ISTANBUL: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won Turkey’s landmark election Sunday, the country’s electoral commission said, ushering in a new system granting the president sweeping new powers which critics say will cement what they call a one-man rule.
The presidential and parliamentary elections, held more than a year early, complete NATO-member Turkey’s transition from a parliamentary system of government to a presidential one in a process started with a referendum last year.
“The nation has entrusted to me the responsibility of the presidency and the executive duty,” Erdogan said in televised remarks from Istanbul after a near-complete count carried by the state-run Anadolu news agency gave him the majority needed to avoid a runoff.
Speaking early Monday, Supreme Election Council head Sadi Guven said 97.7 of votes had been counted and declared Erdogan the winner.
Guven said that based on unofficial results, five parties passed the threshold of 10 percent of votes required for parties to enter parliament.
Cheering Erdogan supporters waving Turkish flags gathered outside the president’s official residence in Istanbul, chanting, “Here’s the president, here’s the commander.”
“Justice has been served!” said Cihan Yigici, an Erdogan supporter in the crowd.
Thousands of jubilant supporters of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party, or HDP, also spilled into the streets of the predominantly Kurdish southeastern city of Diyarbakir after unofficial results from Anadolu showed the party coming in third with 11.5 percent of the legislative vote — surpassing the 10 percent threshold needed to enter parliament.
The HDP’s performance was a particular success since presidential candidate Selahattin Demirtas, eight more of its lawmakers and thousands of party members campaigned from jails and prisons. HDP says more than 350 of its election workers have been detained since April 28.
The imprisoned Demirtas, who has been jailed pending trial on terrorism-related charges he has called trumped-up and politically motivated, was in third place in the presidential race with 8.3 percent of the vote, according to Anadolu.
Revelers waved HDP flags and blared car horns. One party supporter, Nejdet Erke, said he had been “waiting for this emotion” since morning.
Erdogan insisted the expanded powers of the Turkish presidency will bring prosperity and stability to the country, especially after a failed military coup attempt in 2016. A state of emergency imposed after the coup remains in place.
Some 50,000 people have been arrested and 110,000 civil servants have been fired under the emergency, which opposition lawmakers say Erdogan has used to stifle dissent.
The new system of government abolished the office of prime minister and empowers the president to take over an executive branch and form the government. He will appoint ministers, vice presidents and high-level bureaucrats, issue decrees, prepare the budget and decide on security policies.
The Turkish Parliament will legislate and have the right to ratify or reject the budget. With Erdogan remaining at the helm of his party, a loyal parliamentary majority could reduce checks and balances on his power unless the opposition can wield an effective challenge.
The president’s critics have warned that Erdogan’s re-election would cement his already firm grip on power and embolden a leader they accuse of showing increasingly autocratic tendencies.
Erdogan’s apparent win comes at a critical time for Turkey. He recently has led a high-stakes foreign affairs gamble, cozying up to Russian President Vladimir Putin with pledges to install a Russian missile defense system in the NATO-member country.
Ince said the results carried on Anadolu misrepresented the official vote count by the country’s electoral board. The main opposition party that nominated him for the presidency, the CHP, said it was waiting for an official announcement from the country’s electoral board.
Erdogan also declared victory for the People’s Alliance, an electoral coalition between his ruling Justice and Development Party and the small Nationalist Movement Party, saying they had secured a “parliamentary majority” in the 600-member assembly.
The unofficial results for the parliamentary election showed Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party, or AKP, losing its majority, with 293 seats in the 600-seat legislature. However, the small nationalist party the AKP allied with garnered 49 seats.
“Even though we could not reach out goal in parliament, God willing we will be working to solve that with all our efforts in the People’s Alliance,” Erdogan said.
The president, who has never lost an election and has been in power since 2003, initially as prime minister, had faced a more robust, united opposition than ever before. Opposition candidates had vowed to return Turkey to a parliamentary democracy with strong checks and balances and have decried what they call Erdogan’s “one-man rule.”
A combative president, Erdogan enjoys considerable support in the conservative and pious heartland, having empowered previously disenfranchised groups. From a modest background himself, he presided over an infrastructure boom that modernized Turkey and lifted many out of poverty while also raising Islam’s profile, for instance by lifting a ban on Islamic headscarves in schools and public offices.
