Turkish Democracy Is Still Alive
And the Istanbul elections show how.
BY MURAT SOMER | JUNE 19, 2019, 5:14 PM
People in a restaurant watch a televised lived debate between mayoral candidates Binali Yildirim and Ekrem Imamoglu in Istanbul on June 16. BURAK KARA/GETTY IMAGES
On June 23, somewhere between 8 and 9 million residents of Istanbul will go to the polls to elect their mayor—again. The leading contenders are Ekrem Imamoglu, a dynamic young former district mayor from the Republican People’s Party (CHP), and Binali Yildirim, a seasoned politician and former prime minister from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
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