Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu responded to the questions about his meeting with former CHP Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. Imamoğlu said, « The focus should be more on what our society cannot eat at dinner, not on which dinner we meet. »
Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB) Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu answered the questions of members of the press. Answering the question about whether he will come together with former CHP Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, İmamoğlu said:
- I watch the interest in this dinner with amazement. We meet with our former chairman, we will meet. The fact that this turns into such an event disturbs the CHP.
- We meet with both our chairman Özgür Özel and our previous presidents. I think what really needs to be wondered about is not the meal we will meet, but what our citizens, our society cannot eat for their meals. I mean, I think it is the economy.
How many refugees are there in Istanbul?
Imamoğlu also made statements about the number of asylum seekers in Istanbul and said, « I visited 39 of the 39 districts. If you listen to the determinations made by each district mayor about their district… There are 13 AKP districts in Istanbul. If you listen to their estimates of the number of irregular migrants, it would double what I said. »
Imamoğlu continued his speech as follows:
- Let me share a healthier data. In Istanbul, the process of granting residence was stopped because they thought it exceeded 20 percent of the population. Even 20 percent of these 10 districts makes 1 million 200 thousand people.
- The water consumption rate of people is serious data. Water consumption per capita in Istanbul is up to 225 cubic meters. This does not mean that our people are using more water. It shows that nearly 2.5 million people live in Istanbul.
- I am addressing Mr. Minister, we have worked in Istanbul before. Local administrations in Turkey are responsible for the number of people who come with irregular migration, who come as asylum seekers… The minister’s figure of 1 million 80 thousand includes the number of people who have a residence permit or temporary settlement.
- I would like to express that we or other municipalities were not informed about the data. There are such figures that 10 million people are mentioned throughout Turkey.
- It bothers us when a 7-8 year old child says ‘there are millions of refugees and we feel uneasy’ on the way home by metro… They should be transparent, this is an important issue.
