Turkey

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s presidential elections appeared headed for a runoff Monday, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pulling ahead of his chief challenger, but falling short of an outright victory that would extend his increasingly authoritarian rule into a third decade.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has ruled his country with an increasingly firm grip for 20 years, was locked in a tight election race early Monday, with a make-or-break runoff against his chief challenger possible as the final votes were counted.

ANKARA, May 14. /TASS/: More than 64 million Turkish citizens will cast their ballot in the presidential and parliamentary elections on Sunday.

The elections are special partly because they are held during the year when the Republic of Turkey is marking its 100th anniversary.

Polling stations will be open between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. local time (same as Moscow time). Overall, a total of 191,884 ballot boxes will be installed in the country and abroad.

ISTANBUL, May 14 (Reuters) - Turks voted on Sunday in one of the most consequential elections in the country's 100-year history, a contest that could end President Tayyip Erdogan's imperious 20-year rule and reverberate well beyond Turkey's borders.

The presidential vote will decide not only who leads Turkey, a NATO-member country of 85 million, but also how it is governed, where its economy is headed amid a deep cost of living crisis, and the shape of its foreign policy.

ISTANBUL, May 14 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday cast his vote for twin presidential and parliamentary elections in a school in Istanbul, the country's largest city.

Erdogan arrived at the school in the Uskudar district on Istanbul's Asian side with his wife, Emine Erdogan, at 11:40 a.m. local time (0840 GMT).

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey is voting Sunday in landmark parliamentary and presidential elections that are expected to be tightly contested and could be the biggest challenge President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has faced in his two decades in power.

The vote will either grant the increasingly authoritarian Erdogan a new five-year term in office or set the NATO member country on what his opposition contender calls a more democratic path.

ANKARA, May 13. /TASS/: The latest public opinion polls conducted by the opposition indicate that support for Kemal Kilicdaroglu has surpassed 49%, a high-ranking source in the opposition told a TASS correspondent on Saturday.

"According to the latest data from our surveys, Kemal Kilicdaroglu is garnering more than 49%. That is, that’s right on the edge. I am confident that in the first round, or at the very least, in the second, if it comes to that, he will definitely win," the source said.

ANKARA, May 13 (NNN-XINHUA) – Negotiations to extend a Black Sea Grain Initiative were nearing an agreement, after two days of talks in Istanbul, between Ukrainian, Russian, Turkish and UN officials, Türkiye’s Defence Minister, Hulusi Akar, said yesterday.

“As part of the first information received, the meeting in Istanbul was positive. We are heading towards an agreement on the extension of the grain deal,” Akar said in a statement.

ISTANBUL, May 13 (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan held his last election rallies in Istanbul on Saturday, accusing the opposition of working with U.S. President Joe Biden to topple him while making a final appeal ahead of the biggest challenge to his 20-year rule.

Polls show Erdogan trailing the main opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu a day ahead of one of the most consequential elections in Turkey's modern history. However, if neither of them win more than 50% of the vote and secure an outright win, the vote will go to a runoff on May 28.

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkish politicians were holding final rallies in the last hours of campaigning on Saturday, the eve of pivotal presidential and parliamentary elections that could significantly shape the NATO member’s future.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is facing the toughest challenge ever in his two decades of power, was speaking at neighborhood rallies in Istanbul, Turkey’s biggest city.