How did the British Media see the Presidential Election of TURKEY?

Turkey’s

Presidential Election has been resulted. As expected, The PM Recep Tayyip

Erdogan is the 12th President of the Republic of Turkey. The result

marked a personal triumph for Erdogan, 60, who has served as premier since 2003

and could potentially be president for two mandates, until 2024.

In this work,

we tried to focus on how the British newspapers saw the results. For this work,

we collected some of well-known and top newspapers published in the UK. These

are: Observer, BBC, The Guardian, The Valley Star, The Independent, The Sun

Daily, The Telegraphy, and Reuters.

As much as we worked

on, the British newspapers are afraid of the new era of Turkey. In their

columns, we see that Mr. Erdogan, the 12th President of the Republic

of Turkey, will switch the country to a more authoritarian state although he got

over %50 of votes. They also gave importance to the fact that millions of

voters who did not use vote clarified the election.

The

news in the British media on Turkey’s Presidential Election

• The
  
  Observer

“Tayyip Erdogan

secured his place in history as Turkey’s first directly elected head of state

on Sunday; taking him a step closer to the presidential system he covets in a

result his opponents fear heralds an increasingly authoritarian rule.”

• BBC

“Recep Tayyip

Erdogan wins Turkish presidential election”

Turkish

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has won his country's first direct

presidential election.

With almost all the votes

counted, Mr Erdogan had won about 52%, against 38% for main rival Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu.

Mr Erdogan's other rival, Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtaş, took about 9%

of the vote.

The huge margin of victory means

there is no need for a run-off.

Mr Erdogan, who has vowed to

bolster the power of the president, promised supporters a “social reconciliation

period”, saying: “Let’s leave the old discussions in the old Turkey.”

He added in the speech in Ankara:

“Today, not only those who love us, but also those who don’t have won. Today

Turkey has won.”

The veteran leader, who has spent

three terms as prime minister, is revered by supporters for boosting the

economy and giving a voice to conservatives.

But his critics lament his

authoritarian approach and Islamist leanings in a secular state, says the BBC’s

Mark Lowen in Ankara.

After the provisional results

were announced Mr İhsanoğlu, joint candidate for the two main opposition

parties, said: “I congratulate the prime minister and wish him success.”

• The
  
  Guardian

“Erdogan emerges victorious in Turkish

presidential elections amid low turnout”

Erdogan

casts his ballot in Istanbul. Critics say his victory would mean a greater

authoritarian state.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep

Tayyip Erdogan won the country’s first direct presidential election on Sunday,

and issued a message of unity, saying he would be a president for everyone.

“I will not be the president of

only those who voted for me, I will be the president of 77 million,” Erdogan

said in a victory speech delivered from the balcony of his Justice and

Development Party headquarters in Ankara.

“Today the national will won once

again, today democracy won once again,” he told thousands of flag-waving,

cheering supporters. “Those who didn’t vote for me won as much as those who

did, those who don’t like me won as much as those who do.”

With 99% of ballot boxes counted,

Erdogan had 51.95% of the vote, according to figures from the state-run Anadolu

news agency, which had reporters at ballot counting stations across the

country. Opposition candidate Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, a former diplomat and

academic had 38.34% and the third candidate, Selahattin Demirtaş, had 9.71%.

Supreme Election Council head

Sadi Guven said Erdogan had won but that no official results would be released

until Monday.

Erdogan’s win was expected:

recent opinion polls had him far ahead of İhsanoğlu, 70, and Demirtaş, 41,

co-chairs of the pro-Kurdish Democratic People’s party (HDP).

İhsanoğlu congratulated Erdogan

and wished him a successful term as president.

The pro-Kurdish HDP emerged as

the surprise winner: in several provinces outside the Kurdish region the party

managed to substantially increase their votes. In a first reaction to the

results, Demirtaş told a cheering crowd in Diyarbakir that the HDP would

continue to expand their base and celebrated the “victory of democracy and equality”

despite “an unfair and unequal election campaign”.

“The messages we wanted to convey

has reached all of Turkey, and our presidential election campaign has reached

its goal. This is an important result and a victory,” Demirtaş said.

