Arrest had been requested: Tunç Soyer's police statement revealed

In the comprehensive investigation conducted by the İzmir Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, the İzmir Metropolitan Municipality subsidiary İZBETON A.Ş. and various construction cooperatives were placed under scrutiny. As part of the operation launched on July 1, 137 people were detained.

The investigation is based on reports from the Court of Accounts, civil inspectors, and expert witnesses, with suspects facing charges of "rigging a tender" and "qualified fraud."

While 20 of the 137 suspects were released after police procedures, the remaining 117 were brought to the İzmir Courthouse in Bayraklı in the morning.

One of the suspects was released after their statement to the prosecutor, while judicial control measures were requested for 19 others.

SOYER’S POLICE STATEMENT REVEALED

Meanwhile, the statement Tunç Soyer gave to the police has emerged. Soyer stated that the public housing projects he implemented have been a source of inspiration in many countries around the world, particularly in the UK. Soyer concluded his statement with the words of Rumi: "Those who know us, know us; those who don't, know us as they are themselves." The questions and answers are as follows:

SOYER WAS ASKED ABOUT URBAN TRANSFORMATION AND THE COOPERATIVE MODEL

QUESTION: Within the scope of the investigations conducted by the İzmir Chief Public Prosecutor's Office under file numbers 2024/155524 and 2024/154921; did you take part in the projects signed between the İzmir Metropolitan Municipality and İzbeton A.Ş. regarding the Karşıyaka District Örnekköy Urban Transformation and Development Area 3rd Stage, Karşıyaka District Örnekköy Urban Transformation and Development Area 4th Stage, Gaziemir District Aktepe and Emrez Neighborhoods Urban Transformation and Development Area 1st Stage, Karabağlar District Uzundere Neighborhood Urban Transformation and Development Area 3rd Stage, and Karabağlar District Uzundere Neighborhood Urban Transformation and Development Area 4th Stage? If you did, what was your role in these projects, and please provide a detailed statement regarding the preparation and signing phases of these projects?

ANSWER: These five projects were initiated during my term as the Mayor of İzmir Metropolitan Municipality.

İzmir is an earthquake city. For this reason, urban transformation in our province carries a higher priority and urgency compared to other cities in our country. Indeed, after the October 30 earthquake in our province, we lost 117 lives, and thousands of buildings were damaged, ranging from heavily to moderately and lightly damaged. Our legislation regarding moderately damaged buildings, in particular, is far from offering a solution. Although there are solutions provided by our state for heavily damaged buildings, building owners are told regarding moderately damaged buildings: "Either demolish and rebuild or reinforce and live in it." Therefore, there is a responsibility to produce solutions for moderately damaged buildings.

After the earthquake, a zoning change that granted a 20 percent increase in floors to buildings in areas defined as "K" zones, where damaged buildings are located, was submitted to the Metropolitan Municipal Council and the zoning increase was approved unanimously. This increase, for example, allowed a 40-apartment building to be built as 48 apartments. In other words, the logic was to cover the cost of the 40 apartments with the 8 additional apartments to be built, aiming to minimize the money coming out of the citizens' pockets to be paid to contractors.

However, because contractors did not find the 20 percent increase sufficient, flat owners faced much heavier costs. In this situation, we produced the solution of forming cooperatives so that citizens could build at lower costs. This situation briefly resulted in citizens waiving their flat ownership to become land shareholders, and in this case, it created the opportunity for the municipal company İzBeton A.Ş. to make contractor service agreements with cooperatives, which it could not do with individual flat owners. In other words, this paved the way for İzBeton A.Ş. to provide contractor services to citizens at very low costs due to the 1 percent VAT rate.

Using this model, dozens of apartment buildings in the Bayraklı district formed cooperatives and signed protocols with İzBeton A.Ş., and thus citizens were able to get their homes by paying very low costs. The first example was realized in the Dilber Apartment, one of the symbolic buildings of the Bayraklı Earthquake, and after the building was completed, it was named Soyer Apartment and the citizens moved into their new homes.

Encouraged by this example, we saw that we could bring to life urban transformation projects that were stalled in 6 regions in İzmir province. Both before my term and during my term, our attempts for urban transformation tenders remained in limbo as contractors did not participate in the tenders, viewing their shares as low. First, to solve this situation, I tried to encourage contractors in İzmir province to participate in the tenders by calling them to meetings many times. However, these attempts of mine always remained inconclusive. Finally, inspired by the Public Housing projects we implemented in the Bayraklı region, we decided to first enter İzBeton A.Ş. into the tenders and have the construction done by cooperatives to be established on behalf of this company.

The decision for İzBeton A.Ş. to participate in the tenders was also passed by the İzmir Metropolitan Municipal Council with a unanimous vote. While the Örnekköy 3rd Stage tender, in which İzBeton A.Ş. participated, remained with İzBeton A.Ş., the tender in Ege Neighborhood went to another private company despite İzBeton A.Ş.'s participation. Thus, the entry of the municipal company into urban transformation tenders mobilized the contractors who were hesitant to enter these tenders in the city. It might be understandable to summarize the cooperative application with an example.

