Turkey ushered in the new year under the mounting stress of economic crisis and local elections looming on March 31. The stress is felt heavily in Istanbul, Turkey’s biggest city and commercial capital, which contributes 31% of the country’s gross domestic product and harbors 22% of the labor force and is now the epicenter of the economic tremors.

Under the 16-year rule of the Justice and Development Party, construction became the engine of economic growth and Istanbul drew the largest investments of the sector, ranging from sprawling housing complexes and business high-rises to countless urban infrastructures and “megaprojects” conducted as public-private partnerships. Istanbul’s economic rent and public wealth was appetite-whetting. Rent-seeking proliferated and businesspeople close to the AKP grabbed the biggest shares.

Turkey’s political Islam movement, whose hold on power has reached nearly 25 years at the municipal level and 16 years in the central government, made Istanbul the main worksite for its own growth and then increasingly for the building of a new regime. The construction-centered drive advanced problem-free for roughly a decade after the AKP’s coming to power, but began to stumble in 2014. Today, it is in turbulence amid a fully “homemade” crisis, with the strongest jolts felt in Istanbul.

Turkey’s economic growth under the AKP relied on foreign funds, mainly external borrowing of some $460 billion, with the funds used mostly for domestic consumption. When the inflow of funds decreased before grinding to a halt in 2018, the crisis became inevitable.