Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling AK party claimed a decisive victory in country’s presidential and parliamentary election. The decisive victory indicated a clear victory over what was defined as the most significant electoral challenge to the long-time Turkish leader and his Islamist faction. The head of Turkey’s electoral board said Erdogan had won an absolute majority, with more than 97 percent of votes counted.
Among other pledges, President Erdogan vowed to step-up Ankara’s resolve in battling against terrorist organizations, while revealing his plan of expanding the Turkish military’s operation in its southern neighbor, Syria – to conquer Syrian lands that will provide a home for millions of Syrian refugees that currently reside in Turkey.
Turnout for Turkey’s presidential and parliamentary elections was very high, at around 87 per cent. While Erdogan is not short of critics among the international community, which accuses him of Authoritarianism, the elections results clearly indicate Erdogan’s brand of nationalist conservatism still speaks to huge swathes of Turkey’s population.