Cengiz Topel Yıldırım accuses Mansur Yavaş of corruption, receives backlash from IYI Party GIK member

Decision to enter local elections 'free and independent' IYI Party's Ankara Metropolitan Municipality (ABB) mayoral candidate Cengiz Topel Yıldırım, targeted the incumbent mayor Mansur Yavaşduring a live broadcast.

Levelling allegations of irregularity and corruption against Yavaş, Yıldırım stated, "We are asking where the 5 billion 928 million that should be in the municipal treasury is. The municipality has incurred a loss of '6 billion 937 million TL' in 5 years. The municipality has spent only 3.27 percent of its 308 billion in resources on social aid."

Yıldırım spoke about Yavaş as follows;

"Currently, the number of personnel working in the Ankara Press and Public Relations Department under Mansur Yavaş's administration is approximately 27. The municipality's personnel count is 27. However, 308 people are also working within the municipal companies in the Press and Public Relations Department. You are not receiving any service from the municipal company, yet you are recording this as an expense in your own municipality's Press and Public Relations Department. You are employing 308 people. This is the 'troll army'. The money paid to them over 5 years is approximately 739 million, with updated figures. This is Mansur Yavaş's municipalism. Why are these 308 people not recorded as expenses in the Press and Public Relations Department's budget? Why are they in another company's budget?"

RESPONSE FROM MANSUR YAVAŞ'S TEAM WAS SWIFT

A swift response to Topel's allegations came from Mansur Yavaş's team. The statement included the following remarks;

“There are 278 personnel and 153 call center employees working in 3 shifts, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Together with the information desk staff at the 4 entrance gates, the number reaches 300. These personnel come from the municipality's personnel company BELKA to the Department of Science Affairs, and from there they are assigned to the press department. This system has been in place for 20 years. The staff here are mostly long-term employees. Would the Court of Accounts not see 300 personnel being trolls?”

REACTION TO YILDIRIM FROM IYI PARTY GIK MEMBER

Another reaction to Yıldırım came from IYI Party GIK member Uğurhan Ferudun Berat Tiryaki. Posting on his social media account while the live broadcast was ongoing, Tiryaki asked his party's Ankara candidate, "With what principle are they legitimizing this kind of slanderous politics?"

Tiryaki's post is as follows;

Since the first day of his campaign, our Ankara Metropolitan Municipality mayoral candidate, 

Instead of explaining what kind of mayoralty he would perform, the projects he would realize, and why he is the "best", 

He keeps talking about the corruption and irregularities he claims Mansur Yavaş and his administration have committed, especially in municipal subsidiaries.

As an IYI Party member who has put in effort since the very first moment of the founding process, a former Ankara provincial chairman, a current GIK member, and a citizen of Ankara, I absolutely do not approve of this campaign language and method. However, this is the candidate's own choice; the path is his own path. 

There is a much more important dimension to the issue that disturbs me morally and conscientiously. 

Still, within the IYI Party General Administrative Board, and even among the Deputy Chairmen, 

There are people whose own selves, spouses, children, nephews, cousins, or relatives are in subsidiaries affiliated with the Ankara Metropolitan Municipality

serving as board members. 

This is not hidden or secret; it is an open, public, and known situation.

For this reason, I would like to ask the relevant parties here:

Have these individuals or their relatives,

witnessed the corruption allegations mentioned by the İYİ Party candidate until now?

If they have witnessed them, why have they remained silent? Why do they continue in their duties?

If they have not witnessed them, and if the allegations are baseless, why do they remain silent in the face of these accusations?

With what principle are they legitimizing this kind of slanderous politics?

The İYİ Party cannot be made a tool for an approach that confuses competition with insult, and politics with revenge.

The İYİ Party, which was founded with the claim of governing Turkey and with cadres capable of governing, 

cannot be used as anyone's personal instrument of revenge.

Therefore, regarding the allegations concerning the mentioned municipal subsidiaries, 

Those IYI Party members whom I know to have close relations with the subsidiaries, 

are morally and conscientiously obligated to provide an answer before the public.