Kazakh president congratulates Erdogan on his victory

By Aliia Raimbekova

ASTANA (AA) - Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev on Monday congratulated his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on his success in Sunday’s presidential elections.

In a statement, Nazarbayev said: “The outcome of the elections has shown that Turkish people greatly value your efforts as president of your country and they support political and economic reforms that you have carried out and strategic developments that were determined.”

Praising “brotherly” relations between the two countries, he said that strategic partnership between the two countries would reach new levels.

Turkey's Supreme Election Council (YSK) announced Erdogan won an absolute majority in the presidential election.

Currently, 99.2 percent of the ballot boxes have been opened as Erdogan is leading with 52.5 percent of the votes while his major rival Muharrem Ince lags behind at 30.6 percent.

The People's Alliance -- a coalition of Erdogan's Justice and Development (AK) Party and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) -- has won 53.6 percent of the votes as 99.1 percent of the boxes have been opened so far in parliamentary votes.