Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed a decree that the elections will be held by May 14.


We begin our tour of British newspapers with a Guardian editorial entitled: "The Guardian's Turkish election results: a step towards tyranny?"


In Turkey's presidential election, which takes place on Sunday, there seems good reason to believe that voters are turning their backs on the authoritarian nationalism of Recep Tayyip Erdogan.


And the Guardian says "Erdoğan succeeded in uniting the always-divided opposition to him as he became a semi-royalist president in 2018."


According to opinion polls, Erdoğan's main rival, Kemal Kalekdaroğlu, voted for him.


However, "unfortunately, that hope was misplaced." As it turned out, he says, it was Erdogan who almost won the first round.



According to The Guardian, the Justice and Development Party-led coalition is poised to win a surprise majority in the Grand National Assembly. He believes the results will undermine the opposition's efforts to restore parliamentary democracy in Turkey, regardless of the outcome of presidential elections in two weeks.


She says the momentum created by Erdogan's current advantage and the AKP's victory in parliament now suggests that "Erdogan will extend his increasingly authoritarian rule into a third decade."


And this despite inflation approaching 50 percent and widespread disillusionment with the government's slow response to the devastating earthquake three months ago.


The Guardian believes that another five years of Erdogan's rule will be a very unpleasant development for Europe and America, especially ahead of a crucial period in Ukraine.


It will also bode bitterly for those who may lose their civil rights further in Erdogan's increasingly illiberal democracy.


Turkey's Kurdish minority, critics, journalists and women's rights activists, and the LGBT community in Turkey have faced political repression in recent years.


The paper says that if Erdogan survives the strongest and most united democratic challenge to his rule yet, Turkey will be forced into more total oppression.


She adds that the coalition of Kalkdar Oglu is very difficult, the media is very biased in favor of Erdoğan.


And the Guardian believes the opposition will need to win among less affluent national voters outside the cities, who appear to be seeking to ease the pre-election crisis caused by high inflation. are in


Last week, Erdogan announced a 45 percent salary increase for public sector workers, the latest in a series of decisions including lowering electricity prices and providing households with free natural gas for a month.


Despite the economic pain caused by rampant inflation, Erdogan has convinced the religiously conservative class that he is still the best leader to protect their interests, the newspaper said.


She believes that until a determined Oglu is sufficiently convinced, the medium-term outlook for Turkey's democracy looks bleak.


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Arming South Africa to Russia


We turn to the Financial Times and an opinion piece titled: "South Africa's Alleged Arms Scheme to Russia".


The newspaper understands there are three possible explanations for the diplomatic storm between South Africa and the United States after Washington's ambassador claimed weapons were loaded onto a Russian ship anchored in South Africa. Two of them reflected badly on Pretoria and the ruling African National Congress.


The first is that Cyril Ramaphosa's government didn't really know Simon was loading up on Lady R in Town last December. This is a shocking admission, as the area is considered a safe military base.


Another justification is that the South African government was well aware that it was exporting arms to Russia, even if it was out of misguided loyalty to Soviet-era Moscow, which saw the ANC's independence 30 years ago, or because He felt compelled. Associate yourself with BRICS country.


According to the newspaper, this means that South Africa is deliberately supplying weapons to Moscow in violation of Western sanctions.


A third explanation is that the CIA is wrong.


But the Financial Times believes that, given the number of satellites the US has ordered to monitor Lady R, this seems unlikely.


The newspaper added that Ramaphosa felt embarrassed that he had to order an investigation into what happened at his country's naval base.


Even if this partially exonerates him, South Africa's foreign policy will continue to suffer.