It was not immediately clear whether Mr. Erdogan would reach out to his opponents or use the victory as a mandate for even greater repression. In her eyes, Mr. Erdogan has expanded certain democratic freedoms in Turkey — in particular, freedom of religion. “I don’t want to go back to that era,” Ms. Arslan said as she explained why she voted in support of Mr. Erdogan on Sunday. Until Turkey’s economy began to falter recently, Mr. Erdogan had also brought significant material gain to much of the country. In this respect, Kurds showed “a red card” to Mr. Erdogan, rather than to the opposition, Mr. Turk said.

Source: New York Times April 17, 2017 15:57 UTC