President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) has announced its candidate for İstanbul mayor. Turkey’s local elections are scheduled to take place on March 31, when Turkish voters will go to the polls to choose their mayors in provinces across the country. In opposition hands since Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu’s victory in 2019, Turkey’s largest city is considered the country’s biggest political prize.
At a party ceremony organized at a conference center in Istanbul over the weekend joined by President Erdoğan, longtime AKP bureaucrat Murat Kurum was selected as the candidate to challenge the city’s popular opposition mayor.
In remarks at the ceremony, President Erdoğan said: “We, like all Istanbul residents, see that the city can no longer bear losing another five years [to opposition control]. We will deliver on this wish for Istanbul. We will rescue the city from the interruption [in AKP control] over the last 5 years. It is not possible to be a part-time mayor. Istanbul is a city that should never be neglected. This is a city that you must fall in love with.”
Who is Murat Kurum?
Originally hailing from Ankara, 48-year-old Kurum completed his primary and secondary education in the capital city before attending Konya’s Selçuk University, where he studied construction engineering. Following graduate studies in ‘urban renewal’, Kurum began his career at TOKİ, Turkey’s public housing agency, in 2005. After climbing the ranks at TOKİ, Kurum was appointed Minister of Environment, Urbanization, and Climate Change in 2018, where he served until 2023. In Turkey’s May 2023 general elections, Kurum was elected as a member of parliament representing İstanbul.
Kurum gained significant public exposure as Minister of Environment, Urbanization, and Climate Change following the major earthquake in southeastern Turkey in February 2023. In the aftermath of the quakes, Kurum made several public announcements promising reconstruction of homes destroyed in the disaster. In this position, Kurum also made comments regarding an earthquake risk assessment of İstanbul in which he promised to move 1.5 million city residents residing in at-risk areas to ‘reserve areas’ on the city’s Asian and European sides. İmamoğlu criticized these comments, saying that such ‘reserve areas’ did not exist.
AKP considers prospect of retaking İstanbul
Ekrem İmamoğlu’s election victory in Turkey’s largest city in 2019 marked the AKP’s largest defeat to date, having dominated Turkish politics since 2002. İmamoğlu’s success was considered by many a potential harbinger of a defeat of President Erdoğan in the 2023 general elections, where opposition candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu ended up falling short.
The AKP stands to reap significant political benefits from a prospective Kurum victory over İmamoğlu in March. Kurum has been outspoken in his support for Canal Istanbul, a project pushed by President Erdoğan which İmamoğlu strongly opposes. The project plans to build a canal on İstanbul’s European side connecting the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara which would parallel the existing Bosphorus Strait. While the AKP has argued that the canal stands to bring in billions of dollars in taxes on passing ships and free up the congested Bosphorus, opposition figures have decried the project’s high cost and significant environmental consequences, including the destruction of a lake which provides the megacity with some 20% of its freshwater. Regarding the project, Kurum has said: “This is truly a visionary project with the potential to make Turkey into a leading country. All details are being considered as we move forward with this project.”
Aside from the AKP’s megaproject in İstanbul, recapturing control of the city also offers Turkey’s ruling party a chance to retake control over the city’s vast finances, which constitutes about one third of Turkey’s entire GDP. The AKP’s long rule over İstanbul up until 2019 is considered an important reason for the party’s long-term success, as the city’s GDP is larger than all of Turkey’s largest holdings combined. Critics have alleged that the AKP retaking control over İstanbul would allow the party access to a larger pool of funds with which to finance its alleged crony network, particularly in awarding lucrative construction tenders.
Medyascope'un haftalık e-bülteni
Andaç'a abone olun
Editörlerimizin derlediği öngörüler, analizler, Türkiye’yi ve dünyayı şekillendiren haberler, Medyascope’un e-bülteni Andaç‘la her çarşamba mail kutunuzda.
Since Kurum’s candidacy announcement, some commentators have pointed to Kurum’s Ankara roots and lack of Black Sea heritage as potential weaknesses as he seeks to take down İmamoğlu. The city is dominated by constituents from Turkey’s Black Sea region, which İmamoğlu and Erdoğan also share. Erdoğan’s own political career began in the metropolis, where the now-president served as mayor from 1994-1998. Despite an ongoing court case that threatens to ban him from politics, İmamoğlu is regarded as one of Turkey’s most popular opposition politicians, and was floated as a possible name to challenge President Erdoğan in the general elections last spring.
Written/translated for Medyascope by Leo Kendirck
