Turkey won

With the presidential election completed yesterday, a new threshold has been crossed in Turkey's democratic history in the level and quality of democratic maturity. With a turnout once again exceeding 85 percent, the Turkish people showed, with an activity and excitement rarely matched in the world, that they are the determining actor of politics.

The votes cast by nearly 55 million citizens were counted within just 3 hours of the ballot boxes opening and uploaded to the system with full transparency, before the eyes of the world. The counts, carried out under the supervision, control and witnessing of all sides, emerged with a certainty that no one could object to.

Even this much of the event alone is a source of pride for Turkish democracy from whichever angle you look at it... It is a picture that will be slapped in the faces of those who, because Erdoğan, whom they have never managed to like, is at the head of this country, have expressed their grudge against him by finding fault with Turkish democracy as well. Erdoğan, whom they call a dictator, missed the vote share needed to be elected in the first round by only 0.48 percent. For two weeks he worked and strove, again only by democratic means, focusing on explaining himself more to the people, to raise his votes above 50 percent. As the Newsweek writer expressed very well, there is no dictator in the world who might have had to do this. Indeed, dictators do not end up in a second round, they do not wonder about election results, they do not make others wonder. Their results are known in advance. Yet as of yesterday all of Turkey and all the world were awaiting the election results with bated breath, and when the ballot boxes were opened, until the votes of the last tranche were counted, everyone held an expectation or worry of a different possibility.

In the end Erdoğan won.

More precisely, "Erdoğan won again." Defeating him at the ballot box has never fallen to anyone so far. There has never been anyone who stood against him at the ballot box and did not taste defeat. Now all the participants of the six-, seven- and eight-party table lined up against him have joined this list. He defeated, with a legendary final, the alliance formed against him that united all national, international, legal and illegal political and anti-political elements.

This victory and his rivals' defeat greatly resemble the finale experienced in 2002 against all political actors who had grown strong, during and after the 28 February process, against the people, against democracy and against politics. In that event too, Erdoğan's AK Parti, which was given no chance and whose leader was under a political ban, left all the parties below the threshold and won a majority in Parliament such as had not been seen for many years. Since that day every election has had its own story, its own struggle, its own context. As a result of all these stories the winner has always been Erdoğan.

Today too the winner was again Erdoğan. But when he himself said that his winning would not mean others' loss, his intent was not mere propaganda speech. His gain has always meant, in the past, the same thing as the gain of all the elements of Turkey. When he won, all of Turkey won, even the whole Islamic world, all the oppressed, won. To show that what I say is not an exaggeration, let me mention an event I am living right now: as of 19:00, the hour at which I sat down to write my article, as time passes I am receiving phone calls from every part of the world with congratulations and displays of joy. Callers from Yemen, Tunisia, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Egypt, Sudan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Serbia-Sandžak, the Maldives, Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania, Libya, Syria, Palestine, Eritrea and Lebanon are almost weeping with joy, all of them together thanking God and expressing their joy with an intensity of emotion impossible to describe. For two weeks I have been following groups in these countries rising together at night for tahajjud prayer and praying for Erdoğan's success. These people, who have identified their destiny with the destiny of Erdoğan and Turkey, are now, as I write, breaking in with their phones and becoming part of the flow of my article. On average two phone calls intervene between nearly every sentence I write.

Erdoğan is a great leader. In the sociological studies I did in the past on leadership, I stressed that a strong leader is one of the strongest elements of social capital for a country. By re-electing an experienced, trustworthy leader like Erdoğan, who has brought his country great successes for 21 years, Turkey has gained a great deal. Especially today, in an environment where the whole world suffers from a serious lack of strong leadership, the value that a leadership like Erdoğan's adds to the country is undoubtedly very important. The Turkish people have appreciated this value very well.

With Erdoğan's winning, all the elements of Turkey won. As they always won before. We dealt with this in more detail in our last article. Kurds and Alevis, who generally hold other political preferences, and the disadvantaged segments of society, Roma, the disabled, the poor, the oppressed, and everyone through the general services they receive, have always come out ahead from Erdoğan's politics. For 21 years there is no one he has not benefited. He benefited friend and foe alike, this is very clear. In this election too Erdoğan made no other kind of promise. However much the others, with their discourse of hatred and indigestion, could not accept him, he opened his arms to all of them without distinction and will continue to do so.

Turkey won by, so to speak, putting on a quality show for the whole world, proving its democracy to strangers and acquaintances alike. Between the results of the two rounds, nearly every vote has found its place, never missing its target, with millimetric precision. The turnout rates in the two elections are almost identical, and comparing the results of the two elections shows not that any distribution was coincidental but that it was counted very accurately. That is, this shows both how determined and conscious the voter is in his choice and how honestly the election counting system is carried out.

For instance, a notable shift of votes took place among Kurds, and it can be observed very clearly. In the first round, especially in rural areas, a serious sense of threat had been conveyed through the rumored possibility that Kılıçdaroğlu would win. When it became clear that Kılıçdaroğlu was not as close to winning as supposed, a significant Kurdish vote felt itself freed from this threat and changed its preference in the second round. Even just some of these votes played a serious role in the result turning out this way.

These results will of course be analyzed in more detail for the study of a new politics, a new vision for Turkey.

In the end Erdoğan has won, and therefore Turkey has won, with those who voted and those who did not, with all its colors and elements.

Moreover, all the world's oppressed have won. May it be blessed and auspicious.