The second round of Turkey’s consequential presidential election on May 28 did not produce a surprise. Turkey’s Islamist president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, now in his third decade in power, won 52% of the national vote against 48% by Kemal Kılıcdaroglu, the opposition leader. In the first round on May 14, Erdogan and Kılıcdaroglu had won 49.5% and 45% of the vote, respectively.
A previous article summarized the result of the first round as a victory of nationalist identity politics over misery.
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Erdogan, as he has always done since coming to power in 2002, did all that he could to use state resources and the media he controls to manipulate the voters both before the May 14 vote and before the second round.
State officials who are bound by the constitution to stay neutral in politics joined Erdogan’s campaign, while blocking every opposition effort.
Read more: Gatestone Institute
