A Challenging Path Ahead For Istanbul’s New Mayor

In his first days as mayor of Turkey’s largest city, Ekrem Imamoglu chaired a hostile city council, faced disobedience from AK Party holdovers and found a predator media against him.

After more than two weeks of political wrangling, Ekrem Imamoglu last week received his official mandate to govern Turkey’s largest city, ending the 25-year rule of the city by mayors from Islamist-originated parties. This came after people grew disgruntled by the endless vote recount and political shenanigans of the ruling party amid a government push for a renewal of the election. For Imamoglu, getting mandate became as challenging and excruciating as winning the election itself.

His challenges, however, far from over. He started the week by chairing a city council meeting on Monday. Some AK Party members failed to mask their contempt of the new mayor, while the party had already displayed an eagerness to embroil in turf wars over the affairs of the council.

Separately, as the new mayor is presiding over a transition period in the metropolitan municipality, some holdovers from the ruling AK Party era appear to be in rebellion on social media. Some workers even went far to insult the new mayor on social…