The results of the Turkish presidential elections… New indications and trends in the…

The first round of the Turkish presidential elections ended with results that were surprising to the audience watching, whether they support President Erdogan or even support the opposition. Although this round ended with President Erdogan ahead of his rival Kılıçdaroğlu, it carried with it a number of messages and mysteries that were not taken into account. It revealed the nature of the new Turkish society.

All the great achievements carried out by President Erdogan over the course of twenty years, which included various aspects at the economic level, did not lead to the transfer of society from a deteriorating economic situation to a society enjoying a comfortable financial situation, as the minimum wage jumped in his era from $ 120 to more than 450 dollars, as well as significant progress in the areas of infrastructure, defense industries, military and many other urban transformation.

In view of the 2018 presidential elections and today’s elections, there is a decline in the president’s result, which he comfortably decided in the first round previously, as this new round came in light of a number of changes that Turkish society witnessed, most notably the broad alignment of the opposition as one with the aim of changing the president. And the bias of the Kurdish bloc clearly, for the first time, against the president and in favor of the opposition candidate, in addition to the economic effects that resulted from the rise in inflation to record rates, with the decline of the Turkish lira and it exceeded the barrier of 20 against one dollar. Despite the constant efforts to raise wages, the opposition succeeded in fueling public opinion with these issues.

In addition, the international media and social media technologies played an important role in supporting the opposition candidate, directly and indirectly, led by communication technologies that control public opinion, its culture, and its orientations in a soft and hidden way.

Despite all these factors that some have touched upon in their analyses, this article presents a different reading of other important factors that played an important role in the results achieved, the most prominent of which is the new nature of the Turkish public, in which the mood and search for change emerge.

Change among broad groups is an aspired goal despite their acknowledgment of Erdogan’s achievements and successes, and this in itself gives an impression of the youth segment of a contemporary and special nature, and affected by digital culture in its way of thinking, meaning that it no longer thinks in the traditional way that public opinion is accustomed to in its orientations, but has become Influenced by the culture of speed and change that characterizes social media users in the predominance of curiosity and the love of new knowledge, even the behavior of social media users pushes its owner to quickly move from one informational material to another, even if the viewed material is enjoyable. This behavior, which was instilled by the communicative nature of social networking sites, naturally affects the behavior of users who are now looking for new things, even in the political reality of their country. Successful Erdogan is not enough for their curiosity and love to try new things.

The analytical vision in this article is strengthened when looking at the comparative comparison of the current results with each other. Expectations were giving superiority to President Erdogan, due to the nature of his distinguished personality, over what can be achieved at the parliamentary level for his party, and in view of the results of a large city such as Istanbul, in which the opposition candidate outperformed Erdogan in the percentage of support. We find the opposite of that in the results of the parliament, in which the Justice and Development Party outperforms the opposition party by a good margin, just like the capital, Ankara, which carries a message that the public is supportive of the ruling party and its representation in parliament, while it does not give the same support to President Erdogan.

These messages that are revealed from the results do not necessarily appear blatantly, as the formation of societies in their ways of thinking takes time to become a phenomenon to be reckoned with in shaping public opinion, but it is a new indicator, and time can increase it, so it is more appropriate to pay attention to presenting new faces to society in the elections, which is what His influence began in the 2019 elections when the new face won the Istanbul mayoralty.

This may lead us to the importance of the parliamentary system in presenting new faces and exchanging senior positions in the state between different faces, even from within the ruling party itself, which gives a solution to this dilemma, which is sounding a danger alarm for the continuation of the Justice and Development Party in ruling Turkey after that. Despite all the advantages of the presidential system, it has become more threatening to the achievements that Erdogan and his party have achieved so far.