ISTANBUL — Up until Sunday's local elections, not a single Turkish metropolitan city had ever been run by a female mayor. However, that has all changed with this year's municipal elections, held on March 30th as now not one, or two, but three female candidates have been elected to fill metropolitan mayoral positions.

Fatma Şahin, the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party candidate for the southeastern province of Gaziantep, the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) mayoral candidate for the southeastern province of Diyarbakır, Gültan Kışanak, and the Republican People's Party (CHP) candidate for the Aegean province of Aydın, Özlem Çerçioğlu, made history in Sunday's election by being elected as Turkey's first-ever female metropolitan municipal mayors.

In Hakkari, BDP candidate Dilek Hatipoğlu has also been elected as municipal mayor.

In yet another historical first, in Konya's central Meram district AK Party candidate Fatma Toru has become the first-ever headscarf-wearing municipal mayor in Turkey.