Erdoğan elected for another term in Turkish presidential elections
In Turkey, Erdoğan has won the second round of the presidential election with 52% of the votes. Erdoğan has been the president for 20 years and was now elected to a another five year term.
Again, the election campaigns of both candidates relied in splitting the people and stirring up chauvinism, while also trying to sell the masses the illusion of elections as the moment of ”change”. Just ahead of the elections, Kılıçdaroğlu, the candidate of the ecclectic alliance consisting of various parties opposed to Erdoğan, gave rampant anti-immigrant and nationalist speeches, promising to send all refugees back where they came from if he was elected, in an desperate attempt to win over votes from Erdoğan.
Many irregularities in the election process and State terror were reported from around the country. In many places, there was reports of voting twice, voting without ID or voting collectively, with multiple people entering the voting booth at the same time. In a village in Antakya, the village headman and his relatives attacked election observers who objected to multiple people trying to enter the voting booth at the same time and to voting without ID. The observers were beaten by the crowd, but the police at the scene did nothing to stop this from happening. In Cizre district of Şırnak police fired tear gas and rubber bullets on the people waiting to cast their votes. After the result was announced, many AKP supporters ”celebrated” by going out to the streets and attacking people. In the Nusaybin district of Mardin a man was seriously injured and risks to lose his eye because of an attack by his neighbor, who was shooting around on the election night. Kurdish families were attacked in Alanya by AKP supporters, who opened fire at their homes and chanted chauvinist slogans at them. The attack was reported to the police, who did not take any action.
Bourgeois analysts estimate that there will not be a major change in the policies of the Turkish State. Despite media outcry of ”authoritarianism”, leaders of imperialist countries rushed to congratulate Erdoğan, highlighting Turkey as ”a valuable partner and ally”, expressing their willingness to keep on exploiting the oppressed nation. The US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken also praised the high turnout of the elections as a proof of a ”long democratic tradition” in Turkey. It is expected that the US will solidify its hegemony in Turkey in the future by making a deal on the sale of the F-16 fighter jets, in the face of concerns of Erdoğan holding too good relations to Russian imperialism. However, these relations are also beneficial for the US, as Turkey serves as a direct intermediator between NATO and Russia when needed. An analyst of the newspaper the Guardian also points out that in the question of refugees, the win of Erdoğan is a relief to the EU, as major deportations proposed by Kılıçdaroğlu might have meant more people attempting to enter Europe, and it is estimated that Erdoğan will stick to the deals made.
In upcoming days we will most certainly publish more analysis on this matter, but for now one thing is clear: the opportunists who called to vote for the “lesser evil”, the kemalist fascist Kılıçdaroğlu, are the real losers of the election, with their participation they have legitimized the election fraud and betrayed the path of the people.
