A huge blow to Erdogan’s power in Turkey, opposition won in mayor elections in five big cities including Istanbul and Ankara. Loktej World News

Ankara, April 1 (HIST). Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has been in power in Turkey for more than two decades, has suffered a severe blow. His party AKP has faced a huge defeat in the mayoral elections held across the country on Sunday. Turkey’s main opposition party has won in five major cities, including the capital Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir.

This defeat in the mayoral elections in big cities, within a year of winning the third term as Turkish President, has shaken the rule of 70-year-old Erdogan. Even political analysts are surprised by this defeat of his party. After winning the presidential elections, Erdogan was confident about his dominance over the political leadership of cities, but the defeat of his party’s candidates in the local body elections has shown him a mirror.

The special thing is that Erdogan himself campaigned in Istanbul, but here Ekram Imamoglu of the secular opposition party CHP won the elections. During the election campaign, Erdogan had promised to usher in a new era in Istanbul, but the city with a population of 16 million expressed confidence in the opposition party. Similarly, Erdogan’s party has faced an embarrassing situation in the capital Ankara. Opposition mayor Mansour Yavas got so far ahead of his rival that he declared victory before more than half of the votes were counted.

Acknowledging the poor performance in local elections, Erdogan said it was not as he expected. In a midnight address on Turkish television, Erdogan accepted defeat and said his government would respect the will of the people. We will respect the wishes of the people and assess our mistakes.

Erdogan started his political career from Istanbul itself. In 1994, Erdogan was elected Mayor of Istanbul as a candidate of the Welfare Party of former Turkish Prime Minister Nejmettin Erbakan and remained in this post till 1998. After this, after becoming the Prime Minister in 2003 and spending three terms on this post, he became the President of the country in 2014.

The latest defeat is a sign that Erdogan’s political grip is beginning to weaken. He has said on many occasions that whoever wins Istanbul, wins Turkey.