Turkey will continue to “liberate Syrian lands” so that refugees can return to Syria safely, President Tayyip Erdogan said in an election victory speech on Monday.

Speaking to supporters from the balcony of his ruling AK Party’s headquarters in Ankara after Sunday’s presidential and parliamentary elections, Erdogan said Turkey would also act more decisively against terrorist organizations.

Erdogan won a new mandate in presidential elections in the first round of voting by winning more than half of the votes, the chief of Turkey’s election authority said Monday.

“President Recep Tayyip Erdogan received the absolute majority of all valid votes,” the head of the Supreme Election Committee (YSK) Sadi Guven told reporters in Ankara, without giving further details or numbers after Sunday’s polls.

Results released by Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency based on data from the YSK also gave Erdogan a clear majority of votes.

Erdogan won 52.5 percent in the presidential poll while his main rival Muharrem Ince, of the secular Republican People’s Party (CHP), was on 31.7 percent, Anadolu news agency said, based on a 99 percent vote count.

The YSK is to announce final results on Friday.

(With AFP and Reuters)

Source: english.alarabiya.net