CHP members, 11 Metropolitan Mayors came together and exchanged ideas on the internet. In the joint statement made after the meeting, it was emphasized that the most important agenda item in the country is poverty.
Republican People's Party (CHP) member mayors of 50 metropolitan cities, which host approximately 11 percent of Turkey's population, held their regular monthly online meetings. The Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayor attended the meeting where the problems related to the agenda of Turkey were discussed. Ekrem İmamoğlu, Ankara Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Mansur Yavaş, Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Tunç Soyer, Mayor of Adana Metropolitan Municipality Zeydan Karalar, Mayor of Antalya Metropolitan Municipality Muhittin BöcekAydın Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Özlem Çerçioğlu, Eskişehir Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Yılmaz Büyükerşen, Hatay Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Lütfü Savaş, Mersin Metropolitan Mayor Vahap Seçer, Muğla Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Osman Gürün and Tekirdağ Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Kadir Albayrak attended.
After the meeting, a joint statement was made with the signatures of 11 metropolitan mayors. The statement said:
"We, as Turkey about 50 percent of the population as hosting managers of cities, since our country and the whole world almost captors first day of the pandemic process, we have given was next to our people and all kinds of support needed our state. We overcame the various blocking methods of certain circles with new generation practices that can be 'global examples' of social solidarity. Vaccines developed by scientists in different countries with superhuman efforts have started to be applied in our country. In this context; As we shared with the public at the end of our previous meeting, we would like to express that we, as 11 metropolitan municipalities, are ready to offer the institutional opportunities we have to all relevant units of our state in terms of delivering the vaccine to all segments of the society. In particular, we announce to the public that we expect a task in almost every subject related to the vaccine and the pandemic in general.
We must be accepted as interlocutor
As 11 metropolitan municipalities, we are a part of the public administration of this country; We have to aloud to voice our acceptance of "interlocutor" in the decisions to be taken regarding metropolitan, provincial and district municipalities. In this sense, taking decisions concerning local authorities, Union of Municipalities of Turkey with all the stakeholders of the subject, we see the essential to have access in the common table to be created. However, we have recently witnessed remarkable applications in this sense. With the amendment made by the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Regulation on the Metropolitan Municipalities Coordination Centers, the authority to license the excavations to be made on the streets and to receive the 'destruction fee' was given to the district municipalities by the infrastructure institutions within the scope of investment and breakdown.
No local arrangements without our opinion
Except this; Previously, municipalities that could not pay their debts such as taxes, SSI premium, electricity, natural gas, domestic and foreign credit to the relevant public institutions on time or benefited from the restructuring laws for these debts could be cut off at most 40 percent from the general budget. The municipalities were trying to carry out their services by taking the remaining 60 percent from the Ministry of Finance. As a result of a Presidential decision, it was decided to make an additional 10 percent cut. Thus; The upper limit of the tax share that municipalities can receive from the Ministry has dropped from 60 percent to 50 percent. Likewise, an additional 2010 percent cut was introduced for municipalities whose revenues were cut by 25 percent due to debt remaining from 25. The tax revenue share of these municipalities has decreased from 75 percent to 50 percent. These and similar practices should be stopped immediately. Arrangements made without our opinion create serious problems in terms of functionality at the local level.
Save water, drink call
The danger of drought and thirst, which is a longer-lasting problem of the world than a pandemic, is another vital issue. We will show our cooperation in every field in the face of the drought disaster. We will carry the activities of each municipality at local scales to the national dimension. We previously shared with the public that we would jointly our water administrations and agriculture-related units in this sense. We will soon announce our comprehensive work, which has started to mature, to the public. It is our greatest desire that this culture of partnership is reflected in all public institutions. On this occasion, we repeat our call for all our citizens to show the greatest care in saving water.
The total struggle against poverty
The pandemic process not only exposed the burning poverty of our cities and our country more, but also caused the poverty to spread to large sections. Social poverty, which our Chairman Mr. Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu frequently mentioned, is the first agenda item of our citizens; It is also seen that it will not fall off the agenda for a long time. In this sense, everyone and all of us have important responsibilities. We are aware that we serve our citizens with the love of serving; we are ready to forget every blockage made against us. We want to turn the struggle against poverty into an all-out mobilization movement, just like in the face of pandemic and earthquake. All of us, from our top manager to our town mayor, should unite all our strength to fight poverty. In this country, there should be no one who goes hungry. Regards…"
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