Tunç Soyer: What was done to İmamoğlu yesterday is being done to me today

Former Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Tunç Soyer was detained in an operation carried out in the morning hours of July 1st as part of an investigation launched by the Izmir Public Prosecutor's Office against the Izmir Metropolitan Municipality. On his third day in custody, Soyer shared a message on his social media account. Soyer's message included the following statements:

"Dear Izmir residents, my dear companions;

When I took office, the urban transformation projects that we saw as the biggest problem of Izmir were about to come to a halt due to economic reasons. Contractors were not entering tenders, those who received files were not making offers. While we were making efforts to provide modern, solid housing to the people of Izmir, under these difficult conditions, we delivered 817 independent units in Uzundere and 333 in Örnekköy to their rightful owners.

"THE PUBLIC HOME DISTURBED THOSE WHO WERE LOOKING FOR RENTAL"

While we were acting with our principle of on-site transformation with consensus, we experienced the Izmir earthquake. The sudden demand for housing made the problem even more painful. In order to overcome this problem, we established the Halk Konut system, which will be an example for Türkiye, with on-site transformation, a 100% consensus requirement, the guarantee of the Izmir Metropolitan Municipality, and our İzbeton company. With this project, we established cooperatives on the basis of apartments and sites for our citizens whose houses were destroyed in the earthquake and enabled them to become the contractors of their own houses. Indeed, many of our fellow citizens in Bayraklı live safely in these houses. We applied another method in urban transformation areas where contractors did not even make an offer. Here, those who wanted to own a house established a cooperative and undertook the construction. This system, in which cooperative members built one apartment for themselves and one apartment for the shanty house owners, attracted great attention and greatly accelerated urban transformation.

However, the People's Housing system has greatly disturbed those who think of cities as concrete, buildings as skyscrapers, and construction as profit.

"THEY DID THEIR BEST TO DROWN IT BEFORE IT GETS GROWTH"

Essentially, they did their best to strangle Halk Konut, which aims to make Izmir earthquake-resistant and build a life in harmony with our nature while sharing the profits of urban transformation among our people, before it could grow.

Halk Konut, which takes into account social and economic needs, has wide green areas, and strengthens solidarity and neighborhood relations, has become the target of the representatives of the government in general and locally. They filed complaint after complaint because they were afraid that the project, which will be one of the best examples of social democracy, would spread to Türkiye. As if that were not enough, they intervened with political pressure from the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization and stopped the construction. For this reason, they victimized both those who wanted to own a house by paying dues and those who dreamed of having a modern life instead of a shanty house.

Rest assured, there is no problem with the system in this victimization. The system is extremely robust and all details have been well thought out, designed and turned into a model that complies with the law. Unfortunately, due to my not being nominated again, the project, like many of our projects, remained untracked and even ownerless.

"I DID NOT SURRENDER TO THE GANGS OF FIVE OR THE CONSTRUCTION BARONS"

I did not surrender to gangs of five or construction barons.

Whatever I did, I did it for my people, in line with the principles of my party and in line with social democratic populist policies. This model eliminated contractor profits and rent in urban transformation and was cited as an example in many parts of the world.

During my term of office, I was subjected to unimaginable attacks and slander, but I did not give up, I did not collapse, and I did not step back.

I repeat, Halk Konut is not a rent, it is a people’s project. Therefore, it is one of the examples of “economic democracy” in practice. It is a transparent system where not a penny goes into anyone’s pocket. I did not give up yesterday and I will not give up today. I did not give up yesterday and I will not give up today to the gangs of five, the general and local extensions of the powerful who are after rent.

What was done yesterday to our Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayor and CHP's Presidential Candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu is being attempted to be done to me and my friends today.

I would like to thank all my brothers who were with us with their messages and good wishes, our Chairman Mr. Özgür Özel, who came to İzmir and showed his strong support, and our party executives and MPs.

"This too shall pass..."

Source: NEWS CENTER