The Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) won 49.9 percent of the vote in Sunday's polls, according to unofficial results, its best electoral performance yet and the first time any party has won a third straight term in power while improving its results.
But the AKP, in power since 2002, fell just four seats short of the 330-seat majority it was seeking in the 550-member parliament to press ahead with a major constitutional overhaul without the support of other parties.
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"The people ... have given us a message that the new constitution should be made through compromise, consultation and negotiation," Erdogan said in a victory speech from the balcony of the AKP headquarters late Sunday.
"We will not close our doors and (instead) go to the opposition," he said.
A new liberal constitution for EU-hopeful Turkey to replace its current one, the legacy of a 1980 military coup, was the AKP's most prominent election pledge, even though Erdogan has refused to specify what it would entail.
The main opposition centre-left Republican People's Party (CHP) came second with 25.9 percent of the vote and 135 parliamentary seats, followed by the Nationalist Action Party (MHP), which clinched 13 percent and 53 seats.
Along with the AKP, the Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) was another big winner: its candidates, running as independents to get round a 10 percent national threshold to enter parliament, increased the party's presence from 20 to 36.
BDP support could be crucial in drafting the new constitution, which the party says should recognise the Kurds as a distinct element of the nation and grant them autonomy.
The Kurdish conflict looms large for Erdogan: jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan has threatened that "all hell will break loose" after the elections unless sporadic contacts he has had with officials in prison are upgraded to serious negotiations.
Turkish newspapers Monday hailed Erdogan's victory.
"The Master of the Ballot Boxes," headlined the liberal Radikal daily, while the pro-government Sabah said: "Go, Master!"
Both dailies were referring to Erdogan's election rhetoric that a third mandate would make him a "master" after spending the previous two terms as "an apprentice" and "a foreman."
Critics have voiced doubt over Erdogan's messages of reconciliation, pointing to his growing intolerance to criticism and autoritarian tendencies despite similar pledges in the past.
"If the prime minister wants to govern this country in peace, he should know and never forget that the other 50 percent exist," columnist Mehmet Yilmaz wrote in the mass-circulation Hurriyet.
"Will the prime minister swallow the existence of people who do not think like him?" he asked.
Erdogan's election campaign was marked by harsh attacks on critics, and his advocacy of a presidential system for Turkey -- presumably with himself at the helm -- has heightened fears that he is seeking an autoritarian grip on power.
With dozens of journalists in jail, AKP opponents are alarmed also over creeping restrictions on the Internet and alcohol sales, and an unprecedented outbreak of compromising wiretaps and videos targeting opposition figures, in which many see an AKP hand.
Erdogan sought to ease the concerns in his victory speech.
"No one should have doubts that (protecting) the lifestyle, faith and values of both those who voted and did not vote for us will be a matter of honour for me," he said.
