Addressing an event held by the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Türkiye (TOBB) in the capital Ankara on Tuesday, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan once again thanked the electorate for the May 28 election results.

The president, who defeated his rival Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu in the runoff, highlighted that the real winner was the Turkish democracy and said he appreciated each citizen for their vote regardless of their political affiliation. In his first public speech on Tuesday after addressing massive crowds hours after his supporters outside the Presidential Complex early Monday, Erdoğan said they successfully completed one of the most important elections in the history of Türkiye. "Both rounds of the election were held with democratic maturity and we have seen a record turnout, nearing 90%," he said. The president reiterated his thanks to all citizens who voted for him and his rival Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.

"You have to analyze the joy on the streets on election night. This was a fateful election. Once again, the wisdom of the Anatolian people overcame the political engineering plots. Efforts to steer politics through terrorist groups failed. Turkish democracy and the nation are the ultimate winners of the election. Every citizen who felt belonging to these lands is the winner. Every citizen who ensured good conduct of voting despite provocations is the winner. Victims of the Feb. 6 earthquakes who were subject to disgusting insults for their political choice are the winner," he said, referring to opposition supporters’ insults directed at the people in earthquake-hit provinces who overwhelmingly voted for Erdoğan. The president also named Turkish expatriates as "winners" for not bowing down to the threats of supporters of terrorist groups in Europe and casting their vote. "Every oppressed person abroad who prayed for our country, shedding tears for it, is the winner," he said.

Erdoğan tied his success to their proposal for "Century of Türkiye," a series of pledges he made one year before the elections to improve Türkiye in every field starting from the centenary of the Republic of Türkiye in 2023. "The alliance of old Türkiye is rejected by our nation second time," he said, referring to the six-party opposition bloc. The president said that it was now time to end the debate on a new executive presidency system that the opposition pledged to scrap if its candidate Kılıçdaroğlu won.

Post-quake efforts

"With uncertainty over elections over, we will now concentrate on the real issues at hand," Erdoğan said. "We already started working on Monday. Our priority is healing the wounds in the provinces hit by earthquakes, the disaster of the century," he said. The president noted that the construction of nearly 180,000 housing units was already underway and they would construct 650,000 houses within one year. Erdoğan said victims of earthquakes were forced to struggle with the impact of insults by the opposition supporters due to their political leaning. "We will never forget this lynch campaign. We won’t allow them to be inflicted new wounds," he said.

Erdoğan promised that commercial life in the earthquake zone would also be revived with the government’s financial support to the area, which cost about $104 billion (TL 212 trillion) to the Turkish economy.

Regional stability

On foreign policy, Erdoğan vowed to strengthen economic cooperation with regional countries. He noted that he received congratulatory messages and held phone calls with leaders of about 110 countries after the elections. He stated that he firmly believed that the strong cooperation in political, military and economic fields with friendly countries would continue. "We took important steps in recent years, especially to iron out problems with friendly countries," he stated.

Visa problems

The president also said they would resolve the visa issue, "which has been turned into political blackmail, as soon as possible." Turkish businesspeople are among those who face rejection of Schengen visas or long delays in visa appointments. Some countries claim these delays are due to a backlog of post-COVID-19 applications, but Turkish authorities have branded it as a politically motivated move.

After a Turkish lawmaker filed a report titled "Misuse of the Schengen Information System as a Politically Driven Sanction by Member States of the Council of Europe," highlighting the "unnecessary and large amount of paperwork" required for visas, as well as high fees and the requirement that applications be submitted in person, the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) approved a resolution calling for European states to avoid abusing the Schengen Information System (SIS).

The resolution said that although it was the right of states to decide who to allow into the country, they should also respect the rights of third-country nationals trying to enter the Schengen area, "in line with the European Convention on Human Rights."

Last year, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu announced that all ambassadors had been summoned to the ministry and "the necessary warnings were issued."

Busy agenda

Fresh off his runoff victory, Erdoğan will hit the road again this week. On Thursday, he is expected to attend the European Political Community summit in Moldova’s Chisinau, where leaders of European Union countries, Ukraine and the United Kingdom are expected to attend. Over the weekend, he will take an oath for the Presidency at Parliament.

On Wednesday, he is expected to attend an event at the Turkish Court of Accounts and holds several bilateral talks, according to the media reports. On Friday, he is scheduled to host a ceremony at the Presidential Complex for several heads of state to accept congratulations for his victory. Later in June, Erdoğan is expected to travel to his ancestral hometown Rize where he would likely merge a brief vacation with an official visit.