Murat Kurum, the People’s Alliance’s candidate for Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) Mayor, criticized the current IMM administration by saying, “They squandered Istanbul’s resources with bales of money to design their own party. They distributed Istanbul’s resources for their own prosperity without saying ‘it is the right of the orphan’.”
Kurum, in his speech at the Rumeli Balkan Iftar Dinner held at the Bahçelievler Congress Center, said that they met and embraced hundreds of thousands of Istanbul brothers and sisters at the Atatürk Airport National Garden yesterday with the participation of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Kurum stated that the Balkans, where the Ottomans grew like a plane tree, have always been the homeland, and said, “That is why Turkey and the Balkans are an inseparable whole. We have a common history and past with the Balkans.”
The institution stated that great sufferings have been experienced in many regions from Albania to Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina for years, and said, “More than 250 thousand of our brothers, youth and children were martyred in Bosnia. During those years, our Bosnian brothers were subjected to severe oppression and cruelty, and were subjected to genocide. Opinion leaders, teachers, scholars and politicians were imprisoned. Hundreds of thousands of people were forced to leave their country. The cause and companions of Wise King Alija, who are among us today, are the closest witnesses to this.”
“We see the fate of the Balkans, Rumelia, Thrace, Bosnians, Albanians, Kosovars and Pomaks together,” Kurum said and continued as follows:
“That’s why your pain is our pain, your sorrow is our sorrow, your destiny is our destiny. Before the late Aliya passed away, he said to our President, ‘These lands are the Conqueror’s, that’s why these lands are entrusted to you.’ Yes, these lands are entrusted to us. These lands are entrusted to Turkey. We will protect this trust until the end. That’s why Istanbul is Skopje, Istanbul is Sarajevo, Istanbul is Komotini, Xanthi. Istanbul is the summary of all the Balkans. This is the homeland of all of us. We all grew up here, we married our daughters here, we sent our sons to the army here, we lived our pains, joys and happiness here, we shared them here.”
“We will give Istanbul what is due to Istanbul”
Kurum noted that they set out to become the mayor of Istanbul and that they were on their way to serve Istanbul.
Emphasizing that the current IMM administration has not only done nothing in 5 years but also criticized its own projects, Kurum said, “While you were holding secret meetings to overthrow your own chairman, we were investing 365 billion liras in Istanbul. While you were running for vice president and abandoning Istanbul to its fate, we were laying the foundations of 180 thousand houses in 3 months during the disaster of the century. We will never, ever abandon our Istanbul to its fate, we will always be by the side of our nation at every moment. This promise is unlike the promises they made but did not keep or remember. This promise is the promise of Murat Kurum, this promise is the promise of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.”
The institution emphasized that Istanbul is uneasy and unhappy in the hands of negligence, and noted the following:
“In the last 5 years, Istanbul has been the victim of incompetence, condemned to incompetence. They said, ‘We will prepare this city for an earthquake,’ but they didn’t hammer a single nail. They didn’t allocate the budget they allocated to advertising and perception for the earthquake. They said, ‘We will solve the transportation problem,’ but they turned it into a complete ordeal. They squandered Istanbul’s resources with bales of money to design their own parties. They distributed Istanbul’s resources for their own prosperity without saying, ‘It is the right of the orphan.’ That wasn’t enough, ‘We have ended the waste.’ They said, they made the biggest waste. They alienated our fellow citizens of Istanbul. They even discriminated against our women as housewives and working women. They played with the bread of thousands of our female workers and laid off their jobs. Don’t worry, we will use the money they squandered on Istanbul’s projects. We will spend the resources they set aside for their political careers and the money they spent on advertising on Istanbul. We will give Istanbul what it deserves. The ballot box is the nation’s court, the day of reckoning is the day of reckoning. The ballot box will come on March 31st, and we will all reckon together at the ballot box.”
Former TBMM Speaker Mustafa Şentop, Bahçelievler Mayor Hakan Bahadır, some MPs and many others attended the program.
