More than 10 million Istanbul residents will vote on Sunday in a re-run of a mayoral election that has become a referendum on President Tayyip Erdogan’s policies and a test of Turkey’s ailing democracy.


In the initial March 31 vote, the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) secured a narrow victory over Erdogan’s AK Party (AKP) in Turkey’s largest city, a rare electoral defeat for the president amid mounting economic woes.

But after weeks of AKP appeals, Turkey’s High Election Board in May annulled the vote citing irregularities. The opposition called the decision a “coup” against democracy, which has raised the stakes for round two.

Erdogan has repeated his line that “whoever wins Istanbul wins Turkey.” A second loss in the city, where in the 1990s he served as mayor, would be embarrassing for Erdogan and could weaken what until recently seemed to be his iron grip on power.

Turkey’s economy is in recession and the United States, its NATO ally, has threatened sanctions if Erdogan goes ahead with plans to install Russian missile defenses.

A second AKP loss could also shed further light into what CHP mayoral candidate Ekrem Imamoglu said was the misspending of billions of lira at the Istanbul municipality, which has a budget of around $4 billion.


https://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-election/istanbul-residents-vote-in-mayoral-re-run-in-key-test-for-turkish-democracy-erdogan-idUSKCN1TO010

Free Comrade Abdullah Ocalan.
He is a revolutionist, a patriot and a man of good faith who is fighting against the oppression of his people.
He reminds us all those PanAfricanists who gave their lives to protect African people's dignity.

Abdullah Ocalan 71 -year old

Residence
İmralı (prison island)

Nationality
Kurdish/Turkish
Citizenship Turkey

Education
Ankara University, Faculty of Political Science[7]

Occupation
Founder and leader of militant organization PKK,[8]
political activist, writer, political theorist
Organization
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Koma Civakên Kurdistan (KCK)

Öcalan was arrested in 1999 by the Turkish National Intelligence Agency (MIT) with the support of the CIA in Nairobi and taken to Turkey, where he was sentenced to death under Article 125 of the Turkish Penal Code, which concerns the formation of armed organisations.

The sentence was commuted to aggravated life imprisonment when Turkey abolished the death penalty in support of its bid to be admitted to membership in the European Union. From 1999 until 2009, he was the sole prisoner[20] on İmralı island, in the Sea of Marmara.

The conflict between Turkey and the PKK has resulted in over 40,000 deaths, including PKK members, the Turkish military, and civilians, both Kurdish and Turkish.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdullah_%C3%96calan