İSTÖP launches the Gulf Meeting project
İSTÖP (İZMİR CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS PLATFORM)
TOGETHER WITH İZMİR METROPOLITAN MUNICIPALITY, İZDENİZ AND THE İZSU GENERAL DIRECTORATE IN THE GULF MEETING PROJECT
LAUNCHED ON BOARD THE FERRY BERGAMA AT KONAK PIER
THE İSTÖP PRESIDENT
opened his speech by thanking the project partners, 100 of İzmir’s most respected federation and confederation presidents, and the 21 members of the scientific board, specialists who have held the highest posts in public service.
He pledged that İSTÖP would give every kind of support to solving the pollution of the Gulf of İzmir, the greatest environmental problem of İzmir and of Türkiye, and that the 21 scientists present that day would take part in this work.
İzmir Metropolitan Acting Mayor Levent Yıldır told İSTÖP President Mehmet Aydoğan that such support for the gulf on so important an issue was perhaps a first in Türkiye, that the backing of hundreds of NGO presidents together with so many scientists was very valuable, and that the municipality would draw on this structure from now on.
THE GENERAL MANAGERS AND BOARD CHAIRS OF İZSU AND İZDENİZ
presented the work carried out in the gulf with slides and answered questions.
THE GULF MEETING
Dear members of the press,
We are here today as İSTÖP (İzmir Civil Society Organisations Platform), together with the presidents of İzmir’s most influential confederations, federations and associations and in cooperation with the İzmir Metropolitan Municipality and its affiliates İZDENİZ and İZSU, to help resolve the existing and ongoing problems of our Gulf of İzmir as quickly as possible, working with 21 distinguished scientists who have done similar work at universities and in countries at home and abroad and who have studied, and continue to study, the pollution of the Gulf of İzmir at different times.
This project will be a first in İzmir’s NGOs and local government solving problems together, and a step towards more.
Your participation will give us that.
26 November 2025
Konak Ferry Pier
14:00–16:00
MEHMET AYDOĞAN
President of İSTÖP – KONVAK – KONFED
MEMBERS OF THE İSTÖP SCIENTIFIC BOARD
1. Dr İsmail Okçay – World Bank expert / Chair of the İSTÖP Scientific Board
2. Hüseyin Aksu – Former Mayor of Aydın Metropolitan Municipality / urban studies expert
3. İrfan İçöz – Geologist, former Director General of Personnel at the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
4. Servet Ecemiş – Former Secretary General of the Uşak Governorship
5. Mehmet Acardoğan – Mechanical engineer, former Director General of Aegean Coastal Safety
6. Dr Osman Tatar – Former Provincial Director of Environment and Forestry, İzmir
7. Prof. Dr Şerafettin Aşık – Head of the Department of Agricultural Structures and Irrigation, Faculty of Agriculture, Ege University
8. Prof. Dr Mustafa Alparslan – Faculty of Fisheries, Kâtip Çelebi University
9. Dr Salih Ertan – Electrical and electronics engineer (MSc)
10. Dr Levent Çetiner – Geological engineer (MSc)
11. Samed Geyik – Geological engineer
12. Prof. Dr E. Baki Ünal – Lecturer, Department of Agricultural Structures and Irrigation, Faculty of Agriculture, Ege University
13. Prof. Dr Cengiz Akdeniz – Head of the Department of Agricultural Machinery and Technologies Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, Ege University
14. Tuncer Beybağ – Chemical engineer (MSc)
15. Yücel Çardakçı – Agricultural engineer (MSc)
16. Fatih Aydoğan – Architect (MArch)
17. Kenan Taş – Agricultural engineer (MSc)
18. Günseli Uysal – Archaeologist
19. Yusuf Aydoğan – Sociologist, İzmir Metropolitan Municipality
20. Prof. Dr Ahmet Saim Selvi – Professor of Physics
21. Selçuk Karakülçe – Veterinarian, İzmir Metropolitan Municipal Council member