Mehmet Aydoğan: “Do not play politics with human lives”

İZ GAZETE – Mehmet Aydoğan, Deputy Chair of Karabağlar Municipal Council and President of the İzmir Civil Society Organisations Platform, issued a call to the Ministry of Environment and Urbanisation on İz Web TV: “Sign Karabağlar’s plans; an earthquake is coming. Do not play politics with human lives.”

As a guest on Özgür Coşkun’s Politik’İZ on İz Web TV, Karabağlar Municipal Council Deputy Chair Mehmet Aydoğan described the activities of the İzmir Civil Society Organisations Platform, known as İSTÖP, and reviewed the work being done in Karabağlar. Mehmet Aydoğan, who is also President of the Konyalılar Federation and Foundation, said that with İSTÖP they had launched an approach to civil society grounded in knowledge and science. “We began to bring forward anyone with a talent for projects. We could have had many more members if we wanted. But we choose among the applicants and assess them. We have 140 scientists in our civil society organisations. Whenever we consult them on something, they meet without any fee and refer it to whoever it concerns. We also work with seven universities, some of them international. What matters is not the number of members or money. What matters is how much you serve the country. We do not discriminate between people. Where someone is from, what religion or sect they belong to, does not concern us. We are focused on people and service. We stand by whoever benefits the country and against whoever harms it,” Aydoğan said.

“FROM İZMİR, WE ARE GIVING DIRECTION TO THE WORLD”

“We are changing dimensions. We engage with every branch of the state. This is civil society: we warn local governments, we warn other places. People look at your contribution and service to this country. If we have brought a new spirit to İzmir, it is because we do not discriminate between people. If we are focused on İzmir and on the country, others have no chance to do anything. I have a scientific team for this; we completed seven projects in a row in Türkiye. Türkiye’s biggest problems are education and unemployment. For 13 years we have been working to find solutions to education and unemployment. As a civil society activist, I see what the country lacks and I create projects for it. That is what civil society is. We were declared the first of two NGOs in the world worth promoting. An agency in England is producing our promotional booklet. From İzmir, we are giving direction to the world,” Aydoğan said.

“SELVİTOPU IS A STROKE OF LUCK FOR KARABAĞLAR”

Stressing that things are going very well in Karabağlar, where he is a CHP council member and Deputy Chair of the Council, Mehmet Aydoğan said: “Our Mayor Muhittin Selvitopu is a great stroke of luck for Karabağlar. He has given years to public service. He is the best mayor Karabağlar could have…”

“THE PUBLIC SHOULD KNOW THESE THINGS”

Mehmet Aydoğan also said: “Karabağlar’s biggest problem was unplanned, illegal construction. Then someone came along and, in five years, brought the illegal buildings into the zoning plan. They built the infrastructure that will carry Karabağlar a hundred years into the future. I am proud to be a council member at such a time. Now the plans have been challenged. The court accepted the main plans. There were some points that were objected to. The court only objected to the footnotes. The project is now before the courts. It will most likely be decided in our favour, but the public should know these things. Neither the Mayor of Karabağlar nor the Karabağlar Council grants privileges to anyone personally… Some people say the mayor is giving special zoning rights to certain people. What does special zoning mean? It means favouring someone. There is no such thing… Our mayor makes things easier for those who come together and combine at least four or five plots instead of a single one. We do not turn away those who join together.”

“YOU CANNOT PLAY POLITICS WITH HUMAN LIVES”

Speaking about earthquakes, one of Türkiye’s realities, Mehmet Aydoğan said: “İzmir is rocking like a cradle. Experts are warning us. I call on the whole municipal council: we cannot afford to lose even a second; I swear we will all end up under the rubble. We applied to the Ministry of Environment and Urbanisation about the plans. There is nothing missing on our side; it is only waiting for a signature. Why are you making us wait? What is your aim? They are trying to design politics themselves, but you cannot play politics with human lives. If, one day, thousands of people die in Karabağlar, you will be crushed under that politics.”