(Photo: AFP)Ankara: Turkiye President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won reelection on Sunday, extending his increasingly authoritarian rule into a third decade in a country reeling from high inflation and the aftermath of an earthquake that levelled entire cities. In his first comments since the polls closed, Erdogan spoke to supporters on a campaign bus outside his home in Istanbul. With a third term, Erdogan will have an even stronger hand domestically and internationally, and the election results will have implications far beyond Ankara. Erdogan, who has been at Turkiye’s helm for 20 years, came just short of victory in the first round of elections on May 14. He was the first directly elected president in 2014, and won the 2018 election that ushered in the executive presidency.
