"Islamist" Erdogan Lost in the Presidential Election to Democrat Erdogan

News:

The citizens of Turkey in the elections on May 28 demonstrated the will and determination to support the course for the further development of the country. This was stated by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, addressing the citizens who gathered on Monday night at the Presidential Complex in Ankara, the website of the Anadolu news agency says.

The Turkish leader thanked all voters for their active participation in the voting process, regardless of the political choice. “We are not the only ones who have won. Turkey won, democracy won!” Erdogan said.

The politician recalled that since the reign of former Prime Minister Adnan Menderes in the 1950s. On the path of Turkey's development, problems periodically formed in order to weaken the country.

“Today, we are announcing the start of a process that will allow us to realize the goals announced by former President Turgut Ozal and former Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan.”

The head of state assured that in view of the completion of the electoral process in Turkey, the authorities intend to concentrate all their time and energy on contributing to the development of the country. “I am sure that we will also implement the concept of the Centenary of Turkey with the support and together with the people,” Erdogan said.

The president further drew attention to the situation in neighboring Syria. The head of state said that up to 600,000 refugees have voluntarily returned from Turkey to the security zones on Syrian territory so far. “Thanks to the joint Turkish-Qatari project for the construction of houses on Syrian territory, we plan to return another 1 million refugees to Syria,” the agency quoted Erdogan as saying.

Comment:

Despite a narrow lead over the opposition candidate and a second round of elections, the defeat of incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was unlikely. The only intrigue was how Erdogan would manage to win the elections once again and retain his power, taking the presidency for the third time. After all, he came to the final stage of the election campaign with a significant drop in his rating against the backdrop of a deep economic crisis and the tragic consequences of the devastating February earthquake in Turkey.

Only the favor of the United States helps Erdogan, nicknamed by the European press "unsinkable" and "indestructible", stay afloat. Since the middle of the last century, America has worked hard to educate and strengthen its agents in Turkey. Since the electoral victory of the Democratic Party in 1950, America has tried several times to bring its own people to power in Turkey. However, as a result of several military coups, they were mixed up, and some were even executed, and it had to rebuild everything. This is what Erdogan means when he says that “since the reign of former Prime Minister Adnan Menderes in the 1950s. Problems periodically formed on the path of Turkey's development.”

America realized that it could strengthen its influence by using in support of its agents the electorate from among the Muslims, in the hearts of most of which the love of Islam is still alive. Since the 1970s, America has activated politicians, movements and parties that used Islamic rhetoric and slogans for populist purposes. Pro-American politicians began to hide behind Islam, in contrast to the pro-English ones, who openly advocated secularism and were at enmity with Islam.

In Turkey, unlike other Muslim countries, some of which were even declared Islamic republics, America used the so-called. "political Islam", the founder of which is Necmettin Erbakan, mentioned by Erdogan. Parasitizing on Islam and using it as a springboard, by the end of the 90s of the last century, American agents eventually managed to consolidate their grip on power. With the coming to power of the Justice and Development Party, headed by Erdogan, Turkey finally moved into the orbit of America's influence, becoming one of the main instruments for the implementation and protection of its interests, both in the regions of the Middle East and Africa, and in the Transcaucasus and Central Asia.

Wanting to finally put an end to any internal resistance, Erdogan calls for rallying around the concept of "Turkey's Centenary" he invented, not forgetting to once again praise democracy. “I would like to express my nation's gratitude for giving us a holiday of democracy,” Erdogan said, speaking to his supporters in Istanbul. “I would like to thank all the representatives of our nation, without exception, who once again entrusted us with the responsibility of running the country for the next five years, for the choice they made,” Erdogan was quoted as saying by Deutsche Welle in a speech to his supporters in Istanbul.

He speaks in this spirit all the time, such as after his first victory in the presidential elections in 2014, when he said: “I thank the nation for appointing me as the 12th President of the Republic of Turkey. I will not only be the president of those who voted for me, I will be the president of 77 million. Today the will of the people has triumphed again, today democracy has won again. Those who did not vote for me achieved the same as my supporters. Those who don't like me won the same victory as those who like me."

Erdogan's words: "Turkey won, democracy won!" are nothing new. He has repeatedly reaffirmed his commitment to democracy. For example, while countering accusations from European politicians and domestic opposition of authoritarianism and dictatorship, after the crackdown on a failed 2016 military coup attempt, he described himself as a "conservative democrat."

To keep power in his hands, Erdogan is forced to prove that he is no less a nationalist than his political opponents. And now we see how the candidate from the ultra-nationalist Alliance of Ancestors (ATA), Sinan Ogan, who received 5% of the vote in the first round, called on his supporters to vote for Erdogan, for which he received the nickname “kingmaker” in the media. Since, thanks to the votes of his electorate, Erdogan was hardly able to snatch victory from the hands of his rival Kemal Kılıçdaroglu, who promised to expel Syrian refugees if he won, forgive loans and make free broadcasting of the matches of the national football league.

According to David Hearst, editor-in-chief of the English news site Middle East Eye: “Nor is Kilicdaroglu’s campaign of fear mere rhetoric. Blaming the victims for the disaster that created them appears to be a feature of nationalist logic.” But Erdogan did not even shame his opponent, but, as they say, “played on his field”, exploiting the very “campaign of fear” fanned by the Kemalists. In milder terms, he also promises to solve the "problem of refugees" from Syria, despite the fact that, in fulfilling America's order to stifle the revolution against its other agent - Bashar al-Assad, the Erdogan regime is one of the main perpetrators of the suffering of Muslims in Syria.

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Mustafa Amin
Member of the Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir in Ukraine