The Turkish president was

previously chosen by parliament, but a 2010 referendum gave Turks the power to

choose the head of state by direct vote. Until now the post has largely been a

symbolic one, but Erdogan has repeatedly underlined his wish to use “the full

extent of his constitutional powers” to be an “active president”. Critics fear

that he will turn an already polarised Turkey into an increasingly

authoritarian state.

More than 53 million Turkish

voters were eligible to cast their ballots on Sunday. But at several Istanbul

polling stations, there was no rush to vote. At midday, one election official

in the conservative district of Tophane was disappointed by the low turnout:

“There are about 1,000 people who should vote here today, but so far not even

200 have voted. For the local elections in March, this place was heaving.

People don’t seem to care as much about presidential elections.”

Dilek Çilingir, 43, a computer

engineer from Istanbul, said many people were disillusioned by Turkish

politics: “I think a lot of people don’t vote today because they simply gave

up. Everybody thinks that Erdogan will win, so they don’t vote at all.”

Çilingir and Doruk Aksoy, 39, had

volunteered for the civil rights platform Oy ve Ötesi (Ballot and Beyond) to

monitor the elections. Aksoy argued that holding an election in the height of

summer may have contributed to the low numbers of voters.

“I changed my holiday plans to be

able to be here today,” Çilingir said. “I wanted to take responsibility and do

something, not just complain about the state of the country.”

In a teahouse around the corner,

men sitting around the tables said they were all firmly standing behind

Erdogan: “I voted for the prime minister because he is the only one with a

vision, and projects he stands for. He completely turned Turkey around. There

is a world of difference between the Turkey today and the Turkey 20 years ago”,

Süleyman Güney, 51, a diving instructor, said.

Erdogan, 60, has been in power

since 2003. Barred by party rules from seeking a fourth term as prime minister,

he has faced multiple challenges to his 11-year rule, amid growing opposition

to his authoritarian style. His ruling Justice and Development party (AKP)

triumphed in local elections in March, despite allegations of widespread

corruption inside the government and a wave of summer protests sweeping the

country.

A clear victory on Sunday would

solidify Erdogan’s hold on Turkey and put an end to what many see as his most

difficult year in power.

Many fear that critics will have

an even harder time voicing their opposition to what Erdogan calls “the new

Turkey” under him as president.

Berk Ünlüustaoglu, a 28-year-old

lawyer who cast his vote on Sunday, said he was very worried about Turkey: “We

are increasingly moving towards a state of one party, and one order. I fear

that what we will lose is democracy.”

• Valley
  
  Star

“Erdogan wins

Turkey's 1st direct presidential vote”

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan won

Turkey's first direct presidential election Sunday, striking a conciliatory

tone toward critics who fear he is bent on a power grab as he embarks on

another five years at the country's helm.

“I will not be the president of only those who

voted for me, I will be the president of 77 million,' Erdogan said in a

victory speech delivered from the balcony of the Ankara headquarters of his

Justice and Development Party, or AKP.

“Today the national will won once

again, today democracy won once again,” he told thousands of flag-waving,

cheering supporters. “Those who didn’t vote for me won as much as those who

did, those who don't like me won as much as those who do.”

The three-term prime minister’s

message of unity was in stark contrast to his mostly bitter, divisive election

campaign, when he poured scorn on his opponents, cast doubt on their Turkish

identity and even accused his main challenger of being part of a shadowy coup

conspiracy he said was run by a former associate living in the United States.

“I want to build a new future, as

of today, with an understanding of a societal reconciliation, by regarding our

differences as richness, and by pointing out not our differences but our common

values,” he said.

Erdogan, 60, has dominated

Turkish politics for more than a decade. Revered by many as a man of the people

who ushered in a period of economic prosperity, he is reviled by others as an

increasingly autocratic leader trying to impose his religious and conservative

views on a country with strong secular traditions.

His critics have accused him of

running a heavily lopsided, unfair campaign, using the assets available to him

through his office as prime minister to dominate media exposure and travel

across the country. His office has rejected these claims.

“Erdogan did not win a victory

today, he moved to (the presidential palace of) Çankaya through chicanery, cheating,

deception and trickery,” said Devlet Bahcçeli, head of the Nationalist Action

Party which backed Erdogan’s main rival, Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu.

“This person is too questionable

and dubious to be seen as president,” he said.

