low-interest economic policy, which the opposition pledged to reverse, for the currency’s woes.
Erdogan said inflation, which hit a 24-year high of 85% last year before falling, was Turkey’s most pressing problem.
‘HARD DAYS’
The prospect of five more years of Erdogan’s rule has dealt a blow to an opposition that has accused him of undermining democracy as he gains ever more power – a charge he denies.
Although he called for unity, Erdogan maintained a major theme of his campaign and accused Kilicdaroglu and the opposition of siding with terrorists, without providing evidence.
Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish party, the third largest in parliament, was among the opposition parties opposed to Erdogan and is accused of links with Kurdish activists, which it denies.
“For the opposition, very difficult days are ahead,” said Atilla Yesilada, an analyst at GlobalSource Partners, predicting further legal action against the Kurdish party and saying it was unclear whether the alliance of the opposition would remain intact.
Kilicdaroglu’s defeat will likely be cause for concern among Turkey’s NATO allies who have been alarmed by Erdogan’s ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who congratulated his “dear friend” on his victory.
US President Joe Biden wrote on Twitter: “I look forward to continuing to work together as NATO allies on bilateral issues and common global challenges.”
US relations with Turkey have been hampered by Erdogan’s objection to Sweden’s NATO membership, as well as Ankara’s close relationship with Moscow and differences over Syria.
ECONOMIC TROOPS
Erdogan’s victory extends his tenure as the longest-serving leader since Mustafa Kemal Ataturk established modern Turkey after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire a century ago – a politically powerful anniversary to be marked in October.
Erdogan, leader of the Islamist-rooted AK party, appealed to voters with nationalist and conservative rhetoric in a divisive campaign that distracted from economic woes.
“Victory is ours, how happy for us. Goodbye, Mr. Kemal (Kilicdaroglu). Thank God Islam has won,” Banu, an Erdogan supporter, said outside the presidential square.
Kilicdaroglu, who had promised to put the country on a more democratic and collaborative path, said the vote showed the will of the people to change an authoritarian government. “All the means of the state have been laid at the feet of one man,” he said.
Erdogan’s performance offended opponents who thought voters would punish him for the state’s initially slow response to the February earthquakes, in which more than 50,000 people died.
But in the May 14 first round of voting, which included parliamentary elections, his AKP party came out on top in 10 of the 11 earthquake-hit provinces, helping him secure a parliamentary majority with his allies.
(Additional reporting by Yesim Dikmen, Can Sezer, Ezgi Erkoyun, Burcu Karakas, Jonathan Spicer in Istanbul and Nevzat Devranoglu in Ankara; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Jonathan Spicer, William Maclean)