In a bright, sunlit conference room, Istanbul’s mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, crosses his arms and leans back in his chair. Deputies flip through a slideshow showing images of the city’s public squares. “The work should be visible,” İmamoğlu presses them, in reference to plans to revamp a square in the outlying district of Bakırköy, after demanding faster progress on another in the conservative neighbourhood of Üsküdar. “I’m already scheduled to walk through that site next week,” he says.
The plate glass window of the conference room faces directly onto the hillside of Kasımpaşa, the Istanbul district where the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, grew up, and his presence as well as that of his Justice and Development party (AKP) were felt even in the conference room of İmamoğlu appointees loyal to the opposition Republican People’s party (CHP).
