Erdogan wins Turkey’s election

Our live coverage of Turkey’s election has ended. Read the latest?here.

Denel Anart told CNN Erdogan was "his everything" and that she would die for him.

It is past 1 a.m. in Turkey and jubilant crowds are still celebrating President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s victory outside of his ruling party’s Istanbul headquarters.

The sky was streaked with fireworks as the air filled with chants and music.

When Erdogan started to deliver his speech from the presidential palace balcony in Ankara, supporters in Istanbul gathered to watch him on a large screen.

Yunus and Merve Gun thought about the future of their child in deciding whom to vote for.

Yunus Gun, 23, said he was confident Erdogan would overcome the country’s string of financial and political woes.

“We thought the future of our kid while we were voting … We are aware that purchasing power is low at the moment but I’m sure the circumstances will improve God willing.”

His wife, Merve, said she was soaking up the moment. “What needed to happen, happened. We are living that the moment,” she said.

Sehat Pak believes Muslims should rejoice following Erdogan's reelection win.

Others struck a more religious note.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan addresses his supporters at the Presidential Palace in Ankara on May 28.

Speaking to throngs of thousands of his supporters outside the presidential palace, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan celebrated his election to a third term as president by declaring “it is our democracy who won this election.”

Erdogan followed his calls for unity by seemingly poking fun at the opposition CHP party for an electoral move that effectively gave members of allied political parties seats in parliament. During the campaign, Erdogan and his AKP party repeatedly criticized Kilicdaroglu as an inept negotiator.

Inflation: Erdogan said the most urgent topic his government faces is “eliminating the problems caused by price increases caused by inflation and compensating for welfare losses.”

Earthquake recovery: Erdogan said that with the election over, it is time to “allocate all our time and energy to working and serving.”

“Healing the wounds of the earthquake and resurrecting our destroyed cities will continue to be at the top of our priorities,” he said.

Refugee return: Erdogan also vowed to resettle 1 million Syrian refugees who had fled their country due to war.

“To date, we have voluntarily returned nearly 600,000 people to safe areas in Syrian territory. With a new resettlement project we are carrying out with Qatar, we will ensure the return of 1 million more people in a few years,” Erdogan said.

Erdogan, who has previously dismissed calls for comprehensive deportation, told CNN earlier this month that he would ?“encourage” around a million refugees to return to Syria.?

US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak both tweeted congratulatory messages to Recep Tayyip Erdogan after he won Sunday’s runoff election.

Biden said he looked forward “to continuing to work together as NATO Allies on bilateral issues and shared global challenges.”

Sunak’s statement was similar. The British leader said he looked forward, “to continuing the strong collaboration between our countries, from growing trade to tackling security threats as NATO allies.”

Supporters of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan wait for him to make a speech at the Presidential Palace in Ankara on May 28.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has arrived at the Presidential Palace to address massive crowds of supporters after being elected to his third term in power, according to a statement from the country’s presidency.

Erdogan began the evening in Istanbul and greeted supporters outside his residence there. Before the results were made official, Erdogan appeared to take a victory lap, singing in celebration on top of a campaign bus. Addressing a large crowd of jubilant supporters waving the Turkish flag, he thanked the nation.

He later hopped on a plane for the 45-minute flight from Istanbul to Ankara, the capital.

After he was officially declared the winner, Erdogan tweeted:?“With the great Turkey victory … let the century of Turkey begin!”

Leaders from around the globe continue to send their congratulations to Erdogan.

Here are some of the latest messages:

President Tayyip Erdogan addresses his supporters in Istanbul on May 28.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will extend his 20 years at the top of Turkey’s political landscape after winning the country’s presidential runoff election on Sunday.

Erdogan received 27,513,587 votes, or 52.14% of the votes cast, according to figures released by the country’s Supreme Election Council, beating challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu who had 25,260,109 votes, or 47.86%.

Turkey’s Supreme Election Council has declared President Recep Tayyip Erdogan the winner of Turkey’s presidential runoff election on Sunday.

Turkish presidential candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu delivers a speech at the CHP headquarters in Ankara, Turkey, on May 28.

Presidential candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu said he would continue to fight for “real democracy” in Turkey in a speech from his party headquarters in Ankara.

Although the address had echoes of a concession speech, Kilicdaroglu did not outright admit defeat. However, he said what “truly makes me sad is the hard days ahead for our country.”

Kilicdaroglu also referenced?allegations that Erdogan galvanized his supporters by hurling unfounded claims at his opponents. Erdogan has accused Kilicdaroglu of colluding with Kurdish terror groups and repeatedly referred to the opposition leader — a member of the liberal Muslim Alevi minority — as a not-good-enough Muslim.

