İYİ Party Mayor resigns: 'Due to division'

Mustafa Bıyık, the Mayor of Yomra—the only district municipality won by the İYİ Party in Trabzon during the March 31 Local Administration General Elections—held a press conference at the Trabzon Journalists Association. Bıyık stated that he decided to resign following the İYİ Party's Extraordinary Congress, after general chairmanship candidate Koray Aydın failed to win the election and due to the incorrect policies pursued by the party. 

Bıyık spoke about the extraordinary congress and expressed his support for Koray Aydın with the following words:

"Noting that there were several reasons for his resignation, Mayor Bıyık said, “I was elected Mayor of Yomra in 2019. We were elected mayor with the support of our citizens and people in Yomra, and subsequently, I was re-elected as the Mayor of Yomra in the elections held about a month ago on March 31, 2024. During the recent resignation process, I have received great support from many people, both party members and non-members, unconditionally. This past Saturday, we experienced our party's extraordinary congress process. I would like to inform you here to clarify the issues regarding my resignation, which were reflected in the press due to the results experienced during this congress process. Our fellow citizen from Yomra, Koray Aydın, announced his candidacy for the İYİ Party General Chairmanship, and I became one of the first mayors and party members to announce my support after our minister announced his candidacy in Turkey. During this congress process, we stood by him and showed our support in every way. In the process that followed, although we were ahead with a very high vote rate in the first round of the congress, our Minister lost the election at the congress. There is winning and losing in party congresses. This is a very normal situation. Everyone is prepared for this when they become a candidate. We were prepared too. This election could have been lost or won. At the point reached today, I am resigning from my membership in the İYİ Party, of which I have been a member, as of today. There are several reasons for my resignation."

LOST FAITH

 Stating that he has lost faith that the İYİ Party will be successful, Mayor Bıyık said, “I am not resigning just because Koray Aydın lost the election at the extraordinary congress held by the party. We are not at the point of resignation based on a single reason. There are 4-5 reasons for this resignation. The most important reason for this is that before March 31, as a mayor, I am the only mayor among the 20 mayors who won the elections in 2019 to have won the March 31 elections again. In mayoral meetings and party consultation meetings, I have always conveyed all my criticisms harshly to the friends who manage the party, stating that the policy the party has been pursuing for the last year is wrong, that this policy has no response in the rural organizations in Anatolia, and that our vote rate is decreasing day by day. At the end of the day, this party failed on March 31. And we decided to hold an extraordinary congress. In this extraordinary congress, our general chair said that she would not be a candidate in the party again. However, many of our friends who were influential in the party's decision-making process during this period, such as members of the General Administrative Board and deputy general chairs, have all been re-elected to the party today as members of the General Administrative Board and have decided to continue in the party. When we look at the votes taken in the General Administrative Board, all of the friends who strongly opposed cooperation or alliances with the Republican People's Party (CHP) or any other political party and defended the thesis of entering the election as free and independent are now standing by the General Administrative Board, the party management, or our newly elected general chair. This means this: They loaded all of these negatives onto the general chair. Our general chair said in the hall, 'I am bearing these negatives, I am taking them upon myself,' and left. The fact that none of the remaining friends have indicated that they have determined a method to carry the party to power with the same people and the same methods, as if they had no contribution to these failures, has caused us to lose our faith that this party will be successful from now on. This is the most important reason for my resignation. Our General Chair Meral Akşener visited our district 4 times in the last 5 years. I accompanied her on her visits to many districts and provinces in Anatolia. We do not have any criticism or problems regarding our general chair herself or the person of the newly elected İYİ Party General Chair. Our issue is a matter of principle. Our stance is also a matter of principle. We are not at an individual point dependent on people,” he said. 

SAID "I WAS NOT ALLOWED TO VOTE"

Bıyık explained that he was not allowed to vote at the extraordinary congress with the following words:

“I had also voted in the İYİ Party's ordinary congress a year ago. I was not allowed to vote because my Turkish ID number and my father's name were written incorrectly. Whether this was an individual mistake made by the relevant friends in the general assembly who prepared these delegate lists or a conscious situation, I do not know. I do not want to make an accusation. Due to this planned error, as someone who was elected as the Mayor of Yomra in 2019 and elected in 2024, I was seriously prevented from voting there in this party. Naturally, as a result, I would like to inform the public that due to this division among the people with whom we will do politics and be political companions in this party, I can no longer continue on this path and I am resigning from the İYİ Party, of which I am a member, as of today.” 

 WHAT WILL THE POLITICAL ROADMAP BE?

Regarding the rumors that he met with the CHP, Bıyık said, “It was said that I met with the CHP in Istanbul and made an agreement, and that I would switch there before the election. Even an ignorant child in primary school wouldn't say this. The election is over. If Koray Aydın had won the election on Saturday, it would have been the result of the meeting I had in Istanbul. Under what conditions would I have resigned and joined the CHP? Can there be such a ridiculous meeting before the election? Ultimately, if Koray Aydın had won, I would have continued my political life in this party even if this party had received 1 percent of the votes. Because as a matter of principle, this is my style. I have not had a single word of meeting with any political party or any person to join their political party. If it is detected and proven, I will resign from the mayoralty,” he said. 

 Bıyık answered the question about Yavuz Aydın as follows:

“I have had no contact with Yavuz Aydın. The honorable deputy should first question himself. We are the only municipality won in Trabzon as a member of the İYİ Party. Even though I am the only mayor, he did not make a congratulatory call, send flowers, or even say hello. I think there is no point in walking a path with a man who does not visit, does not come to his municipality, out of a sense of loyalty and fellow-citizenship. I think a man who sells out his 20-30-year companion Koray Aydın at the first intersection he finds would sell out the Mayor of Yomra yesterday.”