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We are not bound by the West’s sanctions,” Erdogan told CNN’s Becky Anderson. APBy contrast, Erdogan has doubled down on his relationship with Putin – and he thinks the West should follow suit. “This was possible because of our special relationship with President Putin,” he told CNN, referring to the grain deal. In his interview with CNN, Erdogan tackled another key flashpoint in Turkish tensions with the West: Sweden’s accession to NATO. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan tells CNN's Becky Anderson, left, he expects voters who value stability and confidence to back him in the May 28 runoff vote.

☆ Turkey's Erdogan touts 'special relationship' with Putin, stands by his refusal to impose sanctions
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Natasha Turak | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan touted his country's "special relationship" with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, speaking to CNN during an interview broadcast Friday. "We are not at a point where we would impose sanctions on Russia like the West have done. We are not bound by the West's sanctions," Erdogan told the network. "We are a strong state and we have a positive relationship with Russia." The powerful Turkish leader's closeness to Putin, despite its membership in NATO, has made many Western leaders and diplomats nervous.

☆ Erdogan rival pledges to repatriate all refugees before Turkey runoff
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] Kemal Kilicdaroglu, presidential candidate of Turkey's main opposition alliance, speaks during a press conference ahead of the May 28 runoff vote, in Ankara, Turkey May 18, 2023. Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the candidate of a six-party opposition alliance, won 45% support in Sunday's vote while Erdogan got 49.5%, falling just short of the majority needed to avoid a runoff vote. Kilicdaroglu's latest comments came amid expectations that a third candidate in the presidential race would announce his decision for the runoff. Sinan Ogan, a nationalist politician endorsed by an anti-refugee party obtained 5.2%, which made him a kingmaker in the runoff vote. "I am announcing here: I will send all refugees back home once I am elected as president, period," he added.

☆ Opinion | The Earthquake Changed Turkey, but Change Is Complicated
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Naomi Cohen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Neither party managed to claim an outright majority in the first round, and a runoff is planned for May 28. If Mr. Erdogan is confident that he’ll succeed in the second round, it might be because of places like Adiyaman, where he won 66 percent of the vote. A huge poster of Mr. Erdogan nearby promised free natural gas for a year. Mr. Kilicdaroglu pledged free housing for earthquake victims on another poster, but that one was a three-and-a-half-mile drive away. : the party of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and secularism; the party that once supported a ban against the head scarf in public institutions.

☆ Turkish lira hits record low as bonds steady after post-election rout
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, May 18 (Reuters) - Turkey's lira weakened to a record low against the dollar on Thursday, after incumbent Tayyip Erdogan's lead in presidential elections surprised markets, while the nation's sovereign dollar bonds steadied after a three-day post-election rout. The cost of insuring the country's debt against default fell slightly, but equity markets and banking stocks endured fresh losses in afternoon trading. The lira weakened to a record low of 19.8050 to the dollar by 1904 GMT, bringing its losses since the election to more than 1%. The 2045 bond gained close to one cent to trade at just over 70 cents on the dollar by 1300 GMT, Tradeweb data showed. Credit default swaps, which measure the cost of insuring the country's debt against default, narrowed by 8 basis points (bps) by mid afternoon, to 684 bps, data from S&P Global Market Intelligence showed.

Kilicdaroglu, chair of the secularist Republican People's Party (CHP), received 44.9% in what was seen as the biggest electoral challenge to Erdogan's 20-year rule. A third candidate, nationalist Sinan Ogan, obtained 5.17% and both Erdogan and Kilicdaroglu are expected to seek his endorsement in negotiations this week. Turkey hosts the world's largest refugee population of around 4 million, according to official figures. Supporters of Kemal Kilicdaroglu, presidential candidate of Turkey's main opposition alliance, rally outside the Republican People's Party (CHP) headquarters on election night in Ankara, Turkey May 14, 2023. In Wednesday's video, Kilicdaroglu also accused Erdogan of cooperating with the network Ankara accuses of orchestrating a 2016 coup attempt.