With % 99 of ballot boxes

counted, Erdogan had % 51.9 of the vote, according to figures from the

state-run Anadolu news agency, which had reporters at ballot counting stations

across the country. İhsanoğlu had % 38.3 and the third candidate, Selahattin

Demirtaş, had % 9.7.

İhsanoğlu, the 70-year-old former

head of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and a political newcomer,

conceded defeat in a brief speech in Istanbul.

“I hope that the result is beneficial

for democracy in Turkey,” he said. 2I congratulate the prime minister and wish

him success.”

Official results were expected

Monday.

2The result was not a surprise.

Opinion polls had indicated that Erdogan would obtain around % 54 to % 58 of

the vote. He had dominated the election campaign,” said Fadi Hakura, an associate

fellow at the Chatham House think tank in London.

“Mr. Erdogan will perceive this

result as a decisive mandate to push ahead with his plans for an executive form

of presidency,” he said.

Erdogan has vowed to transform

the presidency from a largely ceremonial post into a powerful position —

something his detractors say proves he is bent on a power grab. He has said he

will activate the post's rarely used dormant powers — a legacy of a 1980 coup —

including the ability to call parliament and summon and preside over Cabinet

meetings.

Hakura said the result would not

alter Turkey’s course.

“Nothing will change much,” he

said. “Neither his style of governance, neither domestic policy nor Turkey's

external policy.”

Legislator Hüseyin Çelik, the AKP

spokesman, said the party — which now must elect a new party leader and

designate a prime minister to replace Erdogan — would hold a meeting during the

night and another on Monday. Erdogan is widely expected to appoint a compliant

prime minister so he can continue to exert control.

Party rules barred Erdogan from

serving another term as prime minister. Turkish presidents used to be elected

by parliament but Erdogan's government pushed through a constitutional

amendment in 2007, changing the procedure to a popular vote.

Yet the past year-and-a-half has

been a turbulent one for Erdogan, who faced widespread anti-government protests

in 2013 triggered by a violent police crackdown on demonstrators objecting to a

construction plan in central Istanbul.

More anti-government protests

erupted in May after 301 miners died in a coal mine fire blamed on shoddy

safety practices. Erdogan and his son have also been implicated in a corruption

scandal that he has dismissed as a coup plot by a moderate Islamic preacher and

former ally living in the United States, Fethullah Gülen.

Dozens of judicial and police

officials involved in the probe against him have been dismissed or re-assigned,

and dozens of police have been arrested and jailed.

Nevertheless, his popularity

clearly endures. He has been credited with Turkey's good economic performance

in recent years, as well as broadening welfare access, Hakura said before the

vote.

The third reason, he said, was

that Erdogan is seen by a large segment of the Turkish population who feel they

have been ostracized and marginalized by the previous secular establishment as

representing their interests.

• The
  
  Independent

“Erdogan poised to extend power as new

Turkish President”

Opponents

fear new role will see Prime Minister become more authoritarian

The

Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was declared the winner in his

country’s first presidential election on Sunday, as voters backed his dream of

a “new Turkey” that his opponents say will result in an increasingly

authoritarian nation.

An unofficial

vote count indicated that Mr Erdogan would claim victory in the first round,

avoiding the need for a run-off ballot. He received about % 52 of the votes

cast while his main rival, Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu,

got about % 38 and the third candidate, Selahattin Demirtaş, won just under %

10.

“It is understood that Recep

Tayyip Erdogan has won an absolute majority of the votes,” the election

commission head, Sadi Guven, said in Ankara. The official results will be

announced today.

Mr İhsanoğlu conceded defeat in a

brief speech in Istanbul.

“I hope that the result is

beneficial for democracy in Turkey,” he said. “I congratulate the Prime

Minister and wish him success.”

Victory for Mr Erdogan seals his

place in history after more than a decade as Prime Minister in which Turkey has

emerged as a regional economic power.

In a tea house in the

working-class Istanbul district of Tophane, men watching election coverage on

television praised Mr Erdogan as a pious man of the people who had boosted

Turkey’s status both economically and on the international stage. “Erdogan is

on the side of the underdog. He is the defender against injustice. While the

Arab world was silent, he spoke out against Israel on Gaza,” said Murat, 42, a

jeweller.

