Good morning. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been the dominant figure in Turkish politics for 20 years; after a long and tense vote count last night, his presidency is still on the line. Amid angry claim and counterclaim about manipulation of the numbers, neither Erdoğan nor his main rival Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu looked likely to reach the 50% threshold for outright victory. If that is confirmed by the final figures, they will go to a run-off in two weeks’ time.
The election is widely seen as the most important in the world this year – as a fight for the future of Turkish democracy, a referendum on a strongman populist leader, and a possible shift in Turkey’s influential role on the world stage. In today’s newsletter, Ruth Michaelson in Istanbul explains why the race has gone down to the wire, and what might happen next. Here are the headlines.