But critics say he has become increasingly autocratic and intolerant of dissent. The election campaign was heavily skewed in his favor, with opposition candidates struggling to get their speeches aired on television in a country where Erdogan directly or indirectly controls most of the media.
Ince, a 54-year-old former physics teacher, was backed by the center-left opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP. He wooed crowds with an unexpectedly engaging campaign, drawing massive numbers at his rallies in Turkey’s three main cities of Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir.
More than 59 million Turkish citizens, including 3 million expatriates, were eligible to vote.
Erdogan proclaimed winner of Turkey’s presidential election
Erdogan proclaimed winner of Turkey’s presidential election
- Erdogan has just under 53 percent in the presidential poll while Ince, of the secular Republican People’s Party (CHP), was on 31 percent, state-run Anadolu news agency said, based on a 96 percent vote count
- The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) was polling 11 percent, well over the 10 percent minimum threshold needed to win 46 seats, which would make it the second largest opposition party in the new chamber
Search called off for crew of Houthi-hit ship, maritime agencies say
- The strikes on the two ships marked a resumption of a campaign by the Iran-aligned fighters who attacked more than 100 ships from November 2023 to December 2024 in what they said was solidarity with the Palestinians
ATHENS: Maritime agencies Diaplous and Ambrey said on Sunday they had ended their search for the remaining crew of the Eternity C cargo ship that was attacked by Yemen’s Houthi militants last week.
The decision was made at the request of the vessel’s owner, both agencies said.
The Liberia-flagged, Greek-operated Eternity C sank on Wednesday morning following attacks over two consecutive days, according to sources at security companies involved in the rescue operation.
Ten of the ship’s complement of 22 crew and three guards were rescued. The remaining 15 are considered missing, including five who are believed to be dead, maritime security sources said. The Houthis said they had rescued some of the crew.
The crew included 21 Filipinos and one Russian. Three armed guards were also on board, including one Greek and one Indian, who were both rescued.
“The decision to end the search has been taken by the vessel’s Owner reluctantly but it believes that, in all the circumstances, the priority must now be to get the 10 souls safely recovered alive ashore,” maritime risk management firm Diaplous and British security firm Ambrey said in a joint statement.
The Houthis also claimed responsibility for a similar assault last Sunday targeting another ship, the Magic Seas. All crew from the Magic Seas were rescued before it sank.
The strikes on the two ships marked a resumption of a campaign by the Iran-aligned fighters who attacked more than 100 ships from November 2023 to December 2024 in what they said was solidarity with the Palestinians.
Israel’s Netanyahu aide faces indictment over Gaza leak
- Netanyahu’s close adviser, Jonatan Urich, has denied any wrongdoing in the case which legal authorities began investigating in late 2024
- The prime minister has described probes against Urich and other aides as a witch-hunt.
JERUSALEM: An aide to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces indictment on security charges pending a hearing, Israel’s attorney general said on Sunday, for allegedly leaking top secret military information during Israel’s war in Gaza.
Netanyahu’s close adviser, Jonatan Urich, has denied any wrongdoing in the case which legal authorities began investigating in late 2024. The prime minister has described probes against Urich and other aides as a witch-hunt.
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara said in a statement that Urich and another aide had extracted secret information from the Israeli military and leaked it to German newspaper Bild. Their intent, she said, was to shape public opinion of Netanyahu and influence the discourse about the slaying of six Israeli hostages by their Palestinian captors in Gaza in late August 2024.
The hostages’ deaths had sparked mass protests in Israel and outraged hostage families, who accused Netanyahu of torpedoing ceasefire talks that had faltered in the preceding weeks for political reasons.
Netanyahu vehemently denies this. He has repeatedly said that Hamas was to blame for the talks collapsing, while the militant group has said it was Israel’s fault no deal had been reached.
Four of the six slain hostages had been on the list of more than 30 captives that Hamas was set to free were a ceasefire to be reached, according to a defense official at the time.
The Bild article in question was published days after the hostages were found executed in a Hamas tunnel in southern Gaza.
It outlined Hamas’ negotiation strategy in the indirect ceasefire talks and largely corresponded with Netanyahu’s allegations against the militant group over the deadlock.
