We start this out in Turkey and some historic results for the opposition in local elections there. The party of President Erdoğan has suffered its largest ever defeat in municipal elections. Correspondents say voters appear to be punishing his AK Party for the sparring cost of living. The main opposition, CHP, achieved its largest victory in 45 years. It secured wins in six of Turkey's eight largest urban centers, including country's biggest city, Istanbul. For the first time in 25 years, they won more municipalities than the ruling AK Party. President Erdoğan described his party's worst ever defeat as not an end, but a turning point.

We will not disrespect our nation's decision in any way. We will avoid being stubborn, acting against the national will, and questioning the judgment of our nation as we have done so far. We will take the necessary steps by analyzing the messages given by the nation at the ballot box, most accurately and objectively within the reason and in our inner conscience.

Opposition supporters say, although these are local elections, victories in big cities are a significant show of force against President Erdoğan's ruling party. This was the scene in Istanbul, where thousands took to the streets to celebrate the opposition party's win. The city's incumbent mayor, Ekram Iman Alu, declared victory after securing over 50% of the vote, well ahead of his nearest rival. He became Istanbul's first opposition mayor in 2019. He's now seen as the best placed opposition candidate ahead of Turkey's next presidential vote in 2028. He told supporters the result signaled a very important message to the world.

In this world, unfortunately, democracies were weakening.

While these democracies were weakening, authoritarian regimes came to power. Many articles around the world asked if we were coming at the end of democratic regimes. 31st of March, 2024, is the day when democratic erosion in Turkey ended and democracy is rising again.

Ola Ereim from the BBC's Turkish Service says this is an unprecedented win for the opposition.

People were expecting opposition to in the largest cities of Turkey, but actually getting more votes than the government party in general in Turkey and winning in some cities which they haven't won in last 40, 50 years is a very big success for the main opposition party, CHP.

Cihan Tughal is professor of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. He gave us his assessment of Turkish politics following on from these election results.

Voting was mired with irregularities in Kurdish cities. Despite that, the Kurds took back most of their municipalities from the appointees that had been imposed by Erdoğan undemocratically. Erdoğan might try to do this again, actually. So the game is not over there. The scuffles will continue. The other dimension is the growth of the far-right. This has not stopped. That Erdoğan has lost doesn't mean his vision has lost. So 4% of his votes have gone to a far-right Islamist Party, which had been criticizing Erdoğan because of his free market policies, his socially unjust policies that target poor people and small shopkeepers and small trades people, and also his dealings with Israel. Turkey has serious trade with Israel, and Islamists are pretty unhappy about this. Actually, all of that is good and well. I mean, all of those could be really bases for a strong democratic opposition. But the catch in all of this is that this party I'm talking about, this far-right Islamist Party, is also very anti-woman and anti-LGBT. It's taking these democratic and it's marrying them to an undemocratic agenda. Even the bigger risk is this party was already in a coalition with the governing party, AK Party, with Erdoğan's party, and they broke off because of Israel and Erdoğan's free market policies.

But if Erdoğan makes some concessions, this party might recombine forces with Erdoğan, and they might still score a win in the general elections.