Erdogan backs former environment chief to win back Istanbul
ISTANBUL, TURKEY (AFP) - 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.
Urban planner
Kurum served as Erdogan's environment and urbanisation minister from 2018 until last year.
Turkish media reported that the 47-year-old Ankara native came out on top of an internal party poll Erdogan oversaw last month.
Kurum, a civil engineer by training, became a member of parliament representing one of Istanbul's districts last year for the AKP.
His background as an urban planner and his professional training fit with Erdogan's claims that Istanbul has become run down and dysfunctional under opposition control.
Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu edged out Erdogan's ally in a 2019 mayoral election vote that gained international attention after being controversially annulled.
Imamoglu won a re-run vote by a massive margin that turned him into an instant hero for the opposition and a formidable political foe for Erdogan.
The 52-year-old is widely seen as the opposition's best bet at winning back the presidency from Erdogan's AKP in 2028.
He was effectively barred from running for president last year because of a politically-charged defamation conviction that his supporters viewed as Erdogan's vendetta for losing in 2019.
The Istanbul mayor could be barred from politics for up to three years if his defamation conviction is upheld by a higher court.