Bild said after the investigation was announced that it does not comment on its sources and that its article relied on authentic documents.
A two-month ceasefire was reached in January this year and included the release of 38 hostages before Israel resumed attacks in Gaza. The sides are presently engaged in indirect negotiations in Doha, aimed at reaching another truce.
How unequal shelter access puts Israel’s Arab and Bedouin communities at greater risk
- Decades of infrastructure neglect have left Arab and Bedouin areas without basic protections enjoyed by Jewish communities
- Residents are calling for equal emergency planning, arguing that safety during conflict should be a right, not a privilege
LONDON: As Iranian rockets shook East Jerusalem in mid-June, Rawan Shalaldeh sat in the dark while her seven-year-old son slept. She had put him to bed early and hid her phone to prevent the constant alerts from waking him, hoping sleep would shield her child from the terror above.
“The bombing was very intense; the house would shake,” Shalaldeh, an architect and urban planner with the Israeli human rights and planning organization Bimkom, told Arab News.
While residents in nearby Jewish districts rushed into reinforced shelters, Shalaldeh and her family in the Palestinian neighborhood of Jabal Al-Zaytoun had nowhere to go.
“East Jerusalem has only about 60 shelters, most of them inside schools,” she said. “They’re designed for students, not for neighborhood residents. They’re not available in every area, and they’re not enough for the population.”
Her home is a 15-minute walk from the nearest shelter. “By the time we’d get there, the bombing would already be over,” she said.
Instead, her family stayed inside, bracing for the next strike. “We could hear the sound but couldn’t tell if it was from the bombs or the interception systems,” she recalled. “We couldn’t sleep. It was terrifying. I fear it will happen again.”
That fear is compounded by infrastructure gaps that make East Jerusalem’s residents more vulnerable. “Old homes in East Jerusalem don’t have shelters at all,” she said. “New homes with shelters are rare because it’s extremely hard to get a building permit here.”
Israeli law requires new apartments to be built with protected rooms. However, homes built without permits are unlikely to follow the guidelines, leaving most without safe space.
The contrast with West Jerusalem is stark. “There’s a big difference between East and West Jerusalem,” Shalaldeh said. “In the west, there are many shelters, and things are much easier for them.”
Indeed, a June 17 report by Bimkom underscored these disparities. While West Jerusalem, home to a mostly Jewish population, has about 200 public shelters, East Jerusalem, which is home to nearly 400,000 Palestinians, has just one.
Even where shelters do exist they are often inaccessible. The municipality’s website fails to clearly mark their locations, and many residents are unaware they exist. Some shelters even remain locked during emergencies — especially at night.
The report concluded that the current infrastructure is grossly inadequate, leaving most East Jerusalem residents without access to basic protection during attacks.
Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem hold temporary residency IDs that lack any listed nationality and must be renewed every five years. Unlike Arab citizens of Israel — often referred to as “48 Arabs” — or residents of southern Israel, they do not have Israeli citizenship.
For many Palestinian and Arab citizens of Israel, the 12-day Israel-Iran war in June laid bare a deeper inequity — one that extends beyond conflict and into the fabric of everyday life.
“I haven’t spoken with any of my friends in the north yet, but I saw videos on Instagram,” Shalaldeh said. “Arab families tried to enter shelters and were prevented — because they’re Arab.”
The war, she said, exposed an uncomfortable truth for many Arab citizens of Israel. “After the war, many realized they’re not treated like Israelis — even though they have citizenship, work in Israel and speak Hebrew.”
“There’s an Israeli policy that tries to blur their identity. But the war opened a lot of people’s eyes. It became clear they’re not equal, and the issue of shelters was shocking for many.”
One town where this inequity became alarmingly visible was Tira, a predominantly Arab community in central Israel with roughly 27,000 residents. Though well within the range of missile attacks, Tira lacks adequate public shelters.
“Most of the few shelters that exist are outdated, insufficient, or located far from residential areas,” Fakhri Masri, a political and social activist from Tira, told Arab News. “In emergencies, schools are often opened as temporary shelters, but they only serve nearby neighborhoods and can’t accommodate everyone.
“Many homes do not have protected rooms, and this leaves families, especially those with children or elderly members, extremely vulnerable.”
