‘Canal İstanbul not on the agenda, people queue for bread’

* Photo: İmamoğlu's Twitter account

Click to read the article in Turkish

İstanbul Metropolitan Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu attended a ceremony marking the construction of a water tunnel by the İstanbul Water and Sewerage Administration (İSKİ) in Ataköy today (February 25).

Addressing the reporters there, İmamoğlu also responded to the remarks of President and Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan about the Canal İstanbul project, which foresees an artificial sea-level waterway between the Black Sea and Marmara Sea.

In İstanbul Congress of his party yesterday, Erdoğan said, "We will build Canal İstanbul just to spite them. They will also see how beautiful İstanbul will get, how different a city it will be with Canal İstanbul. We will make them get used to it. They will get used to it, too."

In response to these remarks, İmamoğlu referred to the death of 13 intelligence officers, soldiers and police officers in Gare and argued that Erdoğan was trying to make people forget about the failure of the Gare operation by changing the issues on the country's agenda:

"It is an attempt to change the agenda. We are in grief for our martyrs. There are other pressing issues on the agenda, such as poverty, such as unemployment and such as pandemic... People queue for bread for the first time in Turkey's history. Therefore, what is said in full congress halls with a mind outside the agenda do not concern me."

'İstanbul is bigger than one'

Further in his speech, İmamoğlu also referred to the repeat Istanbul elections, which he won by a margin of 800 thousand votes after the March 31 local elections were cancelled. "Those who think that obstinating with one another is a merit should remember June 23," he said and briefly added:

"One cannot obstinate with İstanbul. To those who say, 'I will obstinate no matter what, I say, 'İstanbul is here.' Let them not forget something. İstanbul has proven something: İstanbul is bigger than one. Period."

Noting that "an important point about İstanbul is to never let anyone betray İstanbul", İmamoğlu added, "Because our citizens, in the last election, gave their answer to the ones who betrayed İstanbul; we saw it together, we experienced it together. We will, of course, never betray İstanbul and we will never give anyone the opportunity to betray İstanbul." (DŞ/SD)