CHP Mayors Workshop

CHP Mayors Workshop was held in Van on 27-28-29 May. On the first day of the workshop, the metropolitan and district mayors came together in Van's several districts while meet with the citizens. On the second day, the upcoming elections constituted the main agenda of the meetings held under the moderation of CHP Chairperson Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.

The CHP Deputy Chairperson for Local Municipalities, Seyit Torun, held a press conference regarding Van's CHP Mayors' Workshop results.

Torun said the following:

"- Turkey is going through one of the most politically and economically challenging periods it has ever faced in the history of the Republic. The policies of the government have dragged our country into a profound depression. The government has become self-serving, only thinking of the interests of its close circle while millions, left to their own devices, are struggling with hunger. However, the leader of the Justice and Development Party, who seems to have become out of touch with the realities of Turkey, once again showed how detached he had evolved from the issues of the nation by claiming, "There is no hunger in Turkey". Held at such a critical juncture, at our Mayors' Workshop, we discussed at length the general election, which constitutes the only solution to this sad state of affairs. In our meetings, we underlined once again our resolve to strive, following the spirit of the Nation Alliance, to put our country and people back on their two feet under the leadership of our party leader and in cooperation with our headquarters, members of parliament, our party organisation, and mayors. Our meetings also stated that the general election victory could only end the political pressure on democratic local governments.

- The ruling party power uses the public funds dedicated to local governments in a partisan manner and discriminates between local governments they have won and lost. Especially the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization, and Climate Change and ILBANK, the bank for local governments, have been turned into instruments of this partisanship. As a result, political decisions block the resources of our municipalities and citizens living in our municipalities, and almost all of these resources are transferred only to the municipalities of the People's Alliance. The same partisanship has prevailed in all public institutions and organisations that finance municipalities. Those blocking these resources from going to our municipalities abuse their powers and commit a crime. We want you to know that we will raise our voice against this injustice even more loudly in the future. We will put up a better fight against those who want to punish the millions who did not vote for them by blocking the resources of our municipalities. At our Mayors' Workshop, we declare that we will not hesitate to exercise all our democratic and legal rights against this organised evil.

- The government, which deprives our municipalities of their powers and revenues and cuts off the resources to which our municipalities are entitled by way of omnibus laws, decrees, and circulars, also exerts pressure through political operations and investigations. We know that the government, which has still not come to terms with losing the local elections and then failed to prevent the services offered by our municipalities despite all their attempts, is in fear. We are aware that units have been established within the Ministry of the Interior and MASAK (Financial Crimes Investigation Board) to conduct political operations against our municipalities. We know very well that more of these operations will be in the near future. We discussed these government efforts during our meetings and emphasised that we would stand against any political operation that may come our way, together with our people.

- We also discussed unlawful and anti-democratic trustee appointments to municipalities. We emphasised once again the importance of the elected coming to power and leaving office only through elections and not external intervention. We denounce this system where the national will is handed over to appointed trustees. Therefore, we promise to build a new central government-local government balance in Turkey. We are happy to say that we have already started working on legislation for local government policies that we will implement when we come to power. We will draft such legislation with the broadest participation of relevant actors.

- Since the 2019 local elections, CHP municipalities have been making an extraordinary effort to deliver the services that the government itself could not provide for our citizens. Citizens living within the borders of our municipalities heaved a sigh of relief amidst the conditions created by the government's mismanagement. Our municipalities rushed to the aid of our people by mobilising all their means during the pandemic, natural disasters, and economic crises. Republican People's Party municipalities will continue to work to solve our society's most important problems in the next two years. They will not spend a dime on crazy projects that deceive the citizenry. Our most extensive support in this historical endeavour is our people. Here we state once again that no matter what obstacles come our way, no matter what pressure is put on us, no power will be able to turn us from this path as long as our people stand with us."