2023-05-29 18:42:49
Xinhua News Agency, Ankara, May 28 (International Observation) Erdogan wins re-election and Turkey will continue independent diplomacy
Xinhua News Agency reporter Wang Tengfei
Türkiye will hold the second round of presidential elections on the 28th. According to preliminary vote counting results, incumbent President Erdogan won. After his victory, Erdogan said all “dirty games” once morest Turkey had now been lost following the West had formed an alliance once morest him over the past few months.
Analysts pointed out that although Erdogan faced unprecedented challenges in this election, his fundamentals remained solid. Turkey is a member of NATO, but Erdogan refuses to blindly lean toward the United States and the West diplomatically. His re-election means that Turkey will continue to pursue an independent foreign policy, which will have an important impact on the regional and international situation.
Ahmed Yenel, chairman of Turkey’s Supreme Election Commission, announced on the evening of the 28th that according to the counting results of 99.43% of the ballot boxes, Erdogan won 52.14% of the votes, and the opposition camp “National Alliance” candidate Keleqi Daroglu received 47.86 percent of the vote.
In the early morning of May 29, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (middle) greeted people in Ankara. Published by Xinhua News Agency (photo by Mustafa Kaya)
In this election, six political parties formed an unprecedented opposition camp and launched a unified candidate to challenge Erdogan, who has been in power for a long time. Issues such as inflation, currency depreciation and the decline in people’s living standards have dragged down Erdogan’s approval ratings, resulting in his failure to receive more than half of the votes in the first round of voting.
But the election results show that Erdogan’s fundamentals are still solid. Judging from the election map, he has an overwhelming advantage in the vast areas of central Turkey and the Black Sea coast in the north. In the southern provinces that were hit by a major earthquake in February this year, although some Western media exaggerated before the election that the local people would turn to the opposition camp because they were dissatisfied with the government’s ineffective disaster relief, the facts show that the local people have not changed their attitude towards Erdogan. support.
Most of the votes of the opposition camp are in the west, the southern coastal areas and some large cities, as well as the Kurdish-inhabited areas in the east, and failed to win too many votes in Erdogan’s traditional votes. Sinan Oan, the candidate who came in third in the first round of voting, publicly supported Erdogan.
Some analysts pointed out that Erdogan won the re-election in the end, which shows that his domestic and foreign policies are still supported by the majority of the people.
After winning the election, Erdogan said that inflation is the most urgent challenge to be dealt with following he was elected, and reconstruction of earthquake-stricken areas is also a government priority.
Türkiye is a NATO country, but it refuses to blindly lean towards the US and the West. The Erdogan government is not in line with the values of the United States and the West, and has been at constant discord with the United States and the West.
After the Ukrainian crisis escalated in February last year, the Erdogan government refused to follow Western countries to sanction Russia, but continued to purchase large quantities of Russian oil and natural gas. At the same time, the Erdogan government also used the chip to prevent Finland and Sweden from joining NATO, demanding that the two countries not support the Kurdistan Workers Party, which is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey. Finland finally agreed to ask for “release” from the Turkish side, while Sweden has not yet been able to join NATO because it did not meet the Turkish side’s conditions. All these annoy the United States, which hopes to unite its allies to deal with Russia.
The Erdogan government is also actively pursuing Turkey’s status as a major power, striving to play a greater role in regional and international affairs. Turkey played an important role in the process of reaching a grain export agreement between Russia and Ukraine in July last year.
The Turkish presidential election has drawn great attention from the international community. With Erdogan facing challenges, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey had a public meeting with the “National Alliance” candidate Klutchdaroglu who showed a pro-Western attitude before the election, sending a signal that he hopes Erdogan will step down.
Li Yanan, an associate researcher at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, told Xinhua that Erdogan is expected to maintain an independent and balanced foreign policy following his re-election, and will still treat Turkey’s own interests as the primary factor in handling relations with the United States and the West.
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