Victorious Erdoğan: Respect Turkey election result declared

Turker Hamzaoglu, a U.K.-based analyst for Bank of America that covers Turkey, commented in a note that the “rather surprising” AKP win was a “surprise” but re-confirms his prior view that political risks in the country have likely peaked.

Erdogan, who became prime minister in 2003 and then Turkey’s first directly-elected president in 2014, was initially hailed in the West for transforming Turkey into a model of Muslim democracy and turning around its basket-case economy. With the persistence of a power-hungry president, Turkish citizens headed to the polls on Sunday, hoping to gain a few clarity on the country’s now uncertain future.

“We will all have to show respect to the national will”, he said after voting in Istanbul. The main secularist opposition, the CHP, saw its share of the vote slip to 25.4 per cent with 134 seats, while the HDP which had broken the Erdogan majority by overcoming the 10 per cent threshold in June, retained enough votes to stay in parliament with 59 seats.

The result is a huge personal victory for the 61-year-old “Sultan”, who may now be able to secure enough support for his controversial ambitions to expand his role into a powerful US-style executive presidency.

Erdogan’s relationship with the liberal and secular Turkish Kurds, damaged by his divisive rhetoric and political tactics, is likely to deteriorate further under the new AKP government.

Fighting between Turkey’s security forces and Kurdish rebels has left hundreds of people dead and shattered an already-fragile peace process.

As vote tallies began to be reported, small clashes broke out in Diyarbakir in the Kurdish southeast between protesters and police.

“While president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s warmongering, the Kurdish terrorist group the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s (ISIL) attacks and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) all played their part this time, the party’s economic management is usually given as one of the leading reasons for its recurring success”, he claims.

A double suicide bombing at a peace rally in Ankara in October, which killed more than 100 people, largely from the HDP, also “significantly affected the atmosphere and conduct of campaign”, the OSCE said.

Altinalan added that, perhaps, Ankara will also boost its Syria policy. Erdogan and AKP party officials insist that voters opted for stability during increasingly uncertain times.

HDP leader Selahattin Demirtas was critical of the electoral process, saying it was not a “fair election” after his party halted campaigning in the wake of the ISIL attacks that targeted pro-Kurdish activists.

Polls and pundits had not predicted such a comprehensive victory for the AKP.

Initial reaction on financial markets to the vote result was positive.

Just after the AKP’s election victory, the Turkish lira made its biggest leap since 2008, rising 3 percent against the USA dollar.