Parliament has in the past chosen

the head of state but this was changed under a law pushed through by Mr

Erdogan’s government. He has set his sights on serving two presidential terms,

keeping him in power past 2023.

A rapturous crowd cheered and

chanted “Turkey is proud of you” and “President Erdogan” as he emerged from a

school where he voted with his wife and children on the Asian side of Istanbul.

In his final campaign speech in the conservative stronghold of Konya on

Saturday, he said the election would herald a “new Turkey” and “a strong Turkey

is rising again from the ashes”.

The Prime Minister has promised

to exercise the full powers granted to him by current laws, unlike predecessors

who played a mainly ceremonial role. But he also plans to change the

constitution to establish a fully executive presidency. The current

constitution would enable him to chair cabinet meetings and appoint the premier

and members of top judicial bodies including the constitutional court and

supreme council of judges.

Mr Erdogan’s ruling AK Party

scored a clear victory in local elections in March but he had been having the

toughest year of his time in power.

He was shaken by nationwide

anti-government protests last summer, and months later, Mr Erdogan and his

inner circle were targeted by a corruption investigation and a power struggle

with his former ally the US-based cleric Fethullah Gülen.

He accuses Mr Gülen of seeking to

overthrow him and has pledged as president to continue purging institutions

such as the police and judiciary where Mr Gülen is believed to wield influence.

Despite the challenges Mr Erdogan

has faced, there was an air of resignation among many voters who oppose

him.

“I am almost depressed. I worry

for my country because I increasingly feel like an alien here. The Prime Minister

is talking about a Turkey that I don’t recognise,” said Erkan Sönmez, 43, who

works in an import-export business.

“I can no longer speak to my

neighbours who vote for the AK Party – does that sound like a peaceful

community to you?”

• The Sun Daily

“Erdogan wins Turkish presidency,

wows new era”

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday won the Turkish

presidency in an easy election triumph, promising a 'new era' with

him as a powerful head of state despite fears the country is creeping towards

one-man rule.

With Turkey still deeply

polarised after bitter 2013 protests, Erdogan has vowed to shake up the

country's political system to make the president its number one figure.

He won 52% of the vote, according

to a count of % 99of ballots. That was way ahead of his main opposition rival

Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, on % 38.3and means there will be no second round.

The third contender, Kurdish

candidate Selahattin Demirtaş, won % 9.7of the vote. Erdogan’s inauguration is

set for August 28.

The result marked a personal

triumph for Erdogan, 60, who has served as premier since 2003 and could

potentially be president for two mandates, until 2024.

Thousands of people filled

central Istanbul waving Turkish flags and holding Erdogan pictures to celebrate

his victory as fireworks lit up the sky above the capital Ankara.

“Today we are closing an era and

taking the first step for a new era,” Erdogan said in a victory speech from the

balcony of his party headquarters in Ankara, describing the election as a “historic

day”.

“It is not only Recep Tayyip

Erdogan who won today. Today, national will has won once again. Today,

democracy has won once again,” he declared.

He promised a “new social

reconciliation process” where all Turks of whatever origin or belief would be

equal citizens of the country.

Nevertheless, the margin of

victory was narrower than expected by some analysts and the vote of İhsanoğlu held

up despite a low-key campaign that was dwarfed by Erdogan's drive for votes.

The polls were the first time Turkey

-- a member of NATO and long-time hopeful to join the EU -- has directly

elected its president, who was previously chosen by parliament, and Erdogan

hoped for a massive show of popular support.

‘Democracy

lost in polls’

Erdogan has said he plans to revamp

the post to give the presidency greater executive powers, which could see

Turkey shift towards a system more like that of France if his ruling Justice

and Development Party (AKP) succeeds in changing the constitution.

But Erdogan's opponents accuse

him of undermining the secular legacy of Turkey's founding father Mustafa Kemal

Ataturk, who established a strict separation between religion and politics when

he forged the new state from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire.

“It is not İhsanoğlu who lost the

elections, but the longing for clean and honest politics and a quest for

democracy,” said Haluk Koç, the spokesman for the Republican People’s Party

which backed İhsanoğlu, denouncing Erdogan’s “oppressive mind-set”.

