İstanbul Mayor İmamoğlu: I am a Guarantor for Tayfun Kahraman

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The monthly municipal council meeting of İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality was held yesterday (September 9) as the summer break came to an end.

Convening at 4 p.m., the municipal council discussed a series of issues including the display of redundant cars from the previous term in Yenikapı and the recent appointment of Tayfun Kahraman, an academic and member of Taksim Solidarity platform, to the Department of Urban Development of İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality.

AKP's Göksu: Display of cars is a theater

Taking the floor first in the council meeting, Tevfik Göksu, the Group Deputy Chair of ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), referred to the display of redundant cars in Yenikapı as a "theater".

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Criticizing the appointment of academic and Taksim Solidarity member Tayfun Kahraman to the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality, Göksu asked, "How will a person who said that 'the airport should stay, the bosphorus bridge should stay' under the rag of bloody-minded terrorist organizations with a gas mask during Gezi incidents transform this city?".

Responding to criticisms of Göksu about the appointment of Tayfun Kahraman, İstanbul Metropolitan Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu said,

"Tayfun Kahraman is a faculty member. He has an academic title. He works at a state university. I am a guarantor for his character and personality. Mr. Göksu, you were wrong about the people that you praised in the past. You will be mistaken about the people that you slam now."

AKP's Kalaycı: Foundations are our honor

Municipal council member from the AKP Ömer Faruk Kalaycı also criticized the cutting of funds to foundations. "Foundations are our honor", Kalaycı claimed and added, "They are our hundred-year accumulation. Foundations experienced so many military coups that they will not collapse just because you have cancelled the protocols. In these dormitories are raised such generations that they will make you lose your sleep."

'It would necessitate a criminal complaint'

In response to the remarks of Kalaycı, İstanbul Mayor İmamoğlu answered, "There lives not a single person in this country that will keep me up at night. In this country, not a single young person is raised to make people lose their sleep at night. If you said that, please take back your words.

"My recommendation is that the speaker should think carefully and take back this statement. It is a shameful statement. It is a statement that would necessitate a criminal complaint. It is a very dangerous, grave statement, it is a shameful statement." (RT/SD)

* Photograph: İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality (İBB)