This election is my last: Erdogan

After 21 years in power, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said “this election is my last election”.

“I am working non-stop. We’re running around breathlessly because, for me, it’s a final,” said the president at a meeting of the TUGVA Young Turks foundation on Saturday.

“This is a final for me, under the mandate given by the law this is my last election,” Erdogan said. “The result that will come out will be the transferring of a legacy to my siblings who will come after me,” he was cited as saying by Anadolu.

Erdogan, modern Turkey’s most successful politician, has led the country for more than two decades. A winner of more than a dozen elections since 2002, Erdogan was re-elected for a five-year term during hotly contested elections in May 2023.

The 70-year-old leader expressed confidence that his conservative Justice and Development (AKP) party would nonetheless remain in power even after he has left office. A constitutional change in 2017 then turned Turkey from a parliamentary system into an executive presidency, abolishing the position of prime minister and ensuring that Erdogan’s grip on power remained unchanged.

With inputs from agencies.