Turkey is set for a second round of voting for the first time ever after neither Recep Tayyip Erdogan nor Kemal Kilicdaroglu secured an absolute majority.

The Turkish president had been away from the public eye recovering from gastroenteritis. The country is set to head to the polls on May 14 as Erdogan seeks to extend his two-decade stranglehold on power.

Journalist Ozgur Ogret: Turkey is 'a press freedom violations museum' under Erdogan. In Reporters Without Borders' 2023 Press Freedom Index, Turkey is ranked 165th out of 180 nations for the environment facing journalists.

It's now been 20 years since Recep Tayyip Erdogan rose to power in Turkey. Either way you look at it, he has undeniably transformed the country. For his supporters, he has turned Turkey into a regional powerhouse and rolled back secularism often associated with the West. But for critics, he has put the country on a more Islamist, even authoritarian path.

Turkey's president has promised his campaign for a new five-year term will attempt to "heal the wounds" of earthquake victims. Six main opposition parties have announced a single rival to Erdogan's "one-man rule."

The Turkish president reiterated Ankara's demands that Sweden extradite "terrorists." Finland and Sweden have made a joint bid to join the military alliance, ending decades of non-alignment.

A six-party coalition in Turkey aim to go against the block lead by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and undo his two-decade legacy, including reducing the president's powers.

Kurds living in Sweden are concerned over an agreement reached between the Swedish and Finnish governments and Turkey, which has threatened to block the two countries from joining NATO over their alleged harboring of Kurdish militants.

The Turkish president has indicated that a pivotal election could take place in May rather than June. Polls show a tight race in what could be a major test of Erdogan's rule.

In December, Sweden extradited Mahmut Tat, a Turkish Kurd whom Ankara accuses of belonging to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which it considers a terrorist organisation

Over the past two decades, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has emerged as the undisputed master of Turkish politics. Elected prime minister in 2003, then president in 2014, he is gearing up for a hotly contested re-election bid later in 2023.

Can Dundar, the former editor-in-chief of Cumhuriyet, one of Turkey's main newspapers, discussed the press freedom situation in his native country during an interview with FRANCE 24. "If you are challenging the government's interests, you are branded a terrorist or a traitor," he said. Dundar added that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was trying to create chaos in a bid to win the next elections, scheduled for June 2023.