President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday entrusted a former environment minister to run for mayor of Istanbul and avenge the worst political defeat of the Turkish leader’s two-decade rule. Murat Kurum will represent Erdogan’s Islamic conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the 31 March municipal elections in which control of Turkey’s main cities will be up for grabs. The secular opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) seized back control of Istanbul for the first time since Erdogan ruled the city as mayor in the 1990s in watershed 2019 polls. That vote also saw the opposition wi…