Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to run for the last time in local elections in March. "This is my finale, my last election," he said on Friday, according to state news agency Anadolu.
Erdoğan is considered the most successful politician in modern Turkey and has led the country for more than two decades. He has won more than a dozen elections since 2002 and was re-elected to a five-year term in contested elections in May 2023. The biggest challenge for Erdoğan's AKP will probably be the recapture of Istanbul.