On the banks of Istanbul’s Golden Horn, the Istanbul mayor, Ekrem Imamoğlu, rallied a crowd for his re-election campaign as banners advertising his opponent flapped in the breeze on a nearby bridge. “We brought prosperity to Istanbul,” he proclaimed, drawing cautious applause. Imamoğlu’s 2019 victory was a landmark moment for Turkey’s opposition, marking him as Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s political enemy and giving fresh hope for those seeking to challenge his rule. Erdoğan, who held the post of Istanbul mayor decades earlier, had disputed the initial vote and demanded a re-run – resulting in a bigger win for Imamoğlu second time around. But this was followed by a turbulent first term in office as he faced political and legal challenges from his opponents. The Turkish president now aims to bring the country’s largest city back under his party’s control, after fending off the most concerted challenge to his rule in decades during national elections last year when his coalition also unexpectedly won a parliamentary majority. Hüsniye Kurt was moved to tears as she watched …