Is this the beginning of his end?

"Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has often said, 'Whoever wins Istanbul wins Turkey'," wrote Prof M Ayoob. Opposition CHP party candidate Ekrem Imamoglu beat Binali Yildirim of Erdogan's AKP party by an increased majority after, "Under pressure from Mr Erdogan and his party, the High Election Board annulled the March 31 election result on flimsy grounds." Erdogan won a referendum in 2017, granting him excess powers, by blatant cheating. "Astonishingly, Turkey's electoral board announced that it would accept boxes full of ballots but without seals -- all such boxes thus far discovered being, mirabile dictu, full of Yes votes," wrote Melik Kaylan. Erdogan tried everything from lies to abuse but Imamoglu still won in a landslide. "During the 18 days when he ran the city after the last vote before it was annulled, his team uncovered a deficit of almost $4 billion, largely due to state tenders linked to Erdogan's family." Erdogan may use pliant judges appointed by him to unseat Imamoglu because he apparently "insulted the governor of the Black Sea province of Ordu" by denying him use of the VIP section of the airport, wrote Kadri Gursel. The main problem for Erdogan could be the economy with "skyrocketing prices and joblessness". He described high interest rate as the "mother and father of all evil". Retail inflation came in below expectation at 19.50% in April. "The highest price increase last month was seen in food and non-alcoholic beverages -- up 31.86 percent on a yearly basis." "The lira has fallen by more than 10 percent against the dollar this year, adding to losses of 28 percent in 2018. It fell 0.2 percent to 5.97 per dollar in Istanbul on Friday." "Turkey's troubled lira fell to its lowest level since October on Thursday after its central bank scrapped a pledge to raise interest rates if needed." "The bank's benchmark rate is currently 24%." Protests against Erdogan in Gezi Park in Istanbul in 2013 was brutally suppressed by the police, killing 4 people and injuring thousands. There are credible allegations of smuggling of ISIS oil through Turkey, with knowledge and assistance of government institutions. Revelations of emails by Wikileaks suggested that Erdogan's son was actively involved in smuggling ISIS oil. Russia joined the Syrian conflict in 2015 and started bombing ISIS oil trucks, infuriating Erdogan who ordered the shooting of a Russian jet for straying into Turkish airspace for 17 seconds. A failed coup in 2016 gave Erdogan the excuse to sack and jail hundreds of thousands of teachers, police and government workers. There is a strong suspicion that the coup was staged by Erdogan to persecute anyone suspected of opposing him. Clearly, Erdogan is a criminal thug and the noose maybe closing round him. Possibly, around his neck.