ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — In his first public appearance since a crushing defeat in a rerun election for mayor of Istanbul, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to draw lessons from "the messages given by the people."

Addressing legislators from his ruling party on Tuesday, Erdogan again congratulated opposition candidate Ekrem Imamoglu who garnered 54.21% of the vote in Istanbul on Sunday.

It was Erdogan's first electoral defeat and broke his ruling party's decades-old grip on Turkey's most important city.

Erdogan said: "We don't have the luxury of turning a deaf ear and ignoring the messages given by the people."

He said his ruling party — which is scheduled to meet later Tuesday — would determine "failings, disunity and errors" and look for ways to fix them.