Erdogan backs former environment chief to win back Istanbul

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday entrusted a former environment minister to run for mayor of Istanbul and avenge the worst political defeat of the Turkish leader’s two-decade rule.

Murat Kurum will represent Erdogan’s Islamic conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP) in March 31 municipal elections in which control of Turkey’s main cities will be up for grabs.

The secular opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) seized back control of Istanbul for the first time since Erdogan ruled the city as mayor in the 1990s in watershed 2019 polls.

That vote also saw the opposition win back the capital Ankara and keep power in the Aegean port city of Izmir.

The opposition’s control of Turkey’s three main cities shattered Erdogan’s image of political invincibility and underscored the levels of resentment rising against his dominant rule.

The president’s rivals campaigned against perceived corruption and a sweeping political crackdown that followed a failed 2016 coup attempt.

Erdogan bounced back last year to win a tough re-election that came in the throes of an economic crisis in which the annual inflation rate topped 85 percent.

He has since set his sights on winning back Istanbul — the city where he grew up playing street football and where he launched his political career as a self-proclaimed champion of Turkey’s pious Muslims and the poor.

“We say no stopping until March 31, keep going,” Erdogan told cheering supporters during a party congress in Istanbul.

“We stand before our nation with candidates who run for solutions rather than excuses, who act with humility rather than arrogance,” he said.