‘The joy of the Greeks’

From the moment that he ordered the annulment of Ekrem Imamoglu's election as mayor of Istanbul, it was clear that Recep Tayyip Erdogan would stop at nothing to get his own candidate to win the repeat vote. As it appears increasingly likely that defeat this Sunday will be even worse than that of March 31, the Turkish president and leaders of his AK Party have resorted to accusing Imamoglu of a lack of patriotism, suggesting that he may even be Greek.

"Who were most happy with the elections of March 31? The Greeks. Do you remember the front pages of Greek newspapers saying that 'a Greek conquered the City'?" Erdogan declared this week, after lying low for most of the campaign. A few weeks earlier, the news site Al-Monitor reported the AKP's deputy chairman, Nurettin Canikli, saying: "The Greeks are saying Ekrem Imamoglu is Greek. There are many questions and doubts. You...