Four years ago, when ballots in local elections across Turkey were still being counted, municipality workers in Istanbul had already put up billboard posters of the president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and his Justice and Development (AKP) party’s candidate for mayor in the cultural and commercial capital, thanking the city’s residents for their votes.
The hubris was short-lived. An opposition candidate won, and did even better in a controversial and high-stakes re-run – a moment that in retrospect many hoped would mark the beginning of the end of the political powerhouse’s long career.