When sirens sounded during the attacks, panic set in. “It was the middle of the night,” Masri said. “Many of us had to wake our children, some still half asleep, and scramble for any kind of cover.
With official shelters scarce, families resorted to improvised solutions. “People ran into stairwells, lay on the ground away from windows, or tried to reach school shelters — if they were even open or nearby,” he said.
Others simply fled to their cars or huddled outdoors, hoping distance from buildings would offer some safety.
“It was chaotic, frightening, and it felt like we were left completely on our own,” Masri said. “The fear wasn’t just of rockets — it was also the fear of having no place to run to.”
Underlying this crisis, he argued, is a deeper pattern of state neglect. “Arab towns like Tira were never provided with proper infrastructure or emergency planning like Jewish towns often are,” he said. “That in itself feels like a form of discrimination.
“It makes you feel invisible — like our safety doesn’t matter. It’s a constant reminder that we’re not being protected equally under the same state policies.
“We are not asking for anything more than what every citizen deserves — equal rights, equal protection, and the right to live in safety and dignity. It is a basic human right to feel secure at our own home, to know that our children have somewhere safe to go during an emergency.”
Masri, who has long campaigned for equal emergency protections, called on the Israeli government to end discrimination in shelter planning.
“Treat Arab towns with the same seriousness and care as any other town,” he said. “We are people who want to live in peace. We want our children to grow up in a country where safety is not a privilege but a right — for everyone, Jewish and Arab alike.
“Until that happens, we will keep raising our voices and demanding fairness, because no one should be left behind.”
The picture is similar for the roughly 100,000 Bedouin who live across 35 unrecognized villages in the Negev and Galilee regions, often in makeshift homes that provide little protection. Many of these villages are near sensitive sites targeted by Iran.
One such village is Wadi Al-Na’am, the largest unrecognized village in Israel, home to about 15,000 Bedouin residents in the southern Negev desert.
“When we say unrecognized, it means we have nothing,” said Najib Abu Bnaeh, head of the village’s emergency team and a member of its local council. “No roads, no electricity, no running water — and certainly no shelters.
“During wars, people flee the villages. They hide in caves, under bridges — any place they can find.”
IN NUMBERS
• 250 Shelters built across Negev since Oct. 7, 2023 — half of them by the state.
• 60 School-based shelters in East Jerusalem, concentrated in select locations.
• 1 Public shelter in East Jerusalem.
• 200 Public shelters in West Jerusalem.
(Source: Bimkom)
After the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, the army began installing a small number of shelters in unrecognized villages. But Abu Bnaeh said that these efforts have fallen short.
“In our village, they built two structures,” he said. “But they have no ceilings, so they don’t protect from anything.”
He estimates that more than 45,000 protective buildings are needed across all unrecognized villages.
As the head of Wadi Al-Na’am’s emergency response team, Abu Bnaeh leads a group of 20 volunteers. Together, they assist residents during missile alerts, evacuating families to shelters in nearby townships such as Segev Shalom and Rahat, and delivering food and medicine.
“We train people how to take cover and survive,” he said. “We also help train teams in other villages how to respond to injuries, missiles and emergencies.
“The best way to protect people is simple. Recognize the villages. Allow us to build shelters.”
Even recognized villages face issues. In Um Bateen, officially recognized in 2004, basic infrastructure is still missing.
“Although our village is recognized, we still don’t have electricity,” Samera Abo Kaf, a resident of the 8,000-strong community, told Arab News.
“There are 48 Bedouin villages in northern Israel. And even those recognized look nothing like Jewish towns nearby.”
Building legally is nearly impossible. “The state refuses to recognize the land we’ve lived on for generations,” she said. “So, we build anyway — out of necessity. But that means living in fear; of winter collapsing our roofs, or bulldozers tearing our homes down.”
Abo Kaf said that the contrast is obvious during her commute. “I pass Beer Sheva and Omer — trees, paved roads, tall buildings. It’s painful. Just 15 minutes away, life is so different.
“And I come from a village that is, in many ways, better off than others,” she added.
With each new conflict, the fear returns. “Israel is a country with many enemies — it’s no secret,” Abo Kaf said. “Every few years, we go through another war. And we Bedouins have no shelters. None.
