Urban transformation projects in İstanbul to be extended: Turkish president
ISTANBUL
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has pledged to advance urban transformation projects in İstanbul.
“We determined 65,399 risky buildings in 23 districts across İstanbul during our urban transformation studies,” he said on March 5, speaking at a rally in Sancaktepe district of İstanbul.
The government has resolved land disputes in Sancaktepe and urged locals of the district to evacuate risky buildings voluntarily so that the government can destroy problematic constructions and build new housings, Erdoğan said, reminding that the state will meet rent expenses of these locals.
He slammed at the Republican People’s Party (CHP) for “failing” to meet necessities of İstanbul when the opposition party was holding the municipality.
“Everywhere was mud. There was no water. There were queues for water,” he said, noting that only 50,000 houses were receiving natural gas when he took over mayorship in 1994. “Now we deliver natural gas to 6,500,000 houses in İstanbul” he stated.
He said the CHP had objected the construction of the Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge and the Marmaray project, a railway linking Istanbul’s European and Asian sides under the Bosphorus Strait.
Criticizing the CHP leader, the president suggested that the main opposition party leader is “lacking” of this vision. “He even does not know İstanbul,” Erdoğan said and undermined meetings of Kılıçdaroğlu at halls, rather than making rallies. “He cannot show up at the arena.”
Recalling the critics of the CHP for the food stalls on the argument that people had to get into queues because of the government’s failure in economic policies, Erdoğan said the prices of vegetables downed by 50 percent after their imitative of municipal food sales.
“The citizens are happy with the practice and they thank the government for this opportunity … These are not queues of poverty, but wealth,” Erdoğan said.
He accused Kılıçdaroğlu over his former position as the chair of the Social Insurance Agency (SGK) and said there were plenty of queues in front of the SGK buildings by the citizens that were in need of state’s health support.
He said that relatives of the dead people at the hospitals were not able to take the bodies, because of the hospital debts during the term of Kılıçdaroğlu at the SGK.
He said Kılıçdaroğlu is insisting not to leave the chair of the CHP although he has been “losing” the elections for the past nine years.
