Sunday marked Erdoğan’s first major electoral setback of his decade and a half in power, the article said, noting that the polls were seen as a referendum of sorts after the country’s economy fell into recession following the July 2018 elections which gave Erdoğan sweeping powers
While the Turkish president claimed victory over all in the elections, ‘’he was tasting defeat in mayoral races in the centre of Turkish political power, Ankara, and maybe even in his hometown, Istanbul, the country’s business center,’’ it highlighted.
“Please do not be heartbroken with this result,” Erdoğan said in his address, adding, “We will see how they are going to administer.”
Erdogan’s candidate for İstanbul, former Prime Minister Binali Yildirim remains in a virtual tie with the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu, who claims victory by a substantial margin, the New York Times said.
“The election today is as historic as the local election in 1994,” the article quoted Ruşen Çakır, a veteran commentator, as saying. “It’s the announcement of a page that was opened 25 years ago and is now being closed.”
Should Yıldırım lose the Istanbul race, it would be a ‘’severe blow to his party, which after 17 years in power has been showing a decline in popularity,’’ the article noted.
Director of the Turkish Research Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy Soner Çağaptay told the New York Times that “losing Ankara, which is shorthand for political power and government, is a pretty significant loss.”
Highlighting that Turkey’s declining economy was the main concern for voters at Sunday’s polls, the article pointed out that Turkey has entered a recession as of March, following years of growth.
‘’Unemployment is over 10 percent, and up to 30 percent among young people. The Turkish lira lost 28 percent of its value in 2018 and continues to fall, and inflation has reached 20 percent in recent months,’’ it said.
Meanwhile, opposition candidates came with offers of change, promising to create jobs, improve education and bolster social services as they did not bite their words while criticising Erdoğan.
Recalling that the Turkish president began his career as the mayor of İstanbul, and built his popularity on providing local services such as mass transport, the article said he personally intervened personally in the Istanbul mayoral race, pushing his long-time ally Yıldırım to run.
‘’Most political analysts had predicted that however dissatisfied they were, supporters of his party, known as AKP, were unlikely to make the leap to vote for the opposition alliance,’’ the New York Times said.
As younger people across the political spectrum are increasingly voicing their dissatisfaction with Erdoğan’s rule, the article said, lack of media freedom and the lack of job prospects are among the leading concerns.
“I think this is a growing trend that you cannot suppress,” Aslı Aydıntaşbaş, a senior fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told the New York Times. “There is a second generation of young urban kids who are not behaving like the AKP. They have yearnings not unlike those of the kids on the other side of the tracks.”