After the victory of Tayyip Erdogan at the presidential elections in Turkey, the country will continue taking efforts in foreign politics to increase influence in the Muslim world, the chairman of the Federation Council Committee for International Affairs, Mikhail Margelov said.
Turkey held its first-ever direct presidential elections on Sunday. The Central Election Commission of Turkey announced that Tayyip Erdogan obtained 51.7 percent of the vote, having thus overcome the 50-percent threshold that guarantees victory in the first round.
Commenting on the results of the elections, Margelov said: "During Erdogan's stay in power, the economic situation of Turkey has improved significantly, but the attitude towards him in the Turkish society is ambiguous. He runs conservative policies, denying a significant part of Ataturk heritage towards the Islamization of the country," said the MP, noting that such a policy does not satisfy the secular-minded part of the urban population."
Margelov expects that "the Turkish leadership will continue the internal and external political course, for which Erdogan plans to revise the distribution of powers between the prime minister and the president, to the benefit of the latter. "It is logical to assume that in foreign policy, under President Erdogan, Turkey will continue taking efforts to increase its influence in the Muslim world and become a full-fledged regional power," he concluded.