İhsanoğlu -- a bookish former

head of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) -- conceded defeat and

offered his congratulations to Erdogan but insisted his campaign had made an

impact.

“This is a very remarkable result

because when we launched our campaign one month ago, everyone said we don't

know İhsanoğlu, he doesn’t know anything about politics.”

While many secular Turks detest

Erdogan, he can still count on a huge base of support from religiously

conservative middle-income voters, particularly in central Turkey and poorer

districts of Istanbul, who have prospered under his rule.

Regional breakdowns of the

results showed a clear geographical polarisation of the country, with İhsanoğlu

taking the strongly secular western coast, Demirtaş the Kurdish southeast but

Erdogan the Black Sea coast, Istanbul and the entire heart of the country.

Demirtaş, 41, hoped to attract

votes not just from Kurds but also secular Turks with a left-wing, pro-gay and

pro-women’s rights message.

His charisma, flashing grin and

fondness for white shirts with rolled-up sleeves have earned him the moniker

“the Kurdish Obama” in some quarters.

His respectable result may provide

a springboard for Turkey’s next political battle, legislative elections in 2015

and Demirtaş expressed hope his People’s Democratic Party (HDP) would gain mass

appeal.

“The elections have created

excitement about the possibility that this hope can really be long lasting in

Turkey,” he said.

‘Challenges ahead

for Erdogan’

Erdogan endured the toughest year

of his rule in 2013, shaken by deadly mass protests sparked by plans to build a

shopping mall on Gezi Park in Istanbul that grew into a general cry of anger by

secular Turks who felt ignored by the AKP.

Later in the year, stunning

corruption allegations emerged against the premier and his inner circle,

including his son Bilal, based on bugged conversations that enthralled the

country like a soap opera.

The future of outgoing president

Abdullah Gul, a co-founder of the AKP who appears to have distanced himself

from Erdogan, is unclear. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu is tipped as a

possible choice to be premier.

But analysts warned that Erdogan

may face stiff resistance when he seeks to change the constitution and gain

extra powers for the presidency.

“Winning the presidency has never

been the main challenge for Erdogan. The main challenge... is what happens

next,” said Ziya Meral, a researcher on Turkey at University of Cambridge and

Foreign Policy Centre in London. – AFP

• The Telegraphy

“Turkey election: Recep Tayyip Erdogan

secures win in drive for power”

Turkish

strongman cements role as the nation's leader for the next five years

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s

prime minister, secured a historic win in the country’s first presidential

elections on Sunday night, cementing his role as the nation’s leader for the

next five years.

With almost all the votes counted,

Mr Erdogan led with % 52 points ahead of his main opponent, Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu,

a Turkish diplomat with a low domestic profile, who held % 38.8 of the ballots.

“I hope the final whistle will be

blown by the referee, but the stands have made their decision. The people have

shown their will,” Mr Erdogan told crowds of supporters at a convention centre

in Istanbul, from where he will fly to the capital Ankara.

The election marks the first

stage of an ambitious plan by Mr Erdogan to transform Turkey's government into

one led by presidential politics, with himself as leader.

The country’s president has

traditionally been cowed to the powers of the prime minister, and has been a

largely ceremonial role.

But even in the final hours of

his campaign, Mr Erdogan, 60, who, according to the rules of his own Justice

and Development Party must step down as prime minister at the end of his

current third term, made no secret of his ambitions.

Visiting cities across the

country Mr Erdogan has promised his electorate that the president's

responsibilities will be “increased” and highlighted that it is only

convention, not the constitution that puts “limits” on that role.

Approximately 53 million voters were

eligible to cast their ballots at one of the more than 160,000 stations, but

early reports by local media put the turnout at % 72.5, much lower than the

municipal election turnout of % 90 earlier this year.

Mr Erdogan has built huge support

among the country's conservative Muslims and provincial constituents, with his

economic reforms tripling the per capita income of millions of Turkey's poor to

£5,900 per year and bringing development to inland villages that had previously

languished as backwaters.

“I am happy with Erdogan,” said

Muzaffer, who distributes fire extinguishers in Istanbul’s Kasımpaşa, the poor

neighbourhood where Mr Erdogan spent his childhood. “One government, one leader

is good for Turkey. We were poor because of the two parties, three party

[coalition] governments. Everybody says one thing and things do not get done.

