Ekrem İmamoğlu answers Uğur Dündar's questions days before the election

Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) Mayor and CHP candidate for the new term, Ekrem İmamoğlu, answered Uğur Dündar's questions on Sözcü TV. İmamoğlu spoke about the achievements of his term and the challenges he faced. He also leveled criticisms at the People's Alliance and the AKP's Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality mayoral candidate, Murat Kurum.

Highlights from İmamoğlu's speech:

"Istanbul is a city in constant need of investment. We didn't have a promise to 'fix the spots where floods occur,' but we made millions in investments.

Between the five years before us and the five years of our term, there is at least a 35-30 percent commodity price difference in foreign currency terms. I don't even want to talk about inflation. Today, the President talks as if I am the one responsible for it.

They put our country through such bad times regarding the economy, from the minister who said 'look at the light in my eyes' to this and that.

We have 2.5 billion dollars less in revenue. More importantly, we have spent 4.1 billion dollars less. There is something else very interesting. Here, from time to time, there is actually a line item regarding property revenues. In our term, there is nearly 1 billion dollars in property revenue; in their term, there was nearly 2.1 billion dollars in property revenue.

They didn't give us permission to sell. They say, 'Your revenue is higher than in our term,' and they are right about that; while the rate coming from the central government in our term was 80 percent, it dropped to 70 percent in the period before us. The reason is that a major İDO sale was made, and other large properties were sold. Since there were no sales in our term, the central administration's share in the budget appears higher; that is the difference.

BUDGET DEFICIT

Budget balance is very important. In total, between 2014-2019, they had a budget deficit of 3.2 billion dollars despite so much money coming in; we, on the other hand, closed the 5 years with a budget deficit of 1.6 billion dollars despite so little money coming in. Savings bring abundance.

12 metro lines had stopped. In fact, some hadn't even been started, only the tender had been held; a bunch of rent-seeking projects are being built, but not a single social housing unit was produced.

We did these things during the pandemic, including at least three or four projects that you couldn't start or finish. We did this during a period of high economic crisis. Turkey experienced a major earthquake, and we all pulled the handbrake. We did this in a place where all of this was happening.

We have two important subsidiaries. One is İSKİ and the other is İETT. İSKİ's profitability in 2013 was 80 percent. We came in and said we would reduce it by 40 percent; they said 45, and we said okay. They reduced it by 45 all at once. The cost of water was almost equalized. Anyway, what is an 85 percent profit? They robbed İSKİ; we paid off debts, and with İETT's current budget. In the period before us, instead of investing to use the money, they transferred the money from here to the IMM. Let's look at the rates in our term; we spent 2019 with a 3 percent profit.

RAIL SYSTEMS

They are engaging in a deception regarding rail systems. The Mahmutbey-Bahçeşehir metro line. To say we took it over at 0 percent means there was only a tender document in hand. The project is wrong, incomplete. The station choices are wrong. We started the Mahmutbey-Bahçeşehir metro line from scratch, and it is now at 40 percent.

We took over the Samandıra-Çekmeköy metro line at 4 percent. We took over a project where the construction site was set up, but there was no payment for it... The date of this tender was 2017. We are now at 90 percent. We are opening the Sultanbeyli line next year. We found the source. We got it through the council in at least 7-8 months. We got approval from the ministry, we got approval from the treasury. We lost at least a year.

For the Kaynarca-Pendik-Tuzla line, there was only a construction trailer on site. We started, and we reached 60 percent in the Pendik-Kaynarca section. We will get to Tuzla as well. Foreign exchange rates jumped, and the contractor terminated the contract. We opened a tender again.

We put 6.1 million dollars into this city's coffers for the metros. We are also producing economy at the same time.

The Dudullu-Bostancı line is a project we started with our own pockets and later obtained foreign funding for.

We opened 65 kilometers of metro lines and 62 kilometers of metro stations. We did something else, too. The Minister of Transport opened a branch that broke off from the Sabiha Gökçen-Tavşantepe-Kadıköy metro line. And he opened a branch to the newly established hospital between Kayaşehir and Başakşehir. With these two branches, they took 6.5 billion from our coffers in 10 months. They don't transfer the operation to us; for example, they don't transfer the Gayrettepe-Istanbul Airport line to us. From the past until now, as the Minister of Transport, he would transfer the metros he built to the Istanbul Metro, but he would take the money; however, he would take the money over 16-17 years. They took it from us in 10 months. Do you know what that means? The main issue is managing its budget. We actually built 81 kilometers of metro. If these metros had remained with you, this city would have become a 'metro graveyard.'