☆ Turkey opposition contests thousands of ballots after election
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

ANKARA, May 17 (Reuters) - Turkey's main opposition party said on Wednesday it had filed complaints over suspected irregularities at thousands of ballot boxes in Sunday's landmark election, in which President Tayyip Erdogan performed better than expected. He said the CHP had formally raised objections over 2,269 ballot boxes nationwide for the presidential election and 4,825 for the parliamentary vote that also took place on Sunday. In the presidential vote, Erdogan is headed for a runoff on May 28 against challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu after falling just shy of the 50% threshold needed to win outright in the first round. "We are following every single vote, even if it does not change the overall results," Erkek told reporters in Ankara. There were a total of 201,807 ballot boxes set up for the election, in Turkey and abroad, Erkek said.

☆ Turkey Faces Financial Reckoning After Election
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Chelsey Dulaney | Jared Malsin | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan will face opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu in the second round of the presidential election on May 28 after neither won Sunday’s first round. WSJ’s Jared Malsin explains what’s at stake. Photo: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty ImagesThe winner of this month’s Turkish presidential election will have to reckon with a dangerously lopsided economy that investors and economists say has veered close to the edge of financial stability. Turkey will hold a runoff election on May 28 after neither President Recep Tayyip Erdogan nor opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu secured the 50% of the vote required to clench the presidency. Mr. Erdogan emerged with a convincing lead in the first round, a surprise after he trailed in polls in the days before Sunday’s vote.

☆ Ukraine forces train for counteroffensive
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Dave Lucas | ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Tayyip Erdogan led comfortably on Monday after the first round of Turkey's presidential election, with his rival, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, facing an uphill struggle to prevent the president extending his rule into a third decade in a runoff vote on May 28.

☆ Ex-NBA player raised in Turkey slams Twitter censorship: 'I don't want to hear about Elon Musk talking about free speech ever again. He's literally bowing down to a dictatorship'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Britney Nguyen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom doesn't want to hear Elon Musk talk about free speech. The Turkish-American said Musk is "bowing down to a dictatorship" by blocking tweets in Turkey. "I don't want to hear about Elon Musk talking about free speech ever again," Freedom said on CNN This Morning. "Turkish government called Elon to pretty much tell him, 'If you don't ban a couple accounts, then we are going to shut down the whole app in Turkey,'" Freedom added. "The whole country is saying enough is enough because we want to go back to democracy and freedom again," Freedom said on CNN.

Erdogan got 49.5% in Sunday's vote and fell just short of the majority needed to avoid a runoff in a vote seen as a referendum on his autocratic rule. But many of his supporters, including first-time voter Asim, were gloomy about Kilicdaroglu's chances in the runoff vote. The election is being closely followed in Washington, Europe and across the region, where Erdogan has asserted Turkish power. Opinion polls had shown Erdogan trailing Kilicdaroglu, but Sunday's outcome suggested he and his Islamist-rooted AKP were able to rally conservative voters despite Turkey's economic woes. Kilicdaroglu and his alliance want to restore a parliamentary system of government and scrap the powerful executive presidency introduced by Erdogan.

☆ Turkey’s Opposition Struggles to Make Up Ground as Runoff Nears
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Ben Hubbard | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

After heading into elections with high hopes, Turkey’s political opposition is struggling to fight off despair and plot a course to give their candidate a fighting chance against the incumbent, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in a runoff later this month. While Mr. Erdogan, bidding for a third five-year presidential term, failed to win a simple majority in Sunday’s election, he still led the opposition by a margin of about five percentage points. That, and a number of other indications, point to a win for the president in the second round on May 28. For one, Mr. Erdogan looks likely to be the primary beneficiary of votes from supporters of an ultranationalist third candidate, Sinan Ogan, who has been eliminated despite a surprisingly strong showing over the weekend. The first-round results, over all, pointed to growing nationalist sentiment across the electorate that will probably boost the president.

