"Let`s work together towards a Turkey where conflict, tension and polarisation are non-existent and everyone salutes each other in peace."
Davutoğlu described the outcome of a general election which swept his AK Party back to a parliamentary majority on Sunday as a victory for democracy.
"Today is a victory for our democracy and our people," Davutoğlu told a crowd of cheering AK Party supporters outside his home in the central Anatolian city of Konya, a ruling party stronghold.
"Hopefully we will serve you well for the next four years and stand in front of you once again in 2019," he said, referring to Turkey`s next general election in four years time.
The preliminary results suggest that the ruling party`s gamble to hold new elections has paid off. Supporters at the party`s Ankara and Istanbul headquarters were already waving flags in rapturous celebrations. Crowds outside President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan`s home in İstanbul were shouting "Turkey is proud of you."
The vote is a rerun of a June election in which AK Party surprisingly lost its one-party rule due to a strong showing by a Kurdish party. Most analysts had expected AKP to fall short again, but the preliminary results suggest it picked up millions of votes at the expense of the nationalist MHP and pro-Kurdish People`s Democratic Party (HDP). AK Party`s vote tally jumped nearly nine percentage points. The secularist CHP was hovering around the same result as in June.
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