When we arrived, there was a team that had forgotten about 'urban transformation.' KİPTAŞ was building luxury housing. TOKİ was already building luxury housing. 'Oh, we will solve urban transformation.' You had the government, you had the IMM, you had the Ministry. So what did you do? How can Ekrem İmamoğlu solve in five years what you couldn't solve in 20 years? You created Fikirtepe as 'Urban Transformation,' you distributed rent; look, you generated 85 million dollars of rent in various parts of Istanbul, and now you want to create the canal disaster.

MURAT KURUM AND KİPTAŞ

Murat Kurum and KİPTAŞ. TOKİ is his era. We start at the same time. We finish in 17 months; TOKİ's construction is still ongoing. 1500-2000 lira installments were being talked about, now 17000-18000 lira installments are being talked about. We finished, and the installments are also finished. In every place where we do transformation, we have a nursery. We have reached 100 nurseries. We opened the Samandıra line, we opened a nursery at one of our stations there, it is about to be finished.

We took over a KİPTAŞ that had nearly 1.2 billion dollars in debt that needed to be paid, and there was no money in the coffers. We regulated the debts that needed to be paid to the public. We also restructured with a foreign bank. Together with our ongoing construction sites in the field, we are finishing 19 thousand housing units.

Even in an election environment, there is an effort to get zoning for the land of one of the former prime ministers in Kısırkaya. Now, it is so shameful that when you claim to grant a right to a parcel specific to a person, the person in the opposite neighborhood says, 'Why are you giving it to him and not to me?' Now, you cannot explain to people that you cannot give them floors as a requirement of urban planning. But a city has a procedure.

We demolished a cafeteria on the coast of the Bosphorus in Üsküdar. We demolished illegal cafes. They granted zoning to the cafes we demolished on the coast of the Bosphorus in 1 week. You asked me about my assets, you asked me about my construction; they can't ask him that. What was your rush to grant zoning on the coast of the Bosphorus? What convinced you to do this?"

Uğur Dündar asked about asking for votes for Murat Kurum: "President Erdoğan's interest in Istanbul is well-known. He is even asking for votes for Murat Kurum in Anatolia. He was in Tokat today and asked for votes. When you win the election, will you feel as if you have won against Erdoğan as well?"

"I wish the President would not put our country in this situation, and that ministers would not go from street to street. It deeply saddens me that he brings this office to this state. Our society will exercise a tremendous conscience. I will get the votes of all parties, including the AKP. A deep conscience will be at work, and they will teach a lesson. Even AKP members will teach a lesson. They will say, 'Ministers, go and fix the economy, fix the retiree's salary. Let İmamoğlu do his job.' To the 16 million people of Istanbul; believe me, even to those who look at us as opponents, because we serve everyone, we have not discriminated against anyone. We don't have partisanship. The essential thing is to serve this city. I want to say this: let everyone support us."

İMAMOĞLU'S STATEMENT ON THE VILLA

The allegation that İmamoğlu has 3 villas worth approximately 1.6 billion TL in Sarıyer Emirgan and that he did not show these villas in his asset declaration had become a topic of discussion. İmamoğlu gave the following response to the striking allegation on the live broadcast:

"The 'shell company' they talk about is İmamoğlu İnşaat. This company is a family business that has been trading for almost 3 generations. There are also good anecdotes in the history of this company. It is an organization that started in Trabzon, continued in Istanbul Beylikdüzü, and has entered tax record-holder rankings.

I have been a BAĞ-KUR member for almost 35 years. It is a company that has employed thousands of people. İmamoğlu İnşaat does business. It has no business with the public, it has no irregular business.

I declared my wife's assets as well, even though it was not necessary, in addition to my personal assets. At the same time, I am a person who has shares in the company. This is also in my previous declarations. We have nothing to hide. Our property there is under İmamoğlu İnşaat."