Presidential Elections in Turkey. Erdogan’s “New Turkey” and “New Challenges”

AICGS Issue Brief, No. 48, February 2015
American Institute for Contemporary German Studies ~ The Johns Hopkins University

By M. Murat Erdogan *

Turkey’s election on 10 August 2014 was historic. After victories in three general elections (2002, 2007, 2011), three local elections (2004, 2009, 2014), and two referenda (2007, 2010), Recep Tayyip Erdogan, leader of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), won the country’s first direct presidential election, receiving 51.79 percent of the vote in the first round. After twelve years as prime minister, Erdogan will spend the next five years as the pres- ident of Turkey. Combining the prestige of being elected by popular vote and his political style, Erdogan’s presidency is expected to exceed the symbolic borders of the classical parlia- mentary system and usher in a de facto presidential/semi-presidential system. Thus, the elec- tion was not simply a presidential election but, rather, a selection of the regime that eventually will have a significant impact on both domestic and foreign policies in Turkey.

* Dr. M. Murat Erdogan is the director of Hacettepe University’s Migration and Politics Research Center (HUGO), deputy director of the University’s European Union Research Center, and advisor to the Rector of the University. He was a Visiting Fellow at AICGS in 2014.

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