Christiane Amanpour's full interview airs at 1 p.m. ET on CNN International and this evening on PBS (check your local listings).

(CNN) The winner of Istanbul's mayoral election re-run has issued a thinly veiled warning to Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to respect democracy, and that whoever "decides not to serve the people and prioritizes their political future" will be exposed.

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Speaking exclusively to CNN's Christiane Amanpour, days after his decisive nine-point victory over Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party's (AKP) candidate, Ekrem Imamoglu said the race was an "extraordinary test" of Turkey's democratic tradition.

"June 23rd showed us that no one, no individual or power, can stand in the way of the will of the people, no politician has the luxury to ignore that fact," said Imamoglu, who dealt Erdogan's ruling party a humbling defeat on Sunday. "That is not a threat. It is how things should be.

"I hold the view that we have passed that test successfully," he said of his win, which was seen as a damning indictment of AKP's long reign by Istanbul residents, many of whom blame Erdogan for the economic crisis, double-digit unemployment and Turkey's plummeting currency, the lira.

Imamoglu, who emerged from relative obscurity to become the star of the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), had to run twice after AKP challenged the outcome of the first vote in April claiming fraud.

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