Turkey chose continuity, choosing to leave in power the strong man who has ruled it for 20 years and will now hold the reins of the nation for another five years. In yesterday’s second round, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan defeated opposition candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu with 52.1 percent of the vote. Despite the criticism that the earthquake, which impoverished the people despite the economic crisis surrounding the country and the rapidly rising inflation, and in which 50 thousand people lost their lives just three months ago, was not adequately intervened, Turks who went to the polls en masse were once again awarded the ‘Sultan’ award with a participation rate of more than 84%. was awarded.
Voters did not trust Kılıçdaroğlu and his six-party alliance, but they gave Erdoğan a real hard time in what is probably the most difficult election of his political career. Of course, this is not good news for the European Union and NATO, the West hoped that Turkey would decide to turn the page, but that did not happen. The assertive and independent policy of the leader of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the international arena is one of the things that Turks, a strong nationalist people, love most.
Among the first to congratulate the person he called “my dear friend” was another dictator: Vladimir Putin. “The election victory was the natural result of your selfless work as the head of the Turkish Republic and is a clear proof of the Turkish people’s support for your efforts to strengthen state sovereignty and pursue an independent foreign policy,” the Russian president said in a statement. Message to Erdogan! “We highly appreciate his personal contribution to strengthening Russian-Turkish friendly relations and mutually beneficial cooperation in various fields,” said Putin.
The Turkish leader condemned the invasion of Ukraine last year, but refused to participate in Western sanctions and instead increased trade with Moscow, giving the country a loophole to circumvent some of the punitive measures imposed by the European Union. It has also hampered NATO’s eastward expansion efforts in recent months, delayed Finland’s admission, and now still refuses to accept Sweden. Both the Atlantic Alliance and the EU will now have to continue to make the most of a bad situation and put up with this uncomfortable but necessary ally. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said he was “impatient” to prepare for the Alliance’s summit in Vilnius in July, in hopes of removing the obstacle to Swedish implementation.
Turkey is an official candidate for EU membership, but accession negotiations that began in 2005 have stalled for several years and Brussels has a difficult relationship with Ankara, which remains a key partner, particularly on migration issues. The country is home to 3.5 million Syrian refugees fleeing the 12-year conflict that has ravaged their country. In 2016, it signed an agreement with Brussels so that it would continue to host asylum seekers and migrants on its territory and prevent them from entering Europe in exchange for a large amount of funding. But now, among the election promises that Erdogan will have to fulfill, there is also sending the Syrians home. To that end, the president also said he was ready to meet with Syrian President Bashar Assad, after years of supporting the rebels fighting against him in the bloody civil war that has devastated the country.
“The EU has a strategic interest in maintaining a cooperative and mutually beneficial relationship with Turkey and all its people, as well as creating a stable and secure environment in the Eastern Mediterranean,” said Josep Borrell, head of EU diplomacy. The EU stands ready to engage with Turkey to move towards a constructive relationship for our common prosperity and stability, based on commitments to human rights, the rule of law, international law and regional stability, for the benefit of all our citizens.
But it is precisely in the country that there are the greatest concerns about human rights and the rule of law. By increasing his control over parliament, the judiciary, government and the media, Erdogan has centralized power over himself and severely restricted freedom of expression. Reporters Without Borders ranks the country 165th for press freedom in their ranking of 180 countries. In its 2022 World Report, Human Rights Watch said the AKP set the human rights record decades back. And today things are certainly not destined to change for the better.
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Source: Today IT
Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.
