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Following an election that will have implications far beyond Turkey’s border, the country’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appears to have won another five-term in office.
Erdogan, who was seen handing out cash to supporters outside of the polling station where he voted on Sunday, called the election a “democracy festival” in a speech in which he declared victory.
With nearly all votes counted, he appeared to hold a slim but comfortable lead over his challenger, opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu.
Erdogan, who has displayed increasingly authoritarian tendencies during his more than 20 years in power, plays a key role on the world stage.
While Turkey is a member of NATO and boasts its second largest military, he is often at odds with other member countries. For example, Erdogan has blocked Sweden from joining the alliance for months.
At the same time, he has pursued a policy of expansionism by attacking Kurdish-held areas in Syria and Iraq.
In addition, he has cozied up to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
That could make him an important broker if Russia and Ukraine ever meet at the negotiating table.
He has already helped bring about an agreement that allowed millions of tons of Ukrainian wheat to be shipped throughout the world to avert a global hunger crisis.
Erdogan has also played an important role in the Syrian refugee crisis.
While Turkey’s president had been counted out several times in the past, his country’s economic woes, as well as the government’s catastrophic response to a devastating earthquake that killed 50,000 people earlier this year, had many experts predicting that this might be the time Erdogan would lose an election.
Instead, he appears to have secured another term in office.
A reflection of Erdogan’s unique position in European and world politics is that the countries and leaders who first congratulated him were Iran, the Taliban, Qatar, and Hungary.
In spite of his victory, Erdogan will preside over a sharply divided nation. While millions of Turks revere their leader, just as many see him as an authoritarian who is holding the country back.
This “love him or hate him” polarization is also reflected in Turkey’s voter turnout. Preliminary estimates show that more than 85 percent of eligible voters cast a ballot… and some even got some cash from Erdogan.
