China Daily SmartEdition

Erdogan win seen as setback for US

Election result shows tough attitude toward Washington popular among Turks, experts say

ANKARA — Incumbent Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on May 28 beat his challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu in a presidential runoff to begin his third term in office.

The election was seen as the best chance for the pro-West opposition to beat Erdogan, but the result narrowly missed Washington’s expectations.

Erdogan won 52.14 percent of the vote, compared with 47.86 percent for the 74-year-old pro-West politician, Kilicdaroglu, who represented a strong coalition of six political parties.

Neither secured more than 50 percent of the votes needed to call a winner in the first round, and a presidential election runoff was held for the first time.

There was no doubt Washington saw Kilicdaroglu as a much better choice and expected that a geopolitical shift of Turkiye might happen if he won. US Ambassador to Turkiye Jeff Flake met Kilicdaroglu in March, implying the United States would back him to be the new leader of the country.

The result, however, showed Erdogan is still dominant in his country and is also a clear sign that his tough attitude toward the US is popular among the Turkish people.

Washington has long considered that Erdogan’s administration hampers Turkiye’s democracy, and that promoting secularism is not on the agenda of Ankara. The rift between Ankara and Washington became wider due to their different values.

Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, a close ally of Erdogan, said ahead of the election that Washington is seeking to impose its hegemony on global affairs and “the whole world hates America”, and that the meeting between the US envoy and Kilicdaroglu would further alienate Ankara from Washington.

Turkiye’s balancing strategy between Russia and the US upsets Washington. The cooperation between Ankara and Moscow seems to be increasing in different dimensions. As an energy-dependent country, Turkiye receives about 45 percent of its natural gas and significant amounts of oil and coal from Russia.

After the Ukraine crisis broke out, Turkiye refused to follow Western sanctions on Russia.

Li Yanan, an expert on the Turkish issue and associate researcher at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, told Xinhua that after Erdogan’s successful reelection, he is expected to continue the balanced foreign policy and play a more important role in the Ukraine crisis, and prioritize Ankara’s own interests in its relationship with the US and the West.

On Sweden’s accession to NATO, Li said it still depends on whether Sweden can meet the conditions proposed by Erdogan.

Turkiye on May 30 called on Sweden to prosecute those responsible for projecting the flag of an outlawed group onto the parliament building in Stockholm on the day of Turkish elections.

TOP NEWS

en-us

2023-06-02T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-06-02T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://chinadaily.pressreader.com/article/281543705310413

China Daily