Ekrem İmamoğlu's 'Kanal İstanbul' outburst: 'An issue of national survival'

Speaking at the Kanal İstanbul Process Information meeting, Union of Municipalities of Turkey (TBB) and Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (İBB) Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu delivered the opening speech at the Kanal İstanbul Process information meeting held at the Istanbul Planning Agency (İPA) campus.

İmamoğlu, who opened the meeting which is expected to last until noon, said that he would attend the funeral of the late artist Ferdi Tayfur and would be present for the second part of the program later. In his opening speech, İmamoğlu said the following:

'OUR SEARCH FROM THE BEGINNING WAS A SEARCH FOR COMMON SENSE'

"The opinions of experts and academics have actually placed the scale of the threat before the public and before the people who made this decision many times in the studies, workshops, presentations, and meetings we have held before. I see that there are very valuable friends among us who have fought very hard here, who have conveyed and explained this from the podiums. I also know and see that there are friends among us from different political views who have spoken from the parliamentary podium many times and who have made statements on this issue at the highest level, regardless of their political position. Of course, our search from the beginning was a search for common sense. It was a search to be able to speak and discuss on a scientific basis. But unfortunately, we could never reach this goal. No scientist or technical expert came to any of our invitations. As soon as we took office in 2019, we held a three-day workshop saying, 'Let's do a study on the fight against earthquakes and disasters and sit down and talk about how we can move forward together.' And we invited administrators from every level of our state. Almost none of the administrators we invited attended our invitation. Yet, it had been an extraordinarily valuable three-day study. Similarly, we conducted a study on Kanal İstanbul and expressed that we wanted to be enlightened about this study. Again, just as we made our open invitation to every relevant institution and organization of our state, we especially asked the scientists who gave a positive opinion on the EIA report and signed that report to please come and explain to us why you gave a positive opinion; we want to hear it, we want to make your words heard by the people of Istanbul. Not a single person attended the study we called for. In other words, not a single person out of dozens of scientists came to explain to the public, to us, to the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality administration, and to the council members why they signed it."

'AN EFFORT TO GAIN VOTES BY LYING'

"And from that day to this, this work, which is actually carried out behind closed doors, is truly very important for the history of Turkey, it is very historical and important for the future of Istanbul, it is a great threat, but those who sign off on this work do not even make a sound, they do not come out and make a statement, not even a single word. What is more painful, you are aware. After 2019, even in our information efforts and campaigns regarding this canal issue, in some of the work we did to increase public awareness, posters and banners were tried to be torn down. They were even torn down and removed in the middle of the night; we experienced these things too.

But it is very interesting, if you notice, they forgot about the canal business in the last general election, in the last general election. They didn't even mention it. In fact, in the last Istanbul election, my opponent said, 'It is not on my agenda.' Now the Minister of Urbanization signs off on many issues related to the canal every day, but he said it is not on my agenda. In other words, when the time comes, they realize how shameful the Canal business is, that it is shamed in the eyes of the public, and that it has been placed in a very bad position; not a word comes out of their mouths, or they deny it. In other words, there are very few issues where a person in an office acting on behalf of a state, a government, or a nation tries to gain votes by denying and lying so recklessly. I mean, what motivates these friends to such an extent that they do not refrain from attitudes and behaviors that damage personality and reputation to this degree? I swear I didn't understand, I swear I didn't understand. I am trying to understand. This is something deep. I mean, this cannot be solved alone, one cannot give the answer to this. We are already discovering that it is a matter of money, a matter of interest, but I am not sure if it is just that. And this needs to be investigated in depth."

KANAL İSTANBUL IS A MATTER OF NATIONAL SURVIVAL

"This issue has no politics. I think the canal issue is a matter of national survival for Istanbul and Turkey. If we had not succeeded in becoming the Guardian of Istanbul in 2019, the city of Istanbul would have been turned upside down from top to bottom once again today; they would have done this without blinking an eye. And if we think about the suffering caused by an environment where 60-70 percent of this 135 million square meter area, which is agricultural land and forest land, is turned upside down, we think that it is an indicator of what a great disaster we have saved our country and our city from. In this sense, I attach great importance to this meeting with its identity as a meeting beyond politics, a meeting where an exchange of views is held on how a struggle should be carried out. In this sense, the presence of our valuable group deputy chairmen, whose presence was made possible by inviting them when we discussed this issue with our valuable group deputy chairman Mr. Gökhan Günaydın and our Deputy Chairman Gökhan Zeybek, has made me very happy in this regard. Again, it is very, very valuable that our deputies and party administrators, our provincial chairmen representing different political parties or views are here with us."

'THE SCALE OF THE THREAT IS QUITE HIGH'

"We must address and discuss this issue within this scope. Of course, we have some data, scientific and technical. But today, especially in order not to make mistakes and not to fall short in terms of how the struggle regarding this issue should be socialized and brought to a scientific and technical ground, as the 'Şehr-i Emin' (Trustee of the City) of the city of Istanbul, as a person who has promised his nation to be the guardian of this city, we want to put the valuable advice and suggestions that you will present to us into a beautiful form together with our administration and place it into an understanding that does the coordination and moderation in cooperation. This is the sole purpose of today's meeting. We must show our effort to protect Istanbul and the Marmara Sea, along with its surroundings, from this threat together. I think the scale of the threat is quite high. In this respect, I hope that we will be sharing the beautiful outputs of today's productive meeting and an action plan that will quickly put them into action with you and the public again.

Therefore, if we stage it a bit, we will spend working hours that will take into account the presentations of my friends in the part before noon today, and the warnings, suggestions, or the route and road maps that our valuable participants will convey to us in the afternoon part. Then we will share with you what we will do in the next stage. We will share with you how the Istanbul Planning Agency, that is, in this campus, follows Kanal İstanbul minute by minute, hour by hour, lawsuit by lawsuit, and how you will establish contact with that center, and we will share with you again for what purpose and with what result we will meet with you in the next stage."

News Source: 12punto