Turkey election results updates: Erdogan declared run-off winner

Now touching upon a central theme of the elections, Erdogan says that the most urgent issue in the country is currently inflation, adding that it is not difficult to solve the problem.

“The most urgent issue of the coming days is to eliminate the problems arising from the price increases caused by inflation and to compensate for welfare losses,” the president said.

He added: “If we do it, we will do it. The interest rate is 8.5 … Inflation will also come down. You will see.

“They [the opposition] cannot compete with us. They will stand guard at the door of the IMF.”

Erdogan said in Ankara that his government will allocate all its time and energy to producing results after the polls.

He added that healing the wounds of the February earthquakes, rebuilding Turkey’s destroyed cities and connecting its people to life will continue to be the country’s priorities.

“Our hearts and hands will continue to be on the earthquake region,” Erdogan said.

President Erdogan has ruled out the release of the former co-leader of the pro-Kurdish HDP, Selahattin Demirtas, from prison.

“It is not possible for such a thing to happen … In our government, justice is the foundation of property. This cannot be changed.” Erdogan said.

Demirtas, who faces various “terror” charges, has been in prison since 2016, although he ran for president in 2018.

The HDP backed Kilicdaroglu against Erdogan this time around, leading to large support for the CHP leader in eastern Turkey, which is largely Kurdish.

Erdogan has framed Kilicdaroglu’s ties to the HDP as evidence of support from “terrorists” – as he links the HDP to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an armed group that has fought the Turkish state since 1984.

Erdogan has said in Ankara that the election result “has a place above our heads”, using a Turkish phrase to indicate respect for the result. He added: “We are not the only winners. The winner is Turkey. The winner is our democracy.”

The president also said that “terrorist organisations” lost and all 85 million citizens of the country have won.

Playing on the theme of the ‘century of Turkey’ mentioned earlier, Erdogan says that his supporters will build Turkey’s future together.

“We walked this road together. We walked day and night, and you gave this duty to us again. God willing, we will continue to build and rejuvenate the ‘century of Turkey’ together.”

“How can it be possible not to love this nation?” Erdogan asks his supporters as he begins his address to the crowds gathered at the presidential palace.

US President Joe Biden is the latest world leader to congratulate Erdogan on the election win. The United States and Turkey have had a rocky relationship over the last few years, with significant differences over Syria and Turkey’s purchase of a missile system from Russia, although tensions have since eased.

Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar, reporting from Istanbul, has said that in the last couple of years, Turkey has been in the process of “rapprochement” with countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – nations that had previously had poor relations with Ankara following the Arab Spring.

“We are expecting … Erdogan to be much more keen to have a rapprochement with them,” Serdar said.

“And with Damascus even, just before the elections, we have seen direct meetings between the foreign minister of Turkey and Syria; these were the highest level meetings since the start of the Syrian crisis.”

Turkey has troops in Syria and has supported the Syrian opposition to President Bashar al-Assad.

President Erdogan has now arrived in Ankara, where his supporters have gathered by the thousands in front of the presidential palace, waiting for the leader to speak.

This is Erdogan’s traditional “balcony” speech, which he gives after election wins. But while this address normally comes from his personal residence in Istanbul, Erdogan appears to have chosen to give it from Ankara this year.

As he arrived in Ankara, Erdogan sent out a tweet referencing the symbolism of the current year – the 100-year anniversary of the foundation of the Republic of Turkey after the fall of the Ottoman Empire.

“Let the Turk[ish] century begin,” he declared.

Several world leaders have now come out to congratulate Erdogan:

Brazil

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva wished Erdogan a “good term with a lot of work” for the Turkish people.

Lula wrote on Twitter that Erdogan can “count on Brazil’s partnership in global cooperation for peace, in the fight against poverty and for the development of the world”.

France

French President Emmanuel Macron said France and Turkey “will continue to move forward”.

“France and Turkey have huge challenges to face together. Return of peace to Europe, future of our Euro-Atlantic Alliance, Mediterranean Sea. With President Erdogan, whom I congratulate on his re-election, we will continue to move forward,” Macron wrote on Twitter.

Saudi Arabia

Saudi King Salman congratulated Erdogan on his presidential win, according to the state news agency.

Sweden

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson extended his congratulations via Twitter, stressing that the two countries’ security “is a future priority”. Turkey has blocked Sweden’s ascession to NATO – and the continued Swedish effort to secure membership is likely to be one of the main issues in Erdogan’s foreign policy agenda.

