President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s party has lost control of Turkey’s capital city, Ankara, in a serious setback in local elections. The opposition party has also pulled narrowly ahead in the election for mayor in the country’s largest city, Istanbul. The president previously accepted that the poll would be a judgment on his rule, saying it would be about the “survival” of the country and his party. In a speech Sunday, he said: “If there are any shortcomings, it is our duty to correct them.” Istanbul has been held by Erdogan’s parties since 1994, when he was elected the city’s mayor; his ruling AK Party has lost control of Ankara for the first time since the party’s founding in 2001. Last year’s election dragged the country’s currency, the lira, down by 30 percent and tipped the economy into recession. “Today’s elections are as historic as that of 1994,” journalist Rusen Cakir tweeted, referring to the year Erdogan won Istanbul. “It is a declaration that a page that was opened 25 years ago is being turned.”
