Turkey: İzmir’s mayor defects to ruling AKP

Karar sees it as unlikely that İzmir’s voters will reward the AKP at the ballot box for their mayor’s defection:

“The city administration, which the people of İzmir had entrusted to the opposition, has passed into the hands of the ruling party without an election. … The problem is that this is not the first time such an attempt has been made to pander to the people. It began ten years ago, when trustees were put in charge of [pro-Kurdish] HDP-run municipalities. … If the people had not viewed these actions as an anti-democratic encroachment on their will, these moves would not have backfired every time. Won’t people start to think that Cemil Tugay has also been pushed into this series of defections of mayors and municipal officials? As the result of pressure to prevent him from working and carrying out his duties, and with ultimatums to either be exonerated by joining the AKP or arrested for corruption?”