İmamoğlu: Let’s establish the Marmara Earthquake Council

The third meeting of the April meetings of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) Assembly started at the presidency building of the IMM in Saraçhane, under the management of Zeynel Abidin Okul. The ‘Activity Report for the Year 2022’ was discussed at the assembly meeting. İBB President Ekrem İmamoğlu, who attended the meeting, also presented the activity report. İmamoğlu talked about the works carried out in many areas, from the fight against poverty to women, from children to the young, from the disabled to the elderly, from the fight against unemployment to the Suspended Invoice application, from rail system production to smart city applications, from sports, health and environmental investments to agricultural supports given to farmers in Istanbul, from the protection of historical heritage to the development of foreign relations. .

16 MILLION İSTANBULERS STARTED TO RECEIVE THE FRUITS OF CHANGE

Making the presentation of the Annual Report, İmamoğlu emphasized that 2022 is the year of projects and said, “Istanbul has managed to change. In the past, it was normal to make an average of 3-4 kilometers of subway per year. Today, it is normal to open an average of at least 13 kilometers of metro per year. After we started work, we primarily focused on changing the perspective of IMM staff on service. We have invested 31 billion liras in our city, including 27 infrastructure, 9 cultural heritage, 44 environment and urbanization, 80 social services, 13 culture and arts, 11 transportation and 13 sports and health projects at 161 points. When we came to the end of 2022, we broke our own record by saying 300 projects in 300 days. In summary, 16 million Istanbul residents began to reap the fruits of the change that they brought with the strong will they displayed on June 23, 2019.»

«LET’S ESTABLISH THE MARMARA EARTHQUAKE COUNCIL»

İmamoğlu said, “Since the first day we came to power, I have made dozens of calls to our government. I said that the preparation process for the possible Istanbul and Marmara earthquake is a national issue. It requires great mobilization from the central administration to the local administration, from the business world to the financial world, from academia to civil society. I said let’s work together without account. Today I want to repeat it once again. Let’s set up the Marmara Earthquake Council. Let’s prepare a roadmap with a common mind. Let’s enact a special law for Istanbul and Marmara. Let’s remove zoning amnesty from our lives. Let’s implement an Emergency Expropriation Program for the places where there are buildings, although it is stated in the zoning plans as ‘assembly area and urban park area, health area, training area, fire department’. Let’s review the 25 laws, 11 regulations and the authority distributed to 19 different institutions related to zoning regulations, and move on to simple and fast applicable legislation from a strategic point of view. Let’s renew the Istanbul Zoning Regulation together. While we say that the state, municipality and nation should work together for a possible earthquake, the minister of urban planning has been making interesting statements to the newspapers in recent days, instead of hearing us, with different explanations. He can say that he will do the urban transformation in Istanbul in “5 years. Did anyone hold your hand, you have all the authority. Where have you been for the last 21 years? This is the situation of falling into funny situations when you say that I will make populism. I hope this great nation will decide on May 14th. The Government of the Nation will begin to work. It will start a preparation campaign for the Marmara earthquake. An urban planning minister who will not develop the barracks around the Kuşkonmaz Mosque will take office. I wonder if the Minister is in search of other pursuits in Istanbul with the task he could not do in 5 years.»

Listing the works done, İmamoğlu emphasized that the total length of the rail system line, which is under construction, is 81.6 kilometers. İmamoğlu also drew attention to digital transformation and green energy investments and said that 10 million square meters of active green space will be brought to the city when they realize all the living valleys. İmamoğlu also stated that they broke the record by increasing the number of libraries to 60.

«Türkiye WILL DO WHAT IT SAYS, IT WILL SAY IT DOES»

Making statements regarding the election after reading the annual report, İmamoğlu said, “I believe with all my heart that May 14 will be a major turning point for Turkey as well. On that day, we will make a new beginning for Türkiye. Then we will quickly recover the state. We will make our state a state of rules and institutions. We will make every level of the state administration accountable and every action of the state administration auditable. Public administration will be completely free from waste, ostentatiousness and pomp. The second century of our republic will be the century of bringing our country to the top league of the world. Our second century; It will be the century of mind, vision, unity and peace, not of valor, but of those who listen and understand. Our second century; It will be the century of prosperous Turkey. We will remove all barriers to freedom of expression. We will raise our democracy to the level of inspiration for the world. Our parliament, which is the voice of our nation, will once again be the highest political will in this country. Our justice system will become one that is trusted, trusted, impartial and independent, not feared. Together we will build a Turkey where rules and laws are applied equally to everyone. We will end the crime according to the man, the right according to the man, and the office according to the man. Türkiye will do what it says and will say what it did. «We will make Turkey’s word credible,» he said in foreign policy.

«AFTER MAY 15, YOU WILL BE TIRED OF WATCHING HOW PROJECTS ARE FOLDING»

İmamoğlu said, “We will rapidly revive the membership process with the European Union. We’re going to turn inflation from monstrous to tucked-in single digits. We will restore prestige and stability to the Turkish lira. At the end of five years, we will at least double our per capita income in dollars. Our young people will seek jobs, vaccines and hope in these lands. We will strategically support the agricultural sector as we did in Istanbul. We will immediately erase the interest on our farmers’ debts. We will bring diesel, fertilizer, pesticides and irrigation support to the farmers. We will launch a well-planned and state-supported agricultural move and a huge agricultural production campaign that will make food cheaper in Turkey. We will teach you to learn by listening persistently and stubbornly. The Turkish passport will be one of the most respected passports of the world. We will end the separation of citizens into local and national and non-native. We will see everyone, without exception, living in this country as national and local. As we did in Istanbul, we will put an end to the waste system in Turkey. We will end the losses and fugitives in the state budget and re-establish social justice. As of May 15, it will be our unconditional goal to make this state a person for the orphans again. As of May 15, we will ensure central government — local government cooperation regardless of party. Everything will be very, very beautiful in Istanbul. Services and projects will multiply in Istanbul. We have accomplished a lot in Istanbul in just 4 years. Now it’s Turkey’s turn. With the new management after May 15, you will be tired of watching how services and projects multiply. Not only in Istanbul, but in all our cities, the race for service and projects will begin with reconciliation instead of polarization, and embrace instead of partisanship.»