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The presidential and parliamentary elections that took place in Turkey on May 14 and 28 received great Western media attention, given the importance of these elections, which coincide with the first centenary of the founding of the Turkish Republic.
The media treatment of the major Western media outlets for these elections was subjected to a lot of criticism from Turkey and the Arab world, and their supposed impartiality in an internal election contest was called into question.
From the intimidation of dictatorship and chaos to the call to save democracy in Türkiye. The expressions differed among the most famous Western media outlets, but they almost share the same position on the Turkish elections, on Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his party, and on his most prominent rival, opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu.
In this context, the Turkish state-run Arabic-language channel TRT Arabi aired a documentary entitled “Media Disinformation || Why did the Western press target the Turkish president during the elections?”
The documentary film sheds light on the campaign launched by Western media organizations against President Erdogan during the Turkish presidential elections, revealing the parties behind it and its most prominent causes.
It is noteworthy that the Turkish parliament had recently approved a draft law that included amending the press law and some laws known as the “Regulation on combating disinformation”, depending on the majority enjoyed by the Republican Alliance, which is made up of the ruling Justice and Development Party and the Nationalist Movement.
On May 14, Turkey witnessed simultaneous parliamentary and presidential elections, which were described as “historic” because they coincide with the first centenary of the founding of the Turkish Republic.
24 parties competed in the parliamentary elections to obtain the largest number of seats in the parliament, which has a total of 600 seats.
The “public” coalition, led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was able to obtain the majority of parliament, with more than 320 seats, while only 268 seats belong to the Justice and Development Party, and the rest to the other allied parties.
On the other hand, the opposition “six-party table” coalition did not succeed in achieving a majority in parliament, as the Republican People’s Party, the largest opposition party in the country, won only 169 seats, according to the final results revealed by the Supreme Elections Authority (YSK).
In terms of the presidential elections, 3 candidates from a different partisan alliance ran in the race, they are the current President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on behalf of the “Audience” coalition, opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu on behalf of the “nation” coalition or what is known as the “six-party table”, and the nationalist politician Sinan Ogan. On the “grandparents” coalition, while Muharram Injeh, the candidate for his “Al-Balad” party, suddenly announced his withdrawal from the competition a few days ago.
The first round witnessed Erdogan obtaining 49.52 percent of the vote, while his main rival and opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu won 44.88 percent, and Sinan Ogan 5.17 percent, so that the High Elections Commission announced the extension of the presidential race to the second round, which took place on May 28, 2023.
The second round of the presidential elections resulted in President Erdogan obtaining 52.18 percent of the vote, and his rival Kilicdaroglu 47.82 percent, thus concluding Erdogan’s elections for a new term of 5 years.
In the run-off elections to choose the president, 52 million and 93 thousand and 375 local voters cast their votes, and the voting rate reached 85.72 percent, while the participation rate reached 88.92 percent inside the country and 53.80 percent outside it.
