Candidate Murat Kurum announced his program and electoral promises entitled “The Vision of Istanbul in the Turkish Century” (French)

Istanbul -

“Finally, Istanbul will get what it wants.” With this linguistically and politically used phrase, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced at the beginning of this month the candidate of his ruling Justice and Development Party for the Greater Istanbul municipal elections, the former minister and current parliamentary representative, Murat Kurum. The announcement came after a study and selection and scrutiny stages described as Strictly.

Hours after Murat Kurum was notified of his candidacy, he met with his team and informed them of a message saying, “We will set out for 16 million Istanbul.” In his first video message published on social media, Kurum said, “We will set out together to eliminate chaos and disorder, and the anxiety of earthquake risks among our people in Istanbul.” .

Two days ago, after several traditional rituals and customs witnessed in the candidate’s first days, the Justice and Development candidate for the Greater Istanbul Municipality, Murat Kurum, announced his electoral program and promises, which he will compete with under the title “The Vision of Istanbul in the Turkish Century,” which represents the road map that the candidate has drawn up to reach the presidency. Municipal.

During his detailed and long presentation, the candidate addressed in many details various aspects of the interests of the Turkish citizen in Istanbul. He moved between projects to support students and youth, to projects and promises that concern the family and children, and made promises directed to working women, as well as to the elderly and retirees, and made promises in the tourism, cultural and sports fields. .

AKP candidate for Istanbul mayor Murat Kurum (Anatolia)

Stop the decline

Hardly any pole or specialist disagrees about the general titles and main problems that may determine the features of the map expected from any candidate seeking to win the vote of the residents of the state, which is considered Turkey's electoral reservoir, especially after the decline in the level and quality of services in the city.

Experts believe that Corum's promises were well-thought-out, to include important titles and milestones, such as the earthquake risk, urban construction projects, congestion and daily life, youth, the economy, public services in general, and family and children.

The candidate linked his promises and his electoral road map to Turkey's general vision called "The Century of Turkey," saying, "Today, we will all talk together about the big steps of 2034 and 2035 that will define the next century for Istanbul. We will talk about the solution, not the dead end. Today, we will all say this is the right time." "For Istanbul."

He continued in his speech, "The vision of Istanbul is what will stop the decline that has befallen this neglected city, and it is the vision that is missing in the neighborhoods and streets. The vision of Istanbul is, above all, the vision of the people."

Plan to pass

In his speech, Kurum mentioned that traffic density in Istanbul was 47% in 2019, and reached 64% today, and sometimes exceeds 90% during peak hours. He commented on this, saying, “We have developed two separate transportation plans for 5 and 10 years, and we will not leave Istanbul captive.” for traffic problems.

The candidate explained that his goal until 2034 is to increase the size and distance of highways to 48%, and that he is determined to raise the share of railway project systems to 48%. He continued, “We also aim to increase the maritime transport fleet to 4%, and all of this will reduce Traffic hassles, and the average journey time will decrease from 64 minutes to 34 minutes.”

At the conclusion of this corner, Kurum continued, “We will increase the length of the current metro line of 328 kilometers to 650 kilometers by 2029, and we will reach 1,004 kilometers in 2034.” He mentioned during his presentation that they are implementing two tunnel projects on both sides of Istanbul.

He showed that the step of moving the external bus stations “Otogar” from the city centers, and replacing them with 6 new points, was well thought out in the Asian and European parts of the city, and he confirmed that nearly a million heavy vehicles will be withdrawn from traffic, as a result of the step to move the stations away from traffic. The main transportation nodes and clusters in the city.

Istanbul has great historical and spiritual symbolism in the conscience of the Turkish people (Al Jazeera)

Earthquake projects

In the most controversial and prominent file, Kurum sent heated messages to the current municipality of Istanbul, accusing it of not fulfilling and implementing less than 5% of earthquake preparedness projects, within the framework of civilizational transformation projects, reminding that “an issue such as the threat of an earthquake is a national security issue that cannot be tolerated.”

The Turkish president's candidate for mayor of Istanbul continued, "On the morning of the first of next April (the first day after the local elections), we will make up for the lost years of Istanbul's life, and we will work without stopping until there is no risky building left in Istanbul, and during the next five years we will build... 650 thousand houses with a horizontal architectural axis, in 39 districts (number of Istanbul sub-municipalities).”

"Let's share another good news," Korom said. "We will build nearly 100,000 social homes in 39 districts, and we will finish building the homes within 18 months. These homes will not be sold, but will be rented to our citizens in need at reasonable prices."

Optimism and disapproval

The public and specialists interacted with the details of the road map presented by Murat Corum, during and after the program announcement, as journalist and social researcher Umit Sonmaz commented, saying, “I followed and examined the projects and promises of Mr. Murat Corum, and as a citizen who has lived in Istanbul for 35 years, I am very excited and optimistic.”

Sonmaz wished to have the opportunity to implement these projects, and said, "The projects are important and vital, and will make the lives of the people of Istanbul easier and with a higher level of quality."

On the other hand, prominent opposition journalist Ismail Simaz said, “According to my observation, Corum’s plan and propaganda depend on two basic problems, which are the transportation crisis, and projects to confront the earthquake and civilizational transformation.”

He said after his attendance and follow-up in the hall of the Electoral Promises Announcement Festival, “The promises that were presented were beautiful presentations and long, like a verbal explanation, but I did not find a clearly defined and specific project. Throughout the presentation period, we watched videos and television drawings.”

Simaz considered that there are imaginary promises that are difficult to implement, and described that “ascending into space is easier than implementing a number of them on the ground.” He said, “There are a group of projects affiliated with the Ministry of Transport and Communications, and they were presented as projects for the new candidate. The question here is why they were not implemented previously?” ".

Simaz added, “The candidate promised that the problem of dangerous buildings would be eliminated within 5 years. This is a big and very big goal, but why were these projects not implemented during the current candidate’s ministry period and now he is presenting them as projects?”

Source: Al Jazeera