ISTANBUL (AFP) – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday confronted the tough task of uniting his deeply divided country after winning a historic run-off election to extend his two-decade rule to 2028.

Turkey’s longest-serving leader brushed aside a powerful opposition coalition, an economic crisis and anger following a devastating February earthquake to beat secular challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu in Sunday’s vote.

But the four-point victory margin was Erdogan’s narrowest of any past election, highlighting the sharp polarization the conservative will contend with in his final term.

Erdogan, 69, called on Turks to “come together in unity and solidarity”, whereas Kilicdaroglu vowed to “continue the struggle” against the president and his AKP party, which has dominated Turkish politics since 2002.

“God granted our wishes. Erdogan is a great leader, he has brought Turkey a long way,” Burak Durmus, 24, said in Istanbul’s conservative stronghold of Uskudar.

Bugra Iyimaya, a 28-year-old academic, said the opposition would “resist and fight until the end” after Erdogan won Turkey’s first runoff.

“Our elders taught us to struggle... we will not lose or give up on this country with one election,” he told AFP.

Relieving Turks of the country’s worst economic crisis since the 1990s is an urgent priority.

Inflation is running at more than 40 percent, partly exacerbated by Erdogan’s unorthodox policy of cutting interest rates to try to cool spiraling prices.

Analysts say Erdogan’s lavish campaign spending pledges and unwavering attachment to lower interest rates will further strain banks’ currency reserves and the lira, which edged down against the dollar on Monday.

Hopes for “an abandonment of the crazy, unconventional economic model and a return to the favor of international investors are finally dashed”, said Bartosz Sawicki, market analyst at Conotoxia fintech.

“The current set-up is just not sustainable,” added Timothy Ash of BlueBay Asset Management, pointing to the tens of billions of dollars the central bank has blown to prop up the lira.

If Erdogan refuses to perform a U-turn on interest rates and abandon the lira, “it could get ugly”, he warned.

A colossal reconstruction effort in Turkey’s southeast is still at an early stage after February’s earthquake that killed more than 50,000 people and destroyed infrastructure and livelihoods.

Official figures estimated the damage at more than $100 billion.

NATO partners are anxiously waiting for Ankara to approve Sweden’s stalled bid to join the U.S.-led military alliance.

Erdogan has blocked the application, accusing Stockholm of sheltering Turkish opposition figures with alleged links to outlawed Kurdish militants.

“Another five years of Erdogan means more of the geopolitical balancing act between Russia and

the West,” said Galip Dalay, an associate fellow at the Chatham House think tank.
“Turkey and the West will engage in transactional cooperation wherever its interests dictate it,” not joining Western sanctions on Moscow for the war in Ukraine and seeking economically profitable relationships, Dalay added.
U.S. President Joe Biden and Erdogan were due to talk on Monday, presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin told television channel A Haber.
NATO issues and the delivery of U.S. F-16 fighter jets to Turkey were likely to be high on the agenda.
Biden needs Congress to approve their transfer and Kalin said U.S. senators were using the jets “as political leverage”.
If the program stalls, “it’s not the end of the world... we don’t allow them to take us as prisoners,” Kalin added.
Russian President Vladimir Putin was one of the first leaders to congratulate Erdogan, and the Kremlin said it looked forward to achieving “very ambitious” goals with Turkey.
Erdogan’s inauguration ceremony, the nomination of a new cabinet and the sitting of the new parliament will follow the confirmation of the final election results this week.