Erdogan gets thing done.”

Even if he hadn't won the

election, Mr Erdogan's place in Turkish history was already set. His economic

reforms have elevated the status of Turkey internationally, making it a

contender for European Union membership until mass protests against his

government erupted last year.

Domestically, he has removed some

of the military’s power and influence, which had traditionally held an iron

grip on Turkey’s political system.

He has empowered the country’s

millions of religious constituents who had felt marginalised in Turkey’s

secular society. He improved the status of religious high schools and passed

legislation to allow women who wear headscarves to work in public offices and

state universities.

In the past year however, Mr

Erdogan’s popularity has seemed threatened.

Sensing his increasing conservatism

and his barely veiled ambition to make Turkey’s politics more Islamic, many of

the country’s secular class took to the streets last summer, demanding an end

to the prime minister's rule.

Mr Erdogan’s hot-tempered

response, to allow his police forces to crack down violently on the demonstrators

only worsened the crises.

His own public statements

denouncing the protesters as being mostly “foreign terrorists” made him appear

increasingly autocratic and out of touch with his electorate.

Just a few months later, Mr

Erdogan was again rocked by a corruption scandal, which accused him, and senior

members of his party of embezzling millions of dollars of funds.

Mr Erdogan sees his victory as a

means to put past controversies to rest, and argues that a popular election

justifies his ambitions of presidential reform.

“(Turkey) has been striving to become

a first-class democracy,” he said after voting in Istanbul. “Hopefully Turkey

will achieve this today.”

The planned presidential reform

would be the most dramatic overhaul in Turkey’s political system since the

founding of the modern state by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in the 1930s.

Critics fear that ascribing power

to a presidential strongman threatens Turkey’s delicate constitutional checks

and balances, creating a more centralised system that tends to

authoritarianism.

In the short term Mr Erdogan is

expected to wield from power from the office by regularly using a

constitutional proviso that has traditionally been exercised only in states of

emergency in order to chair cabinet meetings.

To achieve the long term

presidential powers he hopes for however, Mr Erdogan will have to secure a

large enough majority in parliament after the 2015 presidential elections in

order to be able to push through changes to the constitution.

As president he will have to

resign from his AKP Justice and Development party and so, to win the support he

needs he will have to rely, more than ever, on personality cult; on the

charisma that has so far allowed him so transform Turkey's politics to his

favour.

• Reuters
  
  “Erdogan’s presidential win starts race for
  
  new Turkish government”

Turkey’s ruling party begins deliberations on the

shape of the next government on Monday after Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan

secured his place in history by winning the nation’s first direct presidential

election.

Erdogan's victory in Sunday’s

vote takes him a step closer to the executive presidency he has long coveted

for Turkey. But it is an outcome which his opponents

fear will herald an increasingly authoritarian rule.

In the coming weeks, Erdogan will

for the last time chair meetings of the ruling AK Party he founded and oversee

the selection of a new party leader, likely to be a staunch loyalist and his

future prime minister.

He will be inaugurated on Aug.

28.

'Today is a new day, a

milestone for Turkey, the birthday of Turkey, of its rebirth from

the ashes,' Erdogan, 60, told thousands of supporters in a victory speech

from the balcony of the AK Party headquarters in Ankara late on Sunday.

Supporters honking car horns and

waving flags took to the streets in Ankara after results on Turkish television

said Erdogan, the prime minister for more than a decade, had won % 52 of the

vote.

The celebratory mood filled the

front pages of pro-government newspapers.

“The People’s Revolution”, said a

banner headline in the Akşam daily above a picture of Erdogan waving to the

crowds overnight. Other headlines spelled out: 'Erdogan's historic

triumph', 'The People's President'.

Investors initially welcomed the

result on hopes that it would ensure political stability, after nearly 12 years

of AK Party rule. The lira rallied to 2.1385 against the dollar from 2.1601

late on Friday.

However, some said the market

reaction could be short-lived.

'We expect the market will

refocus on the composition of the cabinet,' said Phoenix Kalen, a

London-based strategist at Societe Generale, warning there could be

'investor concern over the future

trajectory of economic policy-making'.

It was a narrower margin of

victory than polls had suggested but still 13 points more than Erdogan's closest

rival, and comfortable enough to avoid the need for a second round runoff.

