On the shores of Istanbul’s Golden Horn, Istanbul’s mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, rallied a crowd for his re-election campaign as banners promoting his rivals fluttered in the wind on a nearby bridge.
“We have brought prosperity to Istanbul,” he declared, drawing cautious applause.
Mr. Imamoglu’s victory in 2019 was a landmark moment for Turkey’s opposition, positioning him as a political opponent of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and providing renewed support to those seeking to challenge his rule. It gave me hope.
Mr. Erdogan, who held the post of Istanbul’s mayor decades ago, contested the first vote and asked for re-election, resulting in Mr. Imamoglu’s second victory. However, what followed was a turbulent first term, with the government facing political and legal challenges from rival groups.
Turkey’s president now aims to return the country’s largest city to party control. In last year’s national elections, his coalition government also unexpectedly won a parliamentary majority, fending off the most concerted challenge to his rule in decades.
Hüsnie Kurt was moved to tears as she watched Imamour speak, pointing to him as a symbol of hope who was able to make some small changes to the city’s kindergartens and transportation network. . But despite her concessions clutching the Turkish flag, opposition voters are struggling to muster the same enthusiasm they had five years ago.
“People don’t believe they can win elections,” she says. “The government will use all tactics and do whatever is necessary to ensure that the opposition does not win.”
Further upstream in the Golden Horn, Metin Timur Tufekchiler sits on the shore as he begins his morning fishing. Behind him are the new trams opened by Imamour, and across the Bosphorus the former shipyard that will become one of Istanbul’s mayor’s centerpiece projects, a sophisticated mall complex, is clearly visible. Looked.
Nevertheless, Tufekciler was unconvinced that Imammoğlu’s rule had changed much for Istanbul’s 16 million residents. “I don’t like Imamour, but I have no other choice,” he said. He explained that he was voting for re-election as mayor because he felt that his opponent, Murat Krum of the AKP, had little more to offer.
“Mr. İmamoğlu has been unable to do anything for the past five years to solve the problems of this city. This is the system,” he said. “No matter who comes to power, he can’t solve Istanbul’s problems. But he didn’t come up with any new solutions.”
Mr. İmamoğlu has become the face of Turkey’s beleaguered opposition, especially after the six-party anti-Erdogan coalition that united to oppose him lost last year’s election. Hope is gone. The mood among his voters is gloomy. Unlike in 2019, the Istanbul mayor is running without the support of the nationalist party IYI (Good) and will campaign alone.
Polls released last month show how much of a challenge it will be for him to win. slim lead The difference between her and Klum was less than 3 points, with 20% of voters undecided.
“There is no doubt that it will be a close race…There is a growing apathy among opposition supporters following the defeat in the general election,” said Bakai Mandulachu of the International Crisis Group. “The fragmentation of the opposition has increased the perception that change is less likely than ever.”
Only the sense that Erdogan’s determination to retake Istanbul makes him, not Mr. Krum, Imammoğlu’s real enemy is drawing some voters to the polls. But the Istanbul mayor seemed reluctant to take the bait, refusing to name either party during his campaign, simply calling them both “our rivals.”
When asked inside a corner store in Balat, a district where he voted for the AKP candidate in 2019, how he plans to vote in local elections, Mashallah Irsin quickly replies: “Of course not for Erdoğan.”
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Like many voters, Turkey’s high inflation and economic crisis are making it difficult for Mr. It stimulates the desire for. “President Erdogan is on the side of the rich. You can feel the smell of hunger from the breath of the poor,” he said.
Istanbul is Turkey’s economic capital, accounting for a third of GDP, but its residents are feeling the strain of the country’s financial crisis more acutely than their rural counterparts. Sitting outside an antique shop in Barat, Recep Salman said he had voted for the AKP before, but that he and his family would abstain in protest.
“I’m angry about all of it,” he said. “I’m a pensioner and my pension only comes in at 10,500 liras (£260) a month, while my rent is 12,000 liras (296 pounds). People from Imamour showed up here and I… I told them he was a showman and was just performing.”
The mayor of Istanbul spent much of his first term fighting with the local government and opposition in Ankara and was unable to pass major reforms for Istanbul. He was also accused of insulting election officials and had to fend off legal challenges, including a prison sentence and ban on political activity handed down by a Turkish court in late 2022, which he is currently appealing. continuing.
Other residents of Barratt said support was wavering. “He’s doing what he has to do, but how far can he really go and how far will they let him go?” said Jiya, who asked that his last name not be used.
As he picked up his rosary outside a clothing store, he wondered if he might be better off voting for the AKP to avoid conflict with the AKP’s district representatives and mayor, and with the central government. This, he hoped, might free them to enact policy rather than fighting among themselves.
Photography teacher Tufekcilar said he was unexpectedly fired from his previous job at City Hall shortly after Imamoglu took power, contrary to the mayor’s campaign promise.
“We wanted new people who could change things. But changing things in this city requires a change of government, because as we have seen, central government is Because it has created obstacles and will continue to do so,” he said. “Imamor did not keep his promise.”
