Turkey’s coronavirus coverup. The mayors of Istanbul and Ankara, the two largest cities in Turkey, have accused the national government of covering up the severity of the coronavirus pandemic in the country, claiming that official figures don’t match up with their local data. Ekrem Imamoglu and Mansur Yavas, the mayors of Istanbul and Ankara, respectively, both said that the total numbers of deaths in their cities almost matched the figure the government is claiming as the national total.
Urban centers like Ankara and Istanbul have long been hotbeds of opposition to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and after local elections last year brought Imamoglu and Yavas to power, the two mayors have used their positions to expose government corruption and mismanagement.