The chairman of the High Election

Board confirmed Erdogan had a majority, with more than % 99 of votes counted,

and said full provisional figures would be released later on Monday.

Erdogan has vowed to exercise the

full powers granted to the presidency under current laws, unlike predecessors

who played a mainly ceremonial role. But he has made no secret of his plans to

change the constitution and forge an executive presidency.

“I want to underline that I will

be the president of all 77 million people, not only those who voted for me. I

will be a president who works for the flag, for the country, for the people,” he

said in his victory speech.

The electoral map suggested that

might not be easy.

While the expanses of the

conservative Anatolian heartlands voted overwhelmingly for Erdogan, the more

liberal western Aegean and Mediterranean coastal fringe was dominated by main opposition

candidate Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, and the south eastern corner by Kurdish

candidate Selahattin Demirtaş.

‘CORONATION’

Turkey has emerged as a regional

economic force under Erdogan, who has ridden a wave of religiously conservative

support to transform the secular republic founded by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk on the

ruins of the Ottoman Empire in 1923.

But his critics warn that a

President Erdogan, with his roots in political Islam and intolerance of

dissent, would lead the NATO member and European Union candidate further away

from Ataturk's secular ideals.

Few investors had doubted the

outcome.

'This was more of a

coronation than an election, with the result preordained quite some time

ago,' said Nicholas Spiro, managing director of London-based Spiro

Sovereign Strategy.

But in the long term, there are

concerns about concentration of power in the hands of a sometimes impulsive

leader.

'Mr Erdogan continues to

dominate Turkey's political scene and is eager to turn the presidency into an

executive, hands-on role. He called the shots as premier and he will keep

calling the shots as president,' Spiro said.

“Turkey's next premier will

govern in Mr Erdogan's shadow.”

İhsanoğlu, a former diplomat and

academic who won % 38.5 of the vote according to broadcasters CNN Turk and NTV,

congratulated Erdogan on the result in a brief statement.

Demirtaş took % 9.7, according to

the TV stations - a result for an ethnic Kurd that would have been unthinkable

just a few years ago as Turkey battled a Kurdish rebellion and sought to quell

demands from the ethnic minority.

POLITICAL INTRIGUE

It will be vital for Erdogan to

have a loyal prime minister. Under the constitution, he will have to break with

the AK Party before he is inaugurated in a little over two weeks' time.

Should his influence over the

party wane, Erdogan could struggle to force through the constitutional changes

he wants to create an executive presidency, a reform which requires either a

two-thirds majority in parliament or a popular vote.

“In a few days when the official

results are announced, the prime minister’s relationship with the party and the

parliament will be over,” Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arınç told reporters in

Ankara late on Sunday.

“You will of course ask who will

be prime minister and the leader of the party. Starting from tonight, I know

that there will be work done on this front,” he said.

Senior AK officials say foreign

minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, who has strong support within the party bureaucracy

and has been Erdogan's right-hand man internationally, is the top choice to

succeed him, although former transport minister Binali Yıldırım is also trying

to position himself for the job.

Erdogan’s critics fear a supine

prime minister will leave him too powerful, and erode the presidency's

traditional role as a check on the powers of the executive. His backers dismiss

such concerns, arguing Turkey needs strong leadership.

·        

Observer,

http://www.theobserver.ca/2014/08/10/turkey-elects-first-president (11.08.2014)

·        

BBC, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-28729234

(11.08.2014)

·        

The Guardian, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/10/turkey-presidential-election-ergodan

(11.08.2014)

·        

Valley Star, http://www.valleymorningstar.com/news/world/article_6d7e0444-6161-5ac8-8918-fb6c4ca2976e.html

(11.08.2014)

·        

The Independent,

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/erdogan-poised-to-extend-power-as-new-turkish-president-9660416.html

(11.08.2014)

·        

The Sun Daily,

http://www.thesundaily.my/news/1136892 (11.08.2014)

·        

The Telegraphy,

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/turkey/11024861/Turkey-election-Recep-Tayyip-Erdogan-secures-win-in-drive-for-power.html

(11.08.2014)

·        

Reuters,

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/08/11/uk-turkey-election-idUKKBN0GA06120140811

(11.08.2014)