“This was the most unfair election period in our history … We did not bow down to the climate of fear,” Kilicdaroglu said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin joined a chorus of world leaders congratulating Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday over the runoff election results, although votes are still being counted and official results have yet to be released.

Though Turkey is a member of the NATO alliance that Russia views as an existential threat, Erdogan and Putin have what the Turkish President called a “special” relationship. Erdogan said in an exclusive interview ahead of the presidential election runoff that the two nations “need each other in every field possible.”

Putin is one of several world leaders who have congratulated Erdogan as results have started come in.

Here are some of the messages Erdogan has received so far:

Supporters of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan celebrate in Istanbul's Taksim Square on May 28.

Official election results have yet to come in, but President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s supporters have already begun celebrating in Istanbul.

In Taksim Square, people gathered chanted Erdogan’s name and “God is Great.”

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Outside the Istanbul headquarters for Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party, hundreds of people began pouring in?after the first round of preliminary results showed Erdogan in the lead. Some came with children, while others waved flags, honked car horns and set off flares and fireworks.

Erdogan supporters gather outside the AKP headquarters after preliminary results showed him in the lead on May 28.

Erdogan supporters celebrate outside the AKP headquarters in Istanbul on May 28.

Erdogan supporters celebrate in Istanbul on May 28.

Supporters of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have taken to the streets to celebrate the Turkish leader’s lead in the preliminary vote count of Sunday’s presidential runoff.

But the gap between Erdogan and his rival Kemal Kilicdaraglou is narrow, despite Erdogan having won the endorsement of the race’s third-place candidate Sinan Ogan, analysts say.

Erdogan has presided over high inflation and a cost of living crisis, a situation blamed largely on the president’s unorthodox economic policies. His opponents say his control over state resources and affiliation with the country’s media helped sway the vote in his favor.

Mehmet Karli, adviser to Kilicdaroglu, called Erdogan’s apparent election win a “pyrrhic victory” accusing the president of fueling tensions during the election.

“It does appear that President Erdogan has won these elections. But it would be a mistake to call this a victory. Perhaps a Pyrrhic victory is a better term to describe this situation,” Karli said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses a crowd of supporters in Istanbul on May 28.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addressed a large crowd of visitors outside his residence in Istanbul, declaring victory despite the fact that no official result has been declared in Sunday’s presidential runoff election.

Erdogan also thanked the nation for giving Turkey a “day of democracy.”

Erdogan is leading challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu in the latest official tally from Turkey’s Supreme Election Council. With about 75.42% of the vote counted Erdogan is leading Kilicdaroglu by 53.41% to 46.59%.

Turkey’s Supreme Election Council has given another update on the vote count in the country’s runoff election to decide its next president.

With about 75.42% of the vote counted, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan leads Kemal Kilicdaroglu 53.41% to 46.59%.

Here’s a breakdown of the numbers in Turkey and abroad:

Domestic ballots

Overseas ballots

Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Kemal Kilicdaroglu.

Turkey’s Supreme Election Council said President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is leading challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu in the latest preliminary official count of ballots.

The council said 54.6% of all votes have already been counted. Erdogan netted 54.47% of those ballots, while Kilicdaroglu has won 45.53% of them.

The Supreme Election Council will disclose the contest’s official results. Most of the results reported so far have been unofficial tallies from Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency.

Clerks count ballots in Istanbul, Turkey, after polls closed on May 28.

Unofficial results from Turkish state-run Anadolu news agency show a tight race in Istanbul between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu.

With 85.70% votes in, Erdogan is trailing Kilicdaroglu 51.30% to 48.70% in the city.

Istanbul, with more than 15 million people, is Turkey’s largest population center and an important electoral bellwether. While the center-left Kilicdaroglu typically performs better in urban areas than the conservative Erdogan, the race in Istanbul was tight during the election’s first round. Kilicdaroglu won 48.56% of the vote there two weeks ago, but Erdogan came in a close second with 46.68%

Recep Tayyip Erdogan maintains a slight lead in his race for a historic third term as Turkey’s president. His lead against opponent Kemal Kilicdaroglu has, however, dwindled as preliminary results continue to come in from state-run news agency Anadolu.

Here are the latest numbers from Anadolu:

Figures published by Anadolu are unofficial. The official result of the election will be published by Turkey’s Supreme Election Council.

A woman casts her vote during Turkey's general election on May 14, in Istanbul, Turkey.

High in voters’ concerns is the?state of the economy?and the damage?caused by the earthquake. Even before the February disaster, Turkey was struggling with rising prices and a?currency crisis?that in October saw inflation hit 85%.