“So not only are our homes at risk of demolition, but we also live with the threat of rockets. It’s absurd. It’s infuriating. If something doesn’t change, there’s no future.”
Michal Braier, Bimkom’s head of research, said that no government body had responded to its report, though many civil society organizations have supported its findings based on specific cases.
“There are stark protection gaps between high- and low-income communities,” she told Arab News. “And most Arab and Palestinian communities rank low on socio-economic indicators.
“This is a very neo-liberal planning and development policy that, by definition, leaves the weak behind.”
Turkiye’s Kurdish region finds it difficult to accept peace is at hand
- Conflict has caused 50,000 deaths among civilians and 2,000 among soldiers
HAKKARI, Turkiye: Southeast Turkiye, where the army has battled Kurdish militants for decades, is not yet convinced that lasting peace is at hand.
In a slickly managed ceremony recently held across the border in Iraq, members of the Kurdish rebel group PKK destroyed their weapons as part of a peace process underway with the Turkish state.
But on the streets and in the tea houses of Hakkari, a Kurdish-majority town some 50 kilometers from the Iraqi border, few people express much hope that the deadly conflict is over.
One tea drinker who was willing to speak asked not to be filmed. “We don’t talk about it,” he said.
The conflict has caused 50,000 deaths among civilians and 2,000 among soldiers, according to Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Mehmet Duman, a local, said: “The state must take a step” to match the symbolic operation to destroy PKK weapons in Iraq.
“Turkiye has won,” Erdogan said Saturday, a day after the PKK’s symbolic destruction of weapons signaling the start of the disarmament process. “Eighty-six million citizens have won,” he added.
While he has opened a peace process with the PKK, or Kurdistan Workers’ Party, he has also continued his crackdown on opposition parties.
The government has arrested hundreds of members of the CHP, a social-democratic, secular party. The main opposition force to Erdogan, it is rising in the polls.
Those arrested include the mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, the party’s likely candidate in the next presidential elections, and the mayors of other major cities who took power when CHP made major gains in March 2024 local elections.
Accused of “corruption,” they deny the charges against them. The crackdown has also hit opposition media outlets, such as the Sozcu channel.
On Saturday morning, before the plenary session of his AKP party, Erdogan sought to be reassuring.
“We know what we are doing. No one should worry, be afraid, or question anything. Everything we are doing is for Turkiye, for our future and our independence,” he insisted.
The PKK announced in May that it would disband and renounce armed conflict. The move came after PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, who has been imprisoned on an island near Istanbul since 1999, urged his group in February to convene a congress, and formally disband and disarm.
Ocalan renewed his call in a video message broadcast on Wednesday, saying, “I believe in the power of politics and social peace, not weapons.”
The PKK issued a statement from the fighters who were laying down their weapons, saying that they had disarmed “as a gesture of goodwill and a commitment to the practical success” of the peace process.
“We will henceforth continue our struggle for freedom, democracy, and socialism through democratic politics and legal means,” the statement said.
Turkish parliamentary Speaker Numan Kurtulmus said that the initial disarmament step had proceeded “as planned,” but cautioned that the process was far from complete.
“There’s still a long way to go in collecting many more weapons,” Kurtulmus said. “What matters is ending the armed era in a way that ensures weapons are never taken up again.”
The official noted that the Turkish parliament was close to setting up a commission to oversee the peace process.
Devlet Bahceli, Erdogan’s nationalist ally who initiated the peace process, welcomed the ceremony, saying it marks “historic developments that signal the end of a dark era.”
UAE, Turkish presidents reaffirm support for regional stability
- Al-Nahyan, Erdogan discuss regional, international issues in phone call
- Talks reflect strong ties between Ankara, Abu Dhabi
LONDON: UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan discussed recent developments in the Middle East with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on Sunday.
During a telephone call the leaders emphasized their countries’ commitment to supporting all efforts that promote peace and stability in the region, the Emirates News Agency reported.
They emphasized the need for improved coordination to tackle regional crises through dialogue and diplomacy, which they said was essential for achieving lasting peace and stability.
The call reflects the close ties and economic partnership between Ankara and Abu Dhabi and strong cooperation in various sectors.
