Tancu Ozcan, the mayor of Turkey's Bolu municipality of the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), said on Tuesday he had sent a letter to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan about asking permission to build a statue of him.
Ozcan tweeted in April: "A word of honor if Tayyip Erdogan wins. In the elections. I will build a statue of him in the most visible place in Bolu."
Later, young AKP youths in the northern state of Bolu brought bags of cement to the town hall to demand that its president fulfill his promise after President Erdoğan won a new term in the May 28 run-off elections.
On Tuesday, Ozcan tweeted: "I sent a tweet to President Erdogan before the election, I wish I hadn't posted it, but the word comes out of the young man's mouth once."
"According to the legislation, a person's consent must be obtained in order to erect a statue of a living person. So that I could keep my word, I wrote a letter to the president and asked for his approval."
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan'a seçimden önce bir tweet attım, atmaz olaydım... Laf delikanlının ağzından bir kere çıkar.
Fakat mevzuata göre yaşayan birinin heykelinin dikilmesi için kişiden muvafakat alınması lazım. Ben de sözümü tutabilmem için Sayın Cumhurbaşkanı'na mektup yazdım ve... pic.twitter.com/HOXDVKbsIp
— Tanju ÖZCAN (@tanjuozcanchp) June 13, 2023
Those reacting to his tweet, which was seen by more than 5 million people within hours of being posted, wondered if he had received an answer to his message and whether he would build the statue from the municipal budget or take care of it personally.
Ozcan is known for his hostility to migrants and refugees, and has stirred controversy more than once with his inflammatory statements against them, including announcing a plan to repatriate Syrian refugees by setting up camps and placing them there.
In 2021, the municipality of Bolu took decisions targeting foreigners, by increasing the fees for marriage contracts and water fees for foreign citizens residing in the city, according to the Turkish newspaper "Yeni Safak", but a court later annulled this decision.