Three municipal buildings transferred to the General Directorate of Foundations

Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Cemil Tugay evaluated the process regarding the transfer of three buildings actively used by the municipality to the General Directorate of Foundations last October without any notification.

It has emerged that the vocational training factory, which hosts vocational training courses, the building used both as a morgue and as a center for home health and support services, and the historically significant Egemenlik Evi (Sovereignty House) have been registered in the land registry in the name of the Foundations.

'AN UNLAWFUL PROCESS'

Pointing out that one of these buildings was expropriated and given to the municipality with Atatürk's signature, Tugay stated: “One of them is a building that was expropriated and given to the municipality with Atatürk's signature. The vocational factory building is such a building. This is due to a legacy. No one can take such a legacy left by Atatürk from our hands in this way. I hope common sense prevails and this unlawful process stops.”

Stating that no information was provided to the municipality regarding the transfer of the buildings, Tugay noted that they were only able to learn about the issue months later and immediately applied to the court. He stated that although a stay of execution decision was obtained in the lawsuit filed, this decision was recently lifted. “These three buildings are not buildings constructed by the foundations. Therefore, the law they rely on is a law that can only be applied to buildings constructed by foundations. What is being done here is completely unlawful,” he said.

Emphasizing that all legal initiatives are continuing against a possible eviction, Tugay expressed that the people of Izmir should not remain silent on this situation. “This is not a situation where we can just bow our heads and say, ‘Go ahead, seize our buildings as you wish, take them’,” he said.

Arguing that the court's decision against the municipality is not legal, Tugay stated: “We are currently in a situation where, now that the stay of execution decision has been lifted, they could come with the police and say, ‘Evacuate these buildings.’ They might ask us to vacate the buildings. Services are being actively carried out there. Apart from that, this is an unfair decision that we cannot accept. We are facing such a problem. We do not know what will happen. In the coming days, an eviction process might be attempted with police escort. We are trying to use all legal avenues for this,” he explained.