Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan once said that whoever wins Istanbul wins Turkey. If that’s the case, the stakes are high for Sunday’s elections as people across the country of 85 million prepare to select their local leaders and administrators. Such is the importance of this weekend’s vote that political analysts are speculating that a victory for Istanbul’s incumbent mayor, the center-left Ekrem Imamoglu, would make him a frontrunner for the Turkish presidency in 2028. That is the last thing Erdogan wants, having already seen his conservative, Islamist-sympathizing Justice and Development Party, abbreviated ... (full story)