Ekrem İmamoğlu in his hometown of Trabzon! 'This is the new era'

On the occasion of the Ramadan Feast, Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu arrived in Trabzon yesterday afternoon.

Following his village and cemetery visits yesterday, it was noted that İmamoğlu met with Mayor Ahmet Kaya at the Ortahisar Municipality at 13:30 today. Following the meeting, İmamoğlu addressed citizens in front of the municipal building.

Highlights from İmamoğlu's remarks are as follows:

"Democracy makes us all equal. We are all equal on the day we go to the ballot box. Sometimes democracy and the republic do not reach the desired level because of a missing aspect. This happens because of mistakes and wrong practices. If you take the system out of its civilized regime, off its tracks, it first causes suffering for women, youth, children, and retirees. But you all stamped your seal on a new search, a new hope; a new era, a new understanding of governance has begun; full speed ahead.

A debate is ongoing because of a photograph my dear friend Ahmet Kaya hung in his office. That photograph has been behind my desk for 10 years. It is a photograph taken while a farmer in Tokat was explaining the difficulties he experienced after the earthquake to the person at the head of the state. The person in that photo is making that explanation passionately, but there is a pair of blue eyes listening to him. Those blue eyes look at their citizen with such care that I say, may God make me look the way those eyes look. When I talk to a child, I bend my knee to the ground and try to feel what they are thinking. This new era will be an era where one looks at their people just like that pair of blue eyes. Arrogance, conceit, these are over.

"CAST OFF YOUR SHACKLES"

You stamped that seal on March 31... Now it is time for the new era. That is why we say full speed ahead. My door is open to all citizens of the Republic of Turkey. Regardless of party or belief... The election is over, now it is time for service. Cast off your shackles, now serve the nation!

"THE MAN TO SURPASS ME HAS NOT BEEN BORN, MY BROTHER"

We are lovers of democracy. We will listen more, we will produce more. This is the nation rising to its feet. It is the testament of my elders to me; 'As your position grows, bow your head.' We will be the soldiers of this understanding. My God, do not let me be embarrassed before my family, the people of Trabzon, this heavenly homeland, and my city, Istanbul. I say, "The man to surpass me has not been born, my brother." I will not trip up the one who surpasses me; I swear by God, I will applaud them. Because there is no losing in serving the nation; we all win."