That hit the purchasing power of the public and is “fundamentally the reason why Erdogan’s popularity has been eroded,” said Sinan Ulgen, a former Turkish diplomat and chairman of Istanbul-based think-tank EDAM. “That is going to be the major handicap for Erdogan,” he said.

Voters also cast their ballots based on whom they see as more capable of managing the fallout from the earthquake, as well as shielding the country from future disasters, analysts say, adding that Erdogan’s popularity had not taken the expected political impact.

Apart from the economy and the government’s management of Turkey’s frequent natural disasters, voters are likely concerned with Erdogan’s turn away from democracy – something the opposition campaigned to reverse.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks at a campaign rally on May 27, in Istanbul, Turkey.

With more than 71% of the votes counted, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan continues to lead challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu in today’s runoff election, according to preliminary unofficial results from the country’s state-run Anadolu news agency.

Here are the latest numbers from Anadolu:

Results published by Anadolu are unofficial. The official result of the election will be published by Turkey’s Supreme Election Council.

Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, left, meets Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in Astana, Kazakhstan, on October 13.

Turkey has a “special” and growing relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin despite mounting pressure on Ankara to help bolster Western sanctions against Moscow, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in an exclusive interview ahead of the presidential election runoff.

“Russia and Turkey need each other in every field possible,” he added.

Erdogan and his principal rival, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, have diverged on a number of foreign policy issues, including diplomacy with the West and Russia.

Kilicdaroglu has vowed to repair years of strained diplomacy with the West.

He has also said he would not seek to emulate Erdogan’s personality-driven relationship with Putin, and instead recalibrate Ankara’s relationship to Moscow to be “state-driven.”

But in the days leading up to the first round of the presidential race on May 14, Kilicdaroglu sharpened his tone on the Kremlin, accusing it of meddling in Turkey’s election and threatening to rupture the relationship between the two countries.

By contrast, Erdogan has doubled down on his relationship with Putin – and he thinks the West should follow suit. “The West is not leading a very balanced approach,” he told CNN. “You need a balanced approach towards a country such as Russia, which would have been a much more fortunate approach.”

Some background: Turkey, a NATO member that has the alliance’s second-largest army, has strengthened its ties with Russia, and in 2019?even bought weapons?from it in defiance of the US.?Erdogan has raised eyebrows in the West by continuing to maintain close relations with Russia as it continues its Ukraine onslaught, and has caused a headache for NATO’s expansion plans by stalling the membership of Finland and Sweden.

When the US Ambassador to Ankara Jeff Flake paid a visit in March to Kilicdaroglu Erdogan lashed out against him, calling the US diplomat’s visit a “shame,” and warning that Turkey needs to “teach the US a lesson in this election.”

Analysts have said that even if Erdogan were to be ousted in the polls, a foreign policy u-turn for Turkey is not a given. While?figures close to the opposition?have indicated that if victorious, it would reorient Turkey back to the West, others say core foreign policy issues are likely to remain unchanged.

Turkey has, however, also been useful to its Western allies under Erdogan. Last year Ankara?helped mediate?a landmark grains export deal between Ukraine and Russia, and even provided Ukraine with drones that played a part in countering Russian attacks.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan still believes he’s right, and most of the rest of the world is wrong, when it comes to fighting inflation.

In an?exclusive interview with CNN, Erdogan promised to continue cutting interest rates to tackle soaring prices if he is re-elected on Sunday.

Investors have already been unnerved by the prospect that he might extend his 20-year rule: Turkish stocks tumbled Monday and the?Turkish lira slumped to a new record low?against the US dollar.

The currency crashed by more than 40% last year as Erdogan’s economic policies fueled a jump in inflation.

“I have a thesis that interest rates and inflation, they are directly correlated. The lower the interest rates, the lower the inflation will be,” Erdogan told CNN.

As price hikes?started to accelerate around the world in late 2021, Erdogan ordered Turkey’s central bank to slash interest rates. The annual rate of consumer price inflation hit 85% last October, before slowing to 44% in April.

“President Erdogan’s unexpectedly strong showing in Turkey’s presidential election on Sunday means that a return to orthodox policymaking looks as far away as ever,” James Reilly, an assistant economist at Capital Economics, said in a note on Monday. “As a consequence, the Turkish lira looks set to remain under serious pressure this year.”

Runaway prices?have hurt the Turkish economy as it struggles to recover from a devastating earthquake in February.

“Turkey will need to curb inflation, safeguard financial stability, and put the economy on a path of sustainable growth regardless of the results of the elections,” JPMorgan analysts noted on Monday, adding that the outlook for the country would depend on the extent to which it shifted back toward the economic mainstream. “If policies are shifted to greater orthodoxy, the disinflation process will be faster.”

