Erdogan is shocked by the opposition’s historic victory in the Turkish municipal elections.

Less than a year after declaring his candidacy for a third term as president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan had planned to retake control of the cities. The results are a serious setback for him.

In Istanbul, where he was born and raised, he led the winning campaign to become mayor.

However, the secular opposition CHP secured a second victory thanks to Ekrem Imamoglu, who initially took home the city in 2019.

Mr. Erdogan had promised a new era for the over 16 million-person megacity of Istanbul; nevertheless, the current mayor of Istanbul received over 50% of the vote, defeating the candidate of the president’s AK Party by over 11 points and nearly one million votes.