“The state should decorate Kocaoğlu”

Mehmet Aydoğan, President of the İzmir Civil Society Organisations Platform and a member of Karabağlar Municipal Council, one of the first names that come to mind when civil society work in İzmir is mentioned, was the guest on Gün Başlıyor on Son Mühür TV. Describing the work he began at the age of 19 with examples, Aydoğan said: “The person who prevented a greater loss of life in the İzmir earthquake is former Metropolitan Mayor Aziz Kocaoğlu. He evacuated 2,200 houses at risk of collapse in Kadifekale, moved their owners to homes built in Uzundere and saved lives. The state should award Kocaoğlu a gold medal.” Answering Ayşegül Koç’s questions, Mehmet Aydoğan said:

FIRST AN ASSOCIATION, THEN A FOUNDATION

“I was 19 when we started in the civil society movement. In 1987 I founded the Aegean Region Konyalılar Association. My family is from Konya, but I was born and raised in Eşrefpaşa. Between 1987 and 1995 we did tremendous work and provided tremendous services through the association; then we saw that our work was outgrowing the frame of an association. In 1996 I founded the Konyalılar Culture and Mutual Aid Foundation. We set up the foundation’s headquarters in a very good location in Çankaya, İzmir, and after a while we bought the property. Once the foundation was set up, things changed and our aid and services grew. For example, we first identified what İzmir needed. We planted some of İzmir’s largest forests. The area behind the Gaziemir migrant housing had burned completely, and the scorched land needed to turn green again. Back then Vefa Tanır was Minister of Forestry, a fellow Konyalı; he came to İzmir and visited us. I made a request to him and got results. We planted stone pines in that area… The lush forest behind the migrant housing today was started by us; we planted those trees. We began planting saplings in 1992… It has been about 30 years, so our trees are 30 years old. I would say we built İzmir’s oxygen factory. Those who call themselves environmentalists do not have as many trees, forests or saplings as we do. With the Aegean Forest Foundation we have forests of at least 20 to 30 thousand trees. With the TEMA Foundation we took part in a project to plant millions of acorns in the Bakırçay basin. We built parks and green spaces with municipalities. If you ask what legacy we have left: today İzmir breathes the trees we planted, which supply oxygen. Moving on from there, we also attached great importance to health. From the environment to health, we did a great deal. The Ege University Tülay Aktaş Oncology and Bone Marrow Hospital was to be built. At that time I was the founding Secretary General of KİTVAK, and as President of the Konyalılar Foundation I also became one of the founders of this hospital… We staged sema performances three or four times in İzmir and organised Rumi commemorations, and donated the proceeds to KİTVAK at the time. Süleyman Demirel laid its foundation stone, and the buildings were completed. Patients are now being healed in that hospital…”

“WITH THE RIGHT PEOPLE, THINGS GO RIGHT”

“The biggest problem in this country is not leaving the job to those who are qualified for it… If you do not put qualified people in charge, you have no chance of success. If there is a problem in the country today, whether locally, in companies or in central government, look and you will see unqualified people in charge. We, as civil society organisations, achieved so much by finding the people qualified for the job. We did not act as if ‘I know everything, I am the president’. We found those who knew best, asked for their help, made them members of the foundation even if they were not from Konya, opened the way for them and guided them. There is no regionalism in our approach; we never practised it. We never thought of putting Konyalılar first. We did not serve only Konyalılar; we served those in need. We never said party A, party B, or people from this or that town. We supported the founding of dozens of associations and federations in İzmir. We have always been a role model, and some took up this work by following our example. We wanted to inspire others and show what can be done in civil society.”

HOW THE İZMİR CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS PLATFORM WAS FOUNDED

“With solid foundations, from the Konyalılar Foundation to the federation, we reached a point where we were at the top in civil society service. We said we needed to take this to another level, and in 2005, together with the federation, I founded the İzmir Civil Society Organisations Platform. My aim was this: I had proved myself with the association, the foundation and the federation, providing services no one else could. Now it was time to raise the bar and create projects that would represent İzmir on the international stage, so we began producing ideas. When founding İSTÖP, I selected nearly 100 NGOs; then nearly 140 scientists joined, and we formed a scientific team. We first identified what İzmir needed locally and what it lacked. We did not stop at identifying problems; we also set out solutions. We never went to any municipality or institution just with a diagnosis; we always offered a model solution along with it. We produced master plan models for transport in İzmir and presented them free of charge to the metropolitan mayors. I also want to give one very important and topical example: in a report we submitted in 2007 to Bayraklı Municipality, İzmir Metropolitan Municipality, the Governorship of İzmir and the Presidency, we warned that ‘the probability of an earthquake in Bayraklı is high; proper planning must be done’. This was not just a diagnosis; we also proposed a model for buildings to be built to a certain standard. We said you would be responsible for any loss of life and property that might happen tomorrow. That painful, heartbreaking earthquake happened. If they had listened to us, perhaps we would have come through it with fewer losses. Let me give a good example from Karabağlar: our mayor, Muhittin Selvitopu, said, ‘We have prepared zoning plans that will carry the city 50 to 100 years into the future.’ As a council member, I was proud of this work… Every municipality needs to do this.”

“AZİZ KOCAOĞLU DESERVED THE GOLD MEDAL”

“During Aziz Kocaoğlu’s term, Kadifekale was declared a landslide zone by the Council of Ministers. Who declares it? The state does. What must be done in a place declared a landslide zone? It must be expropriated, cleared and rearranged. When the state did nothing, the then İzmir Metropolitan Mayor Kocaoğlu passed a council decision and took on the task. Even though it was not his responsibility, he expropriated more than 2,200 houses there. The Metropolitan Municipality paid for it out of its own pocket, and our citizens moved to TOKİ housing… Many of them even sold the TOKİ homes to Mr Aziz for money. Mr Aziz did not put a single building in that area up for profit; he turned it into green space. This is an example for Türkiye. Had the municipality not taken this on, hundreds of people would have been trapped and lost their lives under those 2,200 houses in Kadifekale in this latest earthquake. This is foresight; this is statesmanship. Playing politics here makes no sense. The state should come and, recognising who started and continued this work, pin a gold medal on Aziz Kocaoğlu.”