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan lead slipped slightly in the latest tally of preliminary unofficial election results, the country’s state-run Anadolu news agency reported. However, the incumbent remains ahead of rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu.

Here are the latest numbers from Anadolu:

Results published by Anadolu are unofficial. The official result of the election will be published by Turkey’s Supreme Election Council.

Electoral officials count ballots on May 28, in Kahramanmaras, Turkey.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan appears to have an early lead in the Turkish presidential runoff election, according to preliminary early results published by the country’s state-run Anadolu news agency.

Erdogan has won 58% of the 35.81% of the vote counted, while his challenger, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, has netted 42%. Voter turnout was 84.57%.

Results published by Anadolu are unofficial. The official result of the election will be published by Turkey’s Supreme Election Council.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his main rival,?opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, concluded their election campaigns with a similar public flourish.

Erdogan prayed at the Hagia Sophia, the Istanbul mosque and former church which the Turkish government in 1934 turned into a museum out of respect for both its Byzantine and Ottoman histories. Erdogan controversially annulled that decision in 2020, one of the many populist moves that have peppered his career.

Meanwhile, Kilicdaroglu marked the eve of the vote by laying flowers at the tomb of?Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Turkish Republic who spearheaded the secularization of the country.

The optics seemed to mirror Turkey’s deepening polarization.

A religious fervor underpins much of Erdogan’s support, which appears to have barely been dented by the flailing economy or the government’s shambolic early response to the earthquake, exacerbating a tragedy that claimed over 50,000 lives in Turkey and neighboring Syria.

Outside AK Party headquarters on the night of the first round of presidential votes, that religious sentiment was widespread. “I am afraid. I am worried about him losing,” said Seda Yavuz, a visibly nervous Erdogan supporter. “I am worried that someone else will win. I worry because we are Muslims and we wish for someone Muslim to be our president.”

“I trust the Turkish people. I trust that he is going to win,” another woman, Gozde Demirci, said.

“This is freedom,” said the impassioned Demirci, pointing to her headscarf. Erdogan lifted restrictions on hijab in the public sector in 2013, hailing it as the end of a “dark time.”

“I have this freedom because of him (Erdogan),” she continued. “They (the opposition) don’t want this. They don’t want freedom.”

That support for the sitting president was not properly captured by pollsters and Western media, Mehmet Celik, editorial coordinator of the pro-Erdogan Daily Sabah newspaper told CNN.

Erdogan’s critics argue that he further galvanized his support base by levelling unsupported allegations at the opposition camp. He accused Kilicdaroglu of colluding with Kurdish terror groups and repeatedly referred to the opposition leader — a member of the liberal Muslim Alevi minority — as a not-good-enough Muslim.

“This strategy of ‘not good Muslim and backed by terrorists’ appealed to right-wing voters that were supposed to pick Kilicdaroglu,” said Soner Cagaptay, senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Faik Oztrak gives a speech in Ankara, Turkey in 2019.

The spokesman for Turkey’s main opposition party, Faik Oztrak, seemingly warned President Recep Tayyip Erdogan against carrying out any speeches to supporters until the official election results have been announced.

Oztrak, like Erdogan, has asked ballot?box observers to stay put?at posts?until results are finalized. Every Turkish citizen has a right to watch the vote count at their ballot boxes.

When a decision might come:? Results are expected sooner than the first round, according to Oztrak, “because we’re voting for two candidates only.”

“We invite all the officials to act with common sense and fulfil their duties adequately,” Oztrak said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrives to vote at a polling station in Istanbul, Turkey, on Sunday, May 28.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan asked his supporters “to stay at the ballot boxes until results are finalized” through his official Twitter account Sunday.

Every Turkish citizen has a right to watch the vote count at their ballot boxes, and doing so has become something of a tradition in Turkey.

Both candidates are encouraging their voters to watch ballots being counted.

Presidential candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu casts his vote at a polling station in Ankara, Turkey, on Sunday, May 28.

Polls have closed in Turkey, where President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu are facing off in the country’s runoff election.

Both men voted earlier in the day. Erdogan cast his ballot at a voting center in Istanbul, while his rival voted in Ankara, the capital.

Here’s what they told reporters at the polls:

Erdogan:

Kilicdaroglu:

Leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP) Kemal Kilicdaroglu speaks during his party's group meeting at the Turkish Grand National Assembly in Ankara, Turkey, on January 24.

Leader of Turkey’s secular and center-left Republican People’s Party (CHP), Kemal Kilicdaroglu (pronounced?Ke-lich-dar-ou-loo) is widely seen as everything President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is not.

