Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan bluntly admits defeat at the polls, in the vote that gave the opposition the leadership in the administrative elections in Istanbul and Ankara. “Unfortunately we couldn’t get the result we wanted in the elections,” Erdogan said during a speech from the headquarters of his AKP party in the capital, broadcast by state TV TRT. Erdogan recognized the outcome of a vote that the opposition did not hesitate to define as “historic”, after the AKP candidates lost all the major cities in the country. “God willing, we will continue our path by winning,” Erdogan added, however.
The words of the confirmed mayor of Istanbul
The opposition mayors of Istanbul and Ankara, Ekrem Imamoglu and Mansur Yavas, beat the candidates supported by the president, who had already lost in the two largest Turkish cities in the consultations five years ago. “We won”, said Imamoglu, who obtained over 50% of the votes, being reconfirmed as mayor and therefore beating Murat Kurum, who was stuck at 40%. “The people of Istanbul gave us the authority,” he added as he declared victory during a speech at the headquarters of the main opposition party CHP in Istanbul. “You have opened the door for the future”, concluded Imamoglu, thanking the voters and criticizing “the authoritarian system” of Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
