The May 14 presidential and parliamentary elections proved to the world the strength of Turkish democracy, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Thursday.
Saying that the elections led to the understanding of many realities, Erdoğan wrote on Twitter: “On May 14, we not only saw the strength of Turkish democracy at the ballot box but also witnessed the deflation of the 'perception bubbles.'"
The president was referring to the biased news reports on Turkish elections. Prior to the election results, Western media and officials had spurred anti-Erdoğan rhetoric and openly voiced support for Kılıçdaroğlu. One such example was The Economist conveniently ignoring the democratic process in Türkiye and urging Turks to “kick Erdoğan out” on May 14.
Erdoğan said that “sneaky psychological operations” were carried out against Türkiye in the international media but that with the elections all these were refuted.
“We have shown that the dictatorship claims are pure nonsense. We showed our nation that it is not possible to adjust from the covers of magazines,” he underlined.
Referring to the opposition, he continued to say: “We have shown that elections cannot be won with lies, slander and the politics of fear. We showed it is impossible to enter the hearts of the people with hate speech. We have shown that it is not possible to walk with separatists and FETÖ members for the sake of political gain.”
The opposition has increasingly adopted hardline rhetoric following the first round of elections, claiming that the Turkish economy would go bankrupt if the incumbent wins and calling for the return of refugees to their countries. On Wednesday, he signed a protocol with the Victory Party (ZP), which vowed to return refugees within a year “if needed forcefully.”
Millions of voters went to the polls on May 14 to elect the country's president and members of its 600-seat Parliament.
Erdoğan's People's Alliance won a majority in Parliament, while the presidential race is headed to a second round on May 28.
Erdoğan will face Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the leader of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) and joint candidate for the six-party opposition Nation Alliance, in the runoff vote.
Erdoğan finished the first round with 49.52% of the vote, while Kilicdaroglu came second at 44.88%, and Sinan Oğan of the ATA Alliance got 5.17%. Oğan recently endorsed Erdoğan in the May 28 presidential runoff.
