Mayor of Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Tunç Soyerheld a press conference in Osmaniye, where İzmir undertakes the general disaster coordination among 11 metropolitan municipalities. Stating that they will establish a container city of 200 houses by the beginning of March, Mayor Soyer emphasized that they are also taking action for rural development in the region. Soyer said, “Young people should hear the words of our conscience, not our passions.”
Mayor of Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Tunç SoyerOrganized a press conference in Osmaniye, where İzmir undertakes the general disaster coordination among 11 metropolitan municipalities, and explained the road map for the region. CHP Osmaniye Deputy Baha Ünlü, CHP Osmaniye Provincial Chairman Şükret Çaylı, CHP Osmaniye district heads attended the meeting held at the Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Disaster Coordination Center, which was established in the garden of Cebelibereket Martyr Ali Alkan Secondary School.
President Tunç Soyer, conveying the work of the Izmir Metropolitan Municipality in the disaster area at the meeting, “The wounds of the earthquake are more fresh. There is great suffering and tragedy. On the one hand, we are discussing what we should do about today, and on the other hand, what should be done in Osmaniye in the short, medium and long term. We will continue to work to increase the quality of the service we provide here. But the issue that we need to work on is after the trauma of the earthquake has been overcome," he said.
“We will look at İzmir with a microscope and Osmaniye with a telescope from all over Turkey”
Stating that there is a mobile kitchen that serves 2 thousand people a day in the coordination center in the garden of Cebelibereket School, Mayor Soyer said, “We moved our very basic units here. We have a team that grows every day. From parks and gardens to science works, all our teams are here. More importantly, our Emergency Solution Team is here. We want a citizen of Osmaniye who entered the Cebelibereket School to receive service as if he had come to his own municipality. We said we would build a miniature of Izmir Metropolitan Municipality; We build step by step. We will be the representative of metropolitan municipalities not only as Izmir but also from all over Turkey. On the one hand, we will carry all the power and energy of Izmir, and on the other hand, we have undertaken the task of coordinating the support from all over Turkey. On the one hand, we will continue to look at Izmir with a microscope and at Osmaniye with a telescope from all over Turkey.”
“We started the transport”
Stating that the works for Osmaniye will be carried out in two main branches, namely housing and rural development, President Soyer continued his words as follows: “The first is housing production. We know that citizens have over 700 heavily damaged houses. We know that there are over 250 buildings destroyed. We will establish a city of 200 containers until the beginning of March. These 200 containers continue to be produced in İzmir Metropolitan Municipality workshops. We started their transfer here. On the other hand, we will be doing the assembly with our friends we brought here. Thus, we bring many more containers here. As you know, a truck can bring a maximum of two containers. But when we assemble the panel here, we bring between 15-18 containers at once. Here, too, we can assemble the container in a maximum of 35 minutes. As of the beginning of March, we will start to place our citizens living in tents in more equipped and sheltered containers.”
“We need to continue production in the countryside”
Secondly, President Soyer, describing the rural development move, said, “We need to continue production in the countryside. If production in the countryside does not continue, a food crisis may occur in Osmaniye and citizens living in the countryside will migrate and join the unemployed army in the city. We want to move the works we carry out under the roof of Another Agriculture is Possible in İzmir to Osmaniye. In Osmaniye, we want to provide the opportunities we provide to the producers in İzmir.”
“It is not possible for us to smile in İzmir”
Answering the questions of the members of the press at the meeting, President Soyer continued his speech as follows: “We want to continue this bond of brotherhood that we established in Osmaniye. We want to expand this bond of brotherhood and move it to a point that will bring more benefits to Osmaniye. We know that as long as the suffering of our citizens continues in Osmaniye, it is not possible for us to smile in İzmir. We need to consolidate this bond of brotherhood, strengthen it, and continue to take care of each other. We are here with these feelings and thoughts.”
“We are here of our own free will”
President Soyer, who also spoke about the general disaster coordination of Osmaniye among 11 metropolitan municipalities, said, “AFAD matched us with Osmaniye in the earthquake. Of course, we made an effort to provide service to the entire earthquake region. But later on, we, as 11 Metropolitan Mayors, decided to cooperate with us in order to provide this service with better coordination. In that cooperation, I said that I wanted Osmaniye. Because I thought that the initial pairing of AFAD would be an advantage and that we could be more useful with the information provided by the friends here. We are here knowingly, willingly and of our own free will. Until today, young people have heard the words of our passions, we want them to hear the words of our conscience from now on.”