Read more reactions here.

Taking a closer look at the unofficial results, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has managed to score a very similar percentage of votes in Sunday’s election compared with the 2018 presidential polls.

Anadolu Agency has Erdogan winning 52.2 percent of the vote, despite a painful cost-of-living crisis in the country and twin earthquakes that killed tens of thousands of people in February.

The opposition had believed that the problems Erdogan faced would be enough to finally unseat him, but that was not to be.

Erdogan received 52.6 of the votes in the June 2018 presidential election, competing against five other candidates on the ballot.

The opposition can point to the fact that they took Erdogan to a second round this time, unlike in 2018.

The head of Turkey’s Supreme Election Council has said that Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been re-elected as Turkey’s president in Sunday’s run-off vote, according to unofficial results.

Ahmet Yener said that Erdogan had received 52.1 percent of votes and Kemal Kilicdaroglu scored 47.9 percent with almost all ballots counted.

Turkey’s opposition nationalist IYI Party leader Meral Aksener has congratulated Erdogan for his victory in the run-off presidential vote, while saying she would continue on her path in the opposition.

The first major opposition figure to declare Erdogan the winner of the election, Aksener said the results showed that there was a big lesson Erdogan needed to learn, and added that she hoped Erdogan would act as the president of all Turks.

Aksener expressed disappointment in Erdogan’s victory speech in Istanbul, in which he sharply criticised opposition presidential candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu.

Hakan Akbas, senior adviser at Albright Stonebridge Group, has explained how Erdogan managed to defy the odds and win the election.

“He has this successful campaign that he has repeatedly used to win 11 elections consecutively. I think a big part of it is Erdogan’s cult-like personality; he’s a great orator and his messages are simple, yet inspire confidence in his electorate,” Akbas told Al Jazeera.

“He’s been in power for all 20 years; he’s a seasoned, skillful politician. Secondly, he is a political genius in the sense that he was able to engineer political alliances that really created synergies for his bottom line – for his victory – unlike the opposition that really didn’t benefit, if anything it suffered.”

More from Kilicdaroglu’s speech – the presidential challenger and opposition leader expressed “real sadness” about the country’s future, after a campaign that had sought to present a positive outlook for Turkey.

“My real sadness is about the difficulties awaiting the country,” Kilicdaroglu said, without formally conceding defeat.

There will be many questions over Kemal Kilicdaroglu’s future, but the presidential candidate has said that he will continue what he termed his struggle for democracy and asked his supporters to continue as well.

Kilicdaroglu called Turkey’s recent election process the most unfair in years.

“All the means of the state were mobilised for one political party and laid at the feet of one man,” the Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader said.

He added: “I would like to thank the heads of the Nation Alliance, their organisations, our voters, and the citizens who protected the ballot boxes and fought against these immoral and unlawful pressures.”

“As a person of this land, I have always fought for your rights and justice, so that no one oppresses you, so that you can live in abundance, and I will continue to do so,” Kilicdaroglu also said.

The CHP leader said “the will of the people to change the authoritarian regime has emerged despite all pressures”.

“We will continue to be at the forefront of this struggle until true democracy comes to our country,” he pledged.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has congratulated Erdogan, saying his victory is evidence that the Turkish people appreciated Erdogan’s selfless work and independent foreign policy.

“The election victory was a natural result of your selfless work as the head of the Republic of Turkey, clear evidence of the support of the Turkish people for your efforts to strengthen state sovereignty and conduct an independent foreign policy,” Putin said in a message to Erdogan, the Kremlin said.

“We highly appreciate your personal contribution to the strengthening of friendly Russian-Turkish relations and mutually beneficial cooperation in various areas,” Putin said.

In his first comments since the polls had closed, Kilicdaroglu urged supporters to continue what he called the struggle for democracy in Turkey.

He added that the election had shown the Turkish people’s will to change an “authoritarian” government.

A prominent mayor from Kilicdaroglu’s main opposition party has urged the presidential challenger to resign and be replaced as head of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) by Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu.

“We thank Mr Kilicdaroglu for his efforts … but he was misled, especially in the first round, by 3-5 losers … who put their own interests ahead of the interests of the country,” said the mayor of Bolu province, Tanju Ozcan.

“My historic call! Mr Imamoglu must immediately become the head of the CHP – Period!” he added.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro celebrates the “triumph” of “brother and friend”, Erdogan.