Erdoğan attacks Yavaş and İmamoğlu over concerts: 'During my time as mayor...'

Controversy had erupted following the 69 million lira allegedly paid by the Ankara Metropolitan Municipality for an Ebru Gündeş concert on October 29.

Ankara Metropolitan Mayor Mansur Yavaş had denied the allegations following the claims, stating, 'Some allegations were made. The way these allegations were opened is also very interesting. Someone from within the municipality leaked incorrect information for certain purposes.'

Furthermore, Yavaş announced that a total of 4.5 million TL was paid to Gündeş and her team.

President and AKP Chairman Recep Tayyip Erdoğan answered questions from journalists on the plane during his return from visits to Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan.

HE SAID 'GARBAGE, MUD, PITS' AGAIN

When asked by journalists on the plane, 'Concert municipalism has become a concept in Turkey. Concerts held by the Ankara and Istanbul Metropolitan Municipalities for astronomical figures are being discussed. What is your view on this? Can a measure be taken regarding this?' Erdoğan replied as follows:

I also served as mayor. But I did not practice concert municipalism. What is it that you need to do? First of all, you must equip every corner of Istanbul with whatever resources you have at your disposal. Equip the infrastructure, equip the superstructure. Take note, during my mayoralty, garbage, pits, and mud were eliminated in Istanbul. Now the situation is a disaster. Istanbul is like that, Ankara is like that, İzmir is like that, they are all like that. We are making our call to our citizens. We say let us not fall for the same game and let us walk into the future with confident steps. The nation voted for these mayors to provide service to their cities, but what they understand by service does not go beyond organizing entertainment. It is also newly emerging that they do not organize those entertainments for the nation, but for the financial gain of some people. We want local governments, regardless of where they are elected from, to meet the needs of the nation, and we support those who make this their goal. However, the state of the cities is obvious. The nation is at a loss due to the lack of service. And on top of that, when millions paid to some people under the name of concerts emerge, it is the citizen who suffers. Just as we opposed the transfer of public resources to terrorism and terrorist organizations, we certainly oppose the transfer of these resources to cronies. Everyone should make their expenditures based on accountability. We will hold those who recklessly use public rights and those who provide capital to their cronies accountable before the law.