☆ Twitter objects to Turkish court orders after pre-election warnings
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

ISTANBUL, May 16 (Reuters) - Twitter said it had filed objections to Turkish court orders requesting a ban on access to some accounts and tweets on the platform, after keeping its service available during an election weekend despite warnings from authorities in Ankara. The court orders, which were shared by Twitter, requested the access bans on the grounds that they posed a threat to public order and national security. "So in order to keep Twitter available over the election weekend, we took action on four accounts and 409 Tweets identified by court order." Twitter said five court orders had been issued against it regarding these actions and it had already objected to four of them. Social media companies are required to appoint Turkish representatives and they face bandwidth being throttled by up to 90% immediately after a court order should the representative fail to provide information to the authorities.

☆ Turkey's market rout deepens after Erdogan's strong election showing
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Libgeorge Canan Sevgili | Canan Sevgili | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Ahead of the elections, opinion polls had showed Kilicdaroglu in the lead, and investors expected him to scrap some of Erdogan's economic policies, including costly efforts to prop up the lira currency. Longer-dated, dollar-denominated government bonds saw the biggest falls in fixed income markets, although key corporate and banking sector bonds also edged lower. Credit ratings agency Fitch said the political and economic uncertainty would continue at least until after the runoff. Banking stocks, which had surged in the week ahead of the election on hopes of a policy change, tumbled another 8% (.XBANK) to take their losses since the election to nearly 20%. The overall Istanbul bourse index (.XU100), which had notched a 6.1% fall on Monday, its largest daily percentage drop since early February, was mostly flat.

☆ Turkish Election Goes to Runoff After Erdogan Takes Lead in First Round
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Jared Malsin | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan will face opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu in the second round of the presidential election on May 28. WSJ’s Jared Malsin explains what’s at stake. Photo: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty ImagesISTANBUL—Turkey will hold a runoff presidential election later this month, officials said Monday, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan emerging from this weekend’s polls with a surprise advantage over his main challenger in a vote with far-ranging domestic and geopolitical implications. Mr. Erdogan won 49.51% and his opponent Kemal Kilicdaroglu had 44.88% in the first round of the election on Sunday, with all of the votes counted, according to the head of the Turkish Supreme Election Council.

☆ Erdogan Ahead of Challenger as Turkey Appears Headed for Runoff Election
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Jared Malsin | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Supporters of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wave flags and banners in Ankara. Photo: necati savas/ShutterstockISTANBUL—Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has emerged with a surprise advantage in a fight for his political survival, pulling ahead of his main challenger in Sunday’s election ahead of a likely runoff ballot that could have far-ranging domestic and geopolitical implications. As of Monday morning, Mr. Erdogan had won 49.40% of the votes counted so far and his opponent Kemal Kilicdaroglu had 44.96%, according to the head of the Turkish Supreme Election Council. The head of the election board said 99% of the ballot boxes had been entered into the agency’s central system.

☆ European markets set to open in mixed territory as Turkish election comes into focus
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Holly Ellyatt | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

European markets are heading for a flat to mixed open on Monday as investors in the region focus on the results of Turkey's presidential election. As things stand on Monday morning, with almost all the votes from Sunday's vote counted, Turkey is heading for a runoff vote after neither incumbent President Tayyip Erdogan nor his rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu won an outright majority.

☆ Turkish Stocks, Bonds Slide as Election Appears Headed to Runoff
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Turkish stocks and bond prices fell after an inconclusive presidential election result that sets the stage for a runoff later this month. With more than 91% of votes counted, incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had won 49.49% of votes, while rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu claimed 44.7%, Turkey’s election chief said. Neither candidate reached the 50% threshold required to avoid a runoff, which would take place on May 28.

☆ Turkey's lira and stock markets slide as President Erdogan gains momentum in tight presidential race
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Lee Ying Shan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

The Turkish lira sank close to another record low with Turkey's presidential election heading for an unprecedented runoff, with one analyst forecasting further weakness for the currency over the short term. "Unfortunately it looks like [what] up to 49% of Turks have voted for is an economic crisis ... The YSK confirmed Monday afternoon that the presidential election would indeed go to a runoff on May 28.. Neither 20-year incumbent Erdogan nor Kilicdaroglu has so far cleared the 50% threshold needed to secure an outright victory. The currency was trading at 19.66 against the greenback as of 1 p.m. London time on Monday.

