TURKEY: Strong vote result seen emboldening Turkey's scandal-hit Erdogan

Record ID: 217860

  • Title: TURKEY: Strong vote result seen emboldening Turkey's scandal-hit Erdogan
  • Date: 31st March 2014
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF CELEBRATIONS UNDERWAY/ PEOP,LE SINGING
  • Embargoed: 15th April 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAEJS6LR2NSHHVKNJD31FUWHR0Z
  • Story Text: Turkey's Premier Erdogan declares victory in polls despite graft crisis.

    Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan declared victory in local polls that had become a referendum on his rule and said he would "enter the lair" of enemies who have accused him of corruption and leaked state secrets.
    Erdogan spoke from a balcony at his AK Party headquarters to thousands of cheering supporters as early results showed it winning some 44-46 percent of the vote, and the opposition CHP trailing with 23-28 percent.
    "In this new period, Turkey needs a new opposition that will embrace its people just like the ruling party. Turkey doesn't need an opposition that encourages discrimination and polarisation but it needs an opposition that will speak the same language as 77 million," he said at a victory rally in Istanbul, referring to the population of Turkey.
    Erdogan accuses a U.S.-based Islamic cleric, a former ally, of mounting a smear campaign using a network of followers in the police force to concoct a corruption case against him. In response he has purged the police force of thousands of members.
    Last week the crisis reached a new level when a secret top-level security meeting about Syria was taped and posted on YouTube. The cleric, Fethullah Gulen, denies any involvement in the security leak or the corruption investigation.
    NATO member Turkey, under Erdogan, was long held up as a model for a Muslim democracy and indeed the prime minister carried out many reforms that eased human rights and drove the economy. But since a crackdown on anti-government protests last June he has been accused of intolerance.
    Erdogan formed AK in 2001, drawing nationalists and centre-right economic reformers as well as religious conservatives who form his base. Since his 2011 poll victory he has moved more towards these core religious supporters he sees as having been "looked down upon" over generations by an urban secular elite.
    Whatever the scale of Erdogan's victory, he will awake on Monday to a huge task in restoring control over the security apparatus of the country. Even in purging members of the police force he considers unreliable, he cannot be sure that the replacements he brings in are loyal.
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