You cannot understand Turkey from social media flooded with huge numbers of trolls who do not have a real personality like the army of Gog and Magog, or from opinion polls that are created based on their wishes, requests and dreams rather than reality, or from the thunderous shouting of callers who cover all voices because their voice is louder than everyone. The Turkey narrated by all these channels is different from the Turkey narrated by the ballot boxes that reflected the results of the most honest opinion polls.
Erdogan received 49.5 percent of the vote in the presidential election. Now the overall picture is almost clear: it is true that we are in the process of a second round of elections, but we can confidently say that in this situation Recep Tayyip Erdogan will have managed to win all the elections he has fought under the leadership of the Justice and Development Party for 21 years.
On the other hand, it is also clear that rival candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has repeatedly experienced losing in all the elections he has fought against Erdogan so far. He showed that he was a loser in this election as well, with as few votes as 44%. And the fact that it is far from the victory predictions that have been talked about so far according to all productive perceptions will not change.
Also, when a share of the vote is distributed in parallel with the presidential elections to the parliamentary elections, it turns out that the People's Alliance – led by Erdogan – won a majority in parliament. In fact, it is this situation that refutes the predictions we have been hearing for months, "even if he is elected president, he will not win a majority of parliament." Although we are heading into a second presidential election, the party in the People's Alliance won a majority in parliament, which would provide a clear advantage in a possible second round.
On the other hand, the picture so far does not hold any surprise for those who follow Turkey closely and realistically, but for those who follow this country from social media or some media circles, this is of course a big surprise, especially in recent times, it is impossible not to be strongly affected by those who trusted the polling companies that have presented with all effort and high analytical performance for many years the concept of "credibility" as propaganda material for the CHP. Even these companies did not hesitate to tell their Western customers that Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu would finish the job from the first round and with a difference of at least 7-8 points.
Western media such as The Economist, Le Point, Le Express, Der Spiegel, and The Independent may have relied on the reports of these companies, ignored all principles of journalism and customs, and boldly showed their readers as a CHP propaganda pamphlet.
They even ignored Erdogan, portrayed by the CHP as a "dictator" and all his alliances in the process, as coming up with an election process. Erdogan, who ruled through elections for 21 years, did not remain in power for a day through any means outside of elections. If he were a dictator, there would be a lot of ambiguity in the election results even at the time we write this article.
However, as in every election, Erdogan worked more than everyone else in this election, visiting the entire country with a "superhuman" performance, introducing himself to the people, telling them about his problems and vision, and asking them to vote; while one of his rivals was subjected to a thousand kinds of intrigue, threats, and blackmail just in order to agree on one candidate to come out in front of him. The persuasion process wrapped in blackmail and tactics used to unite everyone on one candidate is an example being slapped in the faces of those who call Erdogan repressive and dictatorial.
Entering elections under normal conditions during government is not an advantage, on the contrary, it is a great burden. In Turkey, which has been hit by the pandemic and economic problems caused by the Ukraine-Russia war in the last five years, despite the earthquake and common boredom, Erdogan once again managed to garner 50% of the vote. In the previous election, he had broken a record unprecedented in Turkey's history and would be difficult to replicate. But back-to-back election wins are not easy for anyone, and this points to Erdogan's strong bond with his people, and that bond has been reaffirmed today.
No matter what people say, this high turnout is a clear demonstration of a deep belief in politics in Turkey, and no one can question the quality of democracy in a place where people think they can change things through politics. But the quality that people display in politics is another issue. Blaming the winner as a dictator or tyrant for not getting the desired result is nothing but evasion and intransigence by not accepting reality.
In sum, there were beautiful elections. Turkish democracy won, and Erdogan won again.
Mubarak, and we hope that you will bring good to our nation.