☆ For Turkey runoff, potential kingmaker draws red line at Kurdish concessions
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Ogan won 5.2% in Sunday's first round of the presidential election. President Tayyip Erdogan, who led after the Sunday vote, and Kilicdaroglu will take part in the runoff, set for May 28. "We will consult with our voter base for our decision in the runoff. But we already made clear that the fight against terrorism and sending refugees back are our red lines," Ogan, who took 5.2% of the initial vote, told Reuters in an interview on Monday. Reporting by Orhan Coskun and Birsen Altayli; Writing by Huseyin Hayatsever; Editing by Jonathan Spicer and Gareth JonesOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Istanbul, Turkey CNN —Turkey will have a runoff election on May 28 after longtime leader President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was forced into a second round with only a narrow lead over his rival, Kemal Kilicdaroglu. Neither candidate achieved the required 50% to take the presidency outright, but Kilicdaroglu now faces a tough battle to win the second round after Erdogan performed better than some opinion polls had suggested. With the final count, the electorate will turn to a second round of voting that could extend Erdogan’s 20-year grip on power, or set the stage for a change in political direction. “If our nation says second round, we gladly accept it. We will absolutely win this election in the second round.

☆ Turkish lira sinks to new record low on possibility of Erdogan re-election
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Anna Cooban | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

The Turkish lira slipped 0.5% to trade at 19.70 against the US dollar, a record low. The uncertainty has investors in Turkish government bonds worrying about the country’s ability to pay them back. Supporters of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan celebrate at the AK Party headquarters on May 14, 2023 in Istanbul, Turkey. Annual consumer price inflation surged to 85% in October, before slowing to 44% in April, data from the Turkish Statistical Institute shows. “A victory for President Erdogan, which now looks like the base case scenario… would be negative for Turkey’s macroeconomic stability and financial markets,” Peach added.

☆ Wikipedia cofounder slams Elon Musk for caving to Turkey's government and censoring tweets, says Wikipedia fought similar demands and won
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Grace Mayer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Twitter announced it would "restrict access to some content in Turkey" right before the country's presidential election. Wikipedia cofounder Jimmy Wales criticized Twitter CEO Elon Musk's decision to restrict content. Twitter's Global Government Affairs account had tweeted about the changes ahead of Turkey's presidential election held on Sunday. Turkey's highest court determined that blocking the website was unconstitutional, and access to Wikipedia was restored in January 2020, The New York Times reported. Before Musk, Twitter agreed to around 50% of government requests.

☆ Turkey’s opposition faces an uphill battle in runoff with Erdogan
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Tamara Qiblawi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Istanbul CNN —A hushed silence fell over the crowd outside the Istanbul headquarters of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development (AK) party. Sullen faces turned to the election count on the large screen — Erdogan’s vote had dropped below the 50% threshold needed to clinch the first round of Sunday’s historic election. Erdogan secured a five-point lead over his principal opponent, destining them to a run-off vote. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and his wife Emine Erdogan meet supporters outside a polling station in Istanbul, Turkey May 14, 2023. Then our President Erdogan saves us.”Ahead of the run-off vote, Erdogan now has two weeks in which to save himself – and all the indications are that he begins, as ever, from a place of strength.

☆ Erdogan’s Grip on Power Is Dented but Not Broken, Vote Shows
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Ben Hubbard | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

His government was accused of botching its response to catastrophic earthquakes that killed more than 50,000 people just three months ago. Despite all of that, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan came out with a lead over his main challenger in Turkish elections, according to official results released on Monday. With nearly all of the ballots counted on Monday, official preliminary results gave Mr. Erdogan 49.5 percent of the vote versus 44.9 percent for his main challenger, opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu. A third candidate, Sinan Ogan, received 5.2 percent, and his right-wing supporters are more likely to vote for Mr. Erdogan in the runoff, analysts say. Finally, Mr. Erdogan’s party and its allies maintained a commanding majority in the parliamentary vote, likely further increasing his ability to be re-elected.

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