Deniz Dalgıç announces his candidacy for Mudanya Mayor from the CHP

Deniz Dalgıç, a civil engineer and a prominent figure in the business, education, and sports sectors of Bursa, has announced his candidacy for Mayor of Mudanya from the Republican People's Party (CHP) for the local elections to be held on March 31, 2024.

A large number of Mudanya residents who support Deniz Dalgıç attended the meeting held at the Mudanya CHP District Headquarters. Stating that he set out on this path to pay his debt of gratitude to Mudanya, Dalgıç said, "We are at a turning point to bring Mudanya to the place it deserves and to build change, and we will not miss this opportunity." Dalgıç, who draws attention with his successful professional and academic career, spoke as follows:

“I have been here for a long time; I established my business here, made all my investments in Mudanya, and raised my children here. Therefore, it is certain that I owe a debt of gratitude to Mudanya for what it has provided to me and my family. For years, I have dreamed of carrying out a project in Mudanya. In fact, I thought that Mudanya itself could become a project, and I took a step. We can do very good things for Mudanya. I have dreams, projects, the necessary resources, and most importantly, hope to reveal the potential that Mudanya possesses. I want to use all the experience and knowledge I have accumulated to date to serve the place where I live. I believe that the mayorship is the most important duty to perform this service... I see in myself the strength and skill to solve the problems of our Mudanya. We can make a difference in Mudanya. With this thought, I am about to set out with the torch I received from my grandmother, who was the CHP Women's Branch President in Yalova in the 1960s and whom we lost at a very young age.”

Emphasizing that a person struggling with financial difficulties cannot be peaceful and happy, Deniz Dalgıç said, "Our priority will be to increase the income level of the public and to retain the young population in the district." Pointing out that Mudanya is a first-degree earthquake zone, Dalgıç continued:

“Unfortunately, the earthquake has started to remind us of itself in recent days! It is not possible for a community of people who are anxious about their lives to find peace and be happy. For this reason, in addition to raising the income level of our people, it is inevitable and a priority to transform the risky building stock and ensure that they can live in them with peace of mind. The project we want to realize for Mudanya is to address these two main issues together, to encourage and support art, culture, sea, and gastronomy tourism, and to ensure that investors who will invest in this area, through holistic projects, renew the district's existing risky structures to be resistant to the expected major earthquake while realizing their own investments. In this way, the peace, well-being, health, and happiness of the local people will be ensured.”

Emphasizing that Mudanya has the potential to be one of Turkey's most important tourism destinations with its historical and geographical values, Dalgıç explained how they would utilize this potential:

“Our Mudanya lacks nothing compared to similar cities in countries with the same climate, such as Italy, France, and Spain. We have high-quality olives, a wide variety of grapes, traditional cheeses of many types, as well as our world-famous black figs, and a 45 km coastline bordering the Sea of Marmara, which is a rare inland sea in the world. Our only deficiency is the vision to develop projects that will provide the opportunity to experience these values at international standards of civilization. By putting forward this vision, with correct planning and investment, Mudanya will become a gastronomy tourism region where the local people's income level increases significantly, just like Italy's Tuscany region or İzmir's Urla district, which has similarly shone in recent years and has been deemed worthy of many international awards.”

Stating that Mudanya will be a very beautiful brand if it becomes a center for gastro-tourism, sea tourism, and art tourism, Deniz Dalgıç said, "We will bring Mudanya to the new century of our Republic, to the level it deserves, and to the sociocultural and socioeconomic level of similar coastal cities in the world and in Turkey." Saying "I have dreams for Mudanya," Dalgıç continued:

“At the end of my term, I dream of a lively, sparkling clean Mudanya where there is human activity for 12 months. I want a Mudanya with prestigious restaurants and art galleries, where people specifically try to come to Mudanya, make their holiday plans for this place, visit its different tourist spots, have difficulty finding space in its hotels, and recommend it to their friends after they are satisfied with their visit. I dream of a Mudanya where the beach is sparkling, people can easily swim from everywhere, do water sports, catch their fish, and there are smiling people on its streets. I dream of a Mudanya where festivals, seminars, and congresses are held, where young people who want to see where and how the foundations of the Republic of Turkey were laid visit the Armistice House Museum with their families, where the young population does not leave the district and builds their lives here, and where the middle and middle-aged population ratio, which is currently around 74 percent, changes in favor of the young population in a healthy way. We will do all of this by working hard and together with a common mind. We are very eager about this. We are at a turning point to bring Mudanya to the place it deserves and to build change, and we will not lose time and miss this opportunity. We will succeed together, we will win together."

Answering the questions of members of the press and participants after his statement, Deniz Dalgıç said that they want to keep young people in Mudanya by increasing job opportunities and investments related to tourism, in addition to social facilities. Making statements regarding traffic, which is one of the most important problems of Mudanya, Dalgıç said:

“We have projects to organize the unused idle areas at the eastern entrance of the city as parking areas, especially during the summer months, and to ensure access to various parts of the coastline where one can swim from every corner. However, while carrying out the transformation regarding risky structures, we must also provide a permanent solution to the traffic problem here. After ensuring this, when we organize the risky structures in the city center and reveal the old texture, Mudanya will be a very different place. We see examples of this in Europe. We can do this too.”