A lawmaker representing the CHP since 2002 – the same year that saw Erdogan’s AK Party rise to power – Kilicdaroglu, 74, climbed up the political ladder to become his party’s seventh chairman in 2010.

Born in the eastern, Kurdish-majority province of Tunceli, the party leader ran in Turkey’s 2011 general election but lost, coming second to Erdogan and his AK Party.

Kilicdaroglu represents the party formed 100 years ago by?Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founding father of modern Turkey and a die-hard secularist. He stands in stark contrast to Erdogan’s Islamist-rooted party and its conservative base.

Despite his secular leanings, however, the opposition candidate and his alliance have vowed to represent all factions of Turkish society, which analysts say was demonstrated in his diverse coalition.

Sometimes referred to as “Ghandhi Kemal” for both his physical resemblance to India’s Mahatma Ghandhi as well as his humble decorum, Kilicdaroglu is seen as Erdogan’s polar opposite, analysts say.

While both Kilicdaroglu and Erdogan hail from humble socio-economic backgrounds, “they evolved to be completely different creatures,” says Murat Somer, a political science professor at Koc University in Istanbul.

Symbolically, “Erdogan is the shopkeeper, Kilicdaroglu is the bureaucrat,” said Somer, referring to Erdogan’s businessman-like approach, as opposed to that of Kilicdaroglu, who Somer says is more committed to procedure.

“Kilicdaroglu will try to fight corruption and also bring past corruptions to justice,” he said.

Read the full story:

Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu and his wife Selvi Kilicdaroglu pose to the media during a rally on May 21, 2022 in Istanbul, Turkey.

Related article Erdogan's 'polar opposite' wants to replace him as president of Turkey | CNN

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, centre, stands with rescue workers as he visits the hard-hit southeastern province of Hatay, Turkey, on February 20.

Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s rise to power was ushered in by the contentious political aftermath of the 1999 Izmit earthquake. So when another devastating quake laid waste to large swathes of southeast Turkey earlier this year, many observers expected the president’s two-decade rule to?end with a full circle.

Instead, Erdogan appears to have?defied the odds.

The first round of Turkey’s presidential and parliamentary voting on May 14 made him the frontrunner in the race that pollsters predicted?could unseat him.

This week, the third-place presidential candidate Sinan Ogan,?publicly endorsed Erdogan, further boosting his chances against Kilicdaroglu in the runoff election.

“It will be the people who will be the kingmakers, and when the people decide, I believe they will stand with those who have successfully served the Turkish nation for the last 21 years,” Erdogan told CNN’s Becky Anderson in an?exclusive interview?last week.

During that interview, the president tried to burnish his credentials, skirting over the country’s years-long financial crisis and his government’s shortcomings in rescue operations after the catastrophic?February earthquake.

He dismissed the 74-year-old Kilicdaroglu as a political amateur. The two rivals have fashioned their campaigns as an array of contrasts. While Erdogan aimed to showcase his political prowess and repeatedly touted Turkey’s rapidly growing defense industry, Kilicdaroglu presented himself as the quintessential technocrat: softspoken, level-headed and conciliatory.

Six right- and left-wing opposition groups united behind Kilicdaroglu in an unprecedented bid to unseat the sitting president, and cast a wide net over Turkish voters. They hoped to seize on public disgruntlement over a floundering economy and the aftermath of the quake. Erdogan, on the other hand, focused on reinvigorating his conservative strongholds.

Read the full story here:

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a public gathering at Republic Square in Sivas, Turkey on Tuesday.

Related article A catastrophic quake could have ended Erdogan's rule. He's now poised to win the election | CNN

People hold a ballot at a polling station in Ankara, Turkey, on May 28.

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of a hugely significant election in Turkey.

Millions of voters across the country are casting their ballots in a runoff on Sunday after longtime leader?President Recep Tayyip Erdogan?was forced into a?second round?against his chief opposition rival, Kemal Kilicdaroglu.

The turnout in the first round was extraordinarily high in the presidential and parliamentary elections on May 14, at 88.92% of the 64 million eligible voters in Turkey and overseas, according to the election council.

Neither candidate achieved the required 50% to take the presidency outright in the first round, but Erdogan did secure a comfortable lead over Kilicdaroglu. The president won 49.5% of votes over Kilicdaroglu’s 44.9%.

That lead, and his endorsement by ultranationalist candidate?Sinan Ogan, who came in third in the first round, position Erdogan as favorite to win a third five-year term in office.

Polls close at 5 p.m. local time and results are expected a few hours after that. We will bring you the results as they happen.