Turkey’s Erdogan declares victory after a historic run-off election poses the toughest challenge of his two-decade rule.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has declared victory in his country’s presidential election, extending his rule into a third decade.
In his first comments, since the polls closed on Sunday, Erdogan spoke to supporters on a campaign bus outside his home in Istanbul.
“I thank each member of our nation for entrusting me with the responsibility to govern this country once again for the upcoming five years,” said Erdogan, the leader of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party). He ridiculed his challenger, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, for his loss, saying “bye bye bye, Kemal,” as supporters booed. “The only winner today is Turkey,” Erdogan said after unofficial results gave him the win in the second round of voting. Istanbul, Turkey – Following his third presidential victory, Recep Tayyip Erdogan will sit down at his desk to tackle a host of immediate issues facing Turkey. Foremost in the president’s in-tray will be the economy and how to tackle the country’s ongoing financial crises. Erdogan successfully took the focus away from a cost-of-living crisis during the election campaign – making significant hikes to pensions and salaries, providing discounts to household energy bills, all while moving the debate to issues such as security and family values.
But the Turkish economy is in bad shape, and in his victory speech on Sunday night, Erdogan highlighted inflation as the primary problem facing the country. “Resolving the problems caused by the price increases and by inflation is the most urgent topic of the coming days,” he told supporters outside the presidential palace in Ankara. “Solving them is not difficult for us. Weren’t we the ones who proved this during my time as prime minister?” Erdogan added, referring to his 11-year spell as premier before he became president in 2014.
Inflation peaked at 85 percent late last year, dropping to 44 percent last month, although independent economists dispute the official figures and say it is at 105 percent. The lira hit a record low on Monday morning of 20.06 to the United States dollar, having lost almost 80 percent of its value over the last five years…
Source:aljazeera.com
