Imamoglu's 'Kanal Istanbul' statement: 'Our nation said 'bye-bye''

Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu spoke at the ISKI European Side Drinking Water Investments ceremony.

Highlights from Imamoglu's statements are as follows:

“If you view the issue as enriching a handful of people through a system based on waste, frankly, you end up with actions that darken our future. We will not allow this. We have managed and continue to manage all of the IMM's investments through transparent, participatory, and scientific processes. We have walked this path not for unplanned, project-less schemes, not to pull the wool over people's eyes during elections, not to deceive people, but to meet the needs of our people. Our nation has already ended the era of so-called investments in this election. It has also ended the mentality that causes harm and eyes the money in people's pockets. Remember, they couldn't even bring themselves to mention the name of Kanal Istanbul. Even though they didn't mention its name, even though they said it wasn't on our agenda and thought they could deceive our people again in this election, they couldn't deceive them, our people weren't fooled, and our people said 'bye-bye' to the monstrosity called Kanal Istanbul. Istanbul has now removed it from its agenda.”

CALL TO THE GOVERNMENT REGARDING MELEN

"It is valuable to remind that there are certain implementation conditions that the whole world pays attention to in their investments during this period. Summer is coming, the feeling of drought has started again in parts of Turkey; even small rain showers from time to time make us happy. The problem still remains unsolved regarding the Melen Dam, which was described as having solved Istanbul's 50-60 year water problem. The construction stands there with a huge crack in its body. No action is being taken on how to fix it; I must state that this negativity has been conveyed to all institutions. They don't even write a reply, they can't. If they discussed this issue with us at the table and we solved the problem together, we would do stronger work. It is a political mentality that introduces this coldness between institutions. Even though we have distanced that political mentality from local governments in this election, the same mentality still continues in some channels of the government. This is of no benefit to our people; give this up, let's think and talk together."

MAY 1 MESSAGE

Celebrating May 1 Labor Day, Imamoglu said, "Tomorrow is the holiday of the worker and the laborer; we attach great importance to this holiday. Of course, the holiday is also a day for us to share in the troubles; we will share in the troubles of our workers and laborers, and we will take on the highest responsibility with the share that falls to us in finding solutions. But we know that, unfortunately, the troubles of the worker, the laborer, and especially the retiree are great in our country. We will increase solidarity, especially alongside our retired elders, but also alongside every segment of society, and we will stand by those people in addition to these investments. Let there be no one left working without a union. We have doubled the number of unionized employees."