For example, if the urban transformation of 100 residences is in question and 200 residences are to be built here, 100 of the 200 residences to be built will be the contractor's share, and 100 will be the rights holders' residences. The cooperative application means that each cooperative member, through a cooperative to be established by 100 people, builds a residence for both themselves and a rights holder. Thus, both the share of 100 residences to be paid to a contractor will be covered with much lower costs, effectively zeroing out the profit the contractor would receive, and the residences of 100 rights holders will be completed and delivered to them at a very low cost.

With this motivation, in the Örnekköy 3rd Stage, where 1018 residences were to be built, it was aimed to build the homes of 500 rights holders with a 500-person cooperative. Both the Uzundere 3rd and 4th Stage and the Gaziemir 1st Stage urban transformation projects were brought to the İzmir Metropolitan Municipality Council with this understanding and it was decided unanimously that they be built by İzBeton A.Ş.

In summary, the cooperative model in urban transformation is an exemplary, creative solution that rests on extremely solid legal foundations, eliminates the contractor profit structure, and is capable of bringing many urban transformation projects to life. Indeed, this model we implemented has turned into a model taken as an example in England and many countries of the world.

QUESTION: Is there any other matter you would like to add to your statement?

ANSWER: I would like to make an assessment on two matters. The first matter is about looking at the subject of the investigation from a different perspective. The second matter is my personal assessment regarding the investigation.

To elaborate on the first matter; the only thing that cannot be bought with money is time. The loss of time one experiences in their personal life can create irreparable damages. For example, missing an exam you could have taken can cost you for a lifetime. So, how does this loss of time, which is so important in personal life, reflect on public life and social life? Turkish legal legislation is not sufficient regarding legal regulations concerning the loss of time that those appointed or elected working in the public sphere might create. For example, I am talking about a major deficiency outside of regulations such as misconduct in office or abuse of office. The urban transformation goal, which remained perpetually inconclusive because no one participated in the urban transformation tenders opened for years, would not have required my statement to be taken today if I had followed the same path. In other words, the loss of time I would have created would not have been questioned by the Turkish legal system. Whereas, an urban transformation that is not carried out could have caused extraordinarily large social losses, loss of life, and loss of property, leading to great public damage. In short, the fact that appointed or elected public officials are not questioned for not performing their duties sufficiently can lead to socially irreparable public damages. For this reason, since I foresaw the great public damage that would be created by urban transformation tenders that remained inconclusive because contractors did not participate, we decided to put an application like the cooperative model into effect by seeking a remedy.

In this process, the first step was for the municipal company İzBeton A.Ş. to participate in the tender. The second step was to invite İzmir's corporate trade institutions, that is, to invite members of institutions such as the İzmir Chamber of Commerce, İZSİAD, ESİAD, and EBSO to become cooperative members in this process and invite them to participate in urban transformation.

The model we implemented carries features that can be shown as an example in the world and implemented in many places. This model, which is described as economic democracy and becomes a state where the public becomes a collective production power and exerts its weight in the economy, uses cooperatives as its most powerful instrument. We have taken similar steps in this type of application, that is, cooperativism, not only in urban transformation and agricultural production but also in transportation with the İzTaşıt model and in recycling with the cooperativization of waste collectors, and these steps are models that will inspire the world and can be implemented in all local governments of Turkey.

To elaborate on the second matter; you know the story of the cat and the liver. A citizen goes to the butcher and buys 2.5 kilograms of liver. On the way home, they somehow get the liver stolen. They ask the person they suspect, "Where is the liver?" They point to the cat a little further away and say, "The cat ate the liver." The man weighs the cat, it comes to 2.5 kilograms, and asks, "If the cat is here, where is the liver; if this is the liver, where is the cat?"

20 years ago, during my general secretaryship for the EXPO 2015 candidacy, I spent millions of dollars with a single signature. Afterward, I managed budgets of billions of liras for 10 years at the Seferihisar Municipality and for the next five years at the İzmir Metropolitan Municipality. I managed more money than many ministries and many giant holdings. I still reside in a 2.5-story house sitting on a 75-square-meter plot in the 900-meter rural area of Seferihisar's Ulamış Village, not in Alsancak or Alaçatı Port. My assets are clear. I do not have a second summer residence.

In short, this liver does not fit the cat, the spear does not fit the sack, and qualified or unqualified fraud does not fit this household. I grew up with the virtues of material and spiritual satiety and gratitude, with the family upbringing I received since my childhood. From my youth, when I began to understand the world, I learned the difference between having and being, and I lived with the goal of attaining the infinite virtues of 'being' without falling into the endless ambition of 'having'. I dedicated my life to my city, my country, people, and nature. This accusation does not suit this whole story. Do not try to make this suit me. The first sentence of the book I wrote says; "Those who know us, know us; those who don't, know us as they are themselves." Let this word of Rumi be the last word of my statement.

I do not accept the accusations leveled against me. I have no other matters to add to my statement.