In Turkey vote, ruling party’s recipe for trouble: too much Erdoğan

When the Turkish electrician, a longtime supporter of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s party, backed the opposition Sunday in Istanbul, his vote was cast without joy, and with little expectation of change. Instead, it contributed to a watershed moment in Turkish politics, a major setback for Mr. Erdoğan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in municipal elections nationwide that the president had declared critical to Turkey’s survival. For the first time in a quarter century, the opposition seized control of both Turkey’s political capital, Ankara, and – by the slimmest of margins, in a result now being challenged by the AKP – its commercial center, Istanbul, where Mr. Erdoğan once was mayor.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2FVrEKL