Erdoğan wins Turkish elections

The people affirm the turn to the East and South

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan addresses supporters after election victory

     Türkiye recently has emerged to play an important role in the construction of an alternative pluripolar world, in cooperation with China and Russia as well as key powers in the Middle East and progressive governments in Latin America and the Caribbean, thus breaking its previous subordination to Western geopolitical interests.  The architect of this turn has been President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has been in power since 2003, first as Prime Minister and later as President. 

      In the recent presidential and parliamentary elections, the people have affirmed their support for this turn to the East and the South.  In the first round of the elections on May 14, Erdoğan received 49.52% of the votes cast.  His chief rival, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, won 44.8% of the vote, with Sinan Oğan, the candidate of the ATA Alliance, receiving 5.2%.  Over 64 million citizens, including overseas voters, were eligible to vote, and nearly 89% voted.  In the May 28 run-off elections, Erdoğan received 52.17% and Kılıçdaroğlu obtained 47.82%, with a participation rate of 84.15%.

     Daily Sabah, an English digital newspaper in Istanbul, observed that this was Erdoğan’s sixteenth victory in elections where he ran as prime minister or president or in which he supported a critical referendum, although it was the first in which he faced a run-off.  He declared following the first round that the elections were held in peace and in a festive, positive, and democratic environment, with the highest voter turnout in the history of the nation and one of the highest in the world.  He maintained that “Türkiye once again proved it is among the world's leading democracies.” 

      The citizens of Türkiye were called to elect the nation´s thirteenth president and the 600 members of its Parliament, a little more than three months following two catastrophic earthquakes that killed more than 50,000 people and left millions displaced and homeless, and in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis caused by global economic factors.  The opposition had hoped that the nation’s economic difficulties and the earthquakes would carry them to victory, but there was little change in the parliamentary representation in the eleven provinces affected by the disaster. 

     President Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) is the leading party in the People’s Alliance, a coalition of six parties.  Kılıçdaroğlu, Chair of the Republican People’s Party, headed the National Alliance, an opposition bloc of six parties.  In the parliamentary elections, the Justice and Development Party won 268 seats, and its People’s Alliance retained a comfortable majority with 324 of the 600 seats, as against 213 seats for the National Alliance. 

      The Western media had campaigned against Erdoğan, because of his leadership in reorienting the foreign policy of Türkiye toward cooperation with China and Russia and with the emerging powers of various regions of the global South, taking the nation away from the Western-centered world-economy, which is increasingly demonstrating its incapacity to remount its colonial and imperialist foundations.  The Economist was especially visible in an intensive campaign against Erdoğan and in support of opposition candidates, joined by news agencies in France, Germany, and Switzerland. 

      Kilicgdaroglu presented during the campaign a program for the restauration of ties with the United States, the European Union, and NATO, whereas Erdoğan advocated maintaining his independentist position in defense of national interests, including the right to maintain mutually beneficial commercial relations with Russia, without sanctions being applied by the USA.  The President also pointed out his mediating role in the war in Ukraine, and the fact that Türkiye has become a decisive actor in the region.  In this type of ideological division, the West possesses a certain attractiveness among the people because of its wealth; but on the other hand, there are anti-US sentiments among the Turk people, because of Washington’s policy of interference and promotion of protests in countries in which its interests are at stake.

      The Western media apparently has accepted the results, and it does not appear poised to mount a “color revolution.”  To the contrary, the media extensively covered Erdoğan’s victory in the May 28 runoff elections, stressing its importance, because of the global and regional significance of Türkiye.   

     Following the announcement of the results of the May 28 run-off elections, leaders from around the world sent congratulations and well wishes, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.  French head of state Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pakistan Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif pledged cooperation.  U.S. President Joe Biden tweeted that he hoped to work with Erdoğan on “global challenges.”

     In my commentary of December 6, 2022, I reviewed several articles in Daily Sabah that were putting forth the thesis that a multipolar world vision has become central to Turkish diplomacy, despite Türkiye’s longstanding membership in NATO. 

      In accordance with the turn of Türkiye to participation in the construction of a pluripolar world order, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel included visits to Ankara and Istanbul in his four-nation tour from November 16 to November 26, 2022, which also included visits to Algeria, Russia, and China.

The need for the education of the people

     The electoral results in Türkiye have global implications, because they show the capacity of leaders to move away from the West and maintain the support of their peoples, in spite of the social media campaigns launched against them from the centers of wealth and power.

     In a referendum between a candidate who stands for the construction of a more just world order and one who stands for subordination to Western imperialism, the former ought to attain majorities of 60-65%, not merely 52%.  There are various factors that drive the more limited showing, which is a typical phenomenon.  In the particular case of the 2023 elections in Türkiye, the current high rate of inflation has to be considered a factor.  But more generally, the problem is the limited philosophical, historical, and political consciousness of the people.  Most persons think in concrete terms and have not learned to see things in context.  For example, most people think that the wealth of the West makes Western places desirable, and they have not fully understood the colonial foundation of the development of the West.

     This fact points to the road to personal fulfillment for all of us, of all classes, colors, ages, and genders.  Namely, the path of people’s education.  We should dedicate ourselves, in the first place, to educating ourselves; and as an integral dimension of the pursuit of knowledge, to developing and contributing to people’s schools, in places of work, formal study, worship, and in neighborhoods.  Schools with a curriculum based on the teachings of the great revolutionaries, from Toussaint to Fidel, that have been lifted up by the struggles of our peoples for social justice.

    Unlike formal study, people’s schools would issue certificates, not diplomas or degrees, because they will have nothing to do with employment.  Their purpose is to contribute to the construction of a more just world, thereby providing opportunities for personal meaning and fulfillment.

     The tendencies in the world today point to the emergence of a more just, pluripolar, prosperous, and safe world.  Western imperialism is the driving force in maintaining the established exploitative and violent neocolonial world order, and Western imperialism is in decadence.  Its spokespersons increasingly demonstrate, for all the world to see, their incapacity to understand and resolve problems.  The truth in the teachings of the great revolutionary leaders in increasingly evident.  As this dynamic unfolds, more and more persons will find within themselves the desire to participate in the construction of a more just world. 

     We should know that the teachings of the revolutionaries have nothing in common with post-truth and post-modern assumptions.  The teachings of the revolutionaries are fully consistent with, and a further elaboration of, the ancient teachings of humanity, especially those of the prophets of ancient Israel, Catholic philosophy and liberation theology, and the revelations to the Prophet Mohammad.  Such teachings are the foundation of both social justice and personal meaning.

      And we should know that the teachings of the great modern revolutionaries are consistent with modern political philosophies.  They stand for a republican order, in which each individual has constitutionally guaranteed rights.  They stand for a democratic order, with equality of opportunity in education and employment for all, regardless of class, color, or gender; and with minimum human needs provided for all, regardless of any human imperfections those in need may have.  And they stand for a socialist order, in which political power is in the hands of the delegates and deputies of the people, and in which the necessary role of the state in stimulating sustainable economic productivity is understood.

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