2023-05-29 02:01:29
The presidents of the European Council and the European Commission, Chales Michel and Ursula von der Leyen, respectively, congratulated Recep Tayyip Erdogan for being re-elected today in the second round of the Turkish presidential elections, and expressed their hope in continuing to “build” and ” deepening” the relationship between the European Union and Turkey.
“Congratulations Recep Tayyip Erdogan on your re-election as President of Türkiye. I look forward to working with you once more to deepen relations between the EU and Turkey in the years to come”, Michel said tonight on his official Twitter account.
Von der Leyen also expressed on the same social network his congratulations to Erdogan for winning the elections and “expressed his hope in” continuing to build the EU-Turkey relationship.
“It is of strategic importance for both the EU and Turkey to work to advance this relationship, for the benefit of our people,” stressed the president of the Community Executive.
In this regard, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, stressed that “the EU has a strategic interest in continuing a cooperative and mutually beneficial relationship with Turkey and all its people, as well as in a stable and secure environment in the Eastern Mediterranean”.
“The EU is ready to engage with Türkiye in order to move towards a constructive relationship for our prosperity and stability shared on the basis of commitments to human rights, the rule of law, international law and regional stability, for the benefit of all our citizens,” Borrell said in a joint statement with the Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighborhood, Olivér Várhelyi.
After congratulating Erdogan on his re-election, they expressed their satisfaction with the high rate of participation of the Turkish people in the second round of the elections and await “with interest” the final conclusions and recommendations of the international election observation mission of the OSCE/CoE .
Erdogan received 52.1% of the votes and his rival, the Social Democrat Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, 47.9%, with 99.5% of the votes counted, according to the country’s Electoral Commission.
Although this result is still preliminary, the few votes that remain uncounted can no longer change it, according to the aforementioned body.
The final figures will only be announced once possible challenges have been resolved.
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