Ataşehir Mayor Battal İlgezdi removed from office

The removal from office of Ataşehir Mayor Battal İlgezdi has been interpreted by the CHP as being a “revenge operation” for General Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu’s disclosure of the Isle of Man documents and the intelligence agency briefing to Erdoğan on Reza Zarrab.

 Kılıçdaroğlu, who is in London, obtained information on the phone from staff after having learnt of Ataşehir Mayor Battal İlgezdi’s removal from office. The conclusion was reached that the target of the operation was Kılıçdaroğlu and there was an attempt to exact revenge using the “same means” over his comments about Erdoğan’s children and relatives.

 With Kılıçdaroğlu deciding to refrain from commenting until he had returned to Turkey, Deputy General Chair Aykut Erdoğdu, who was part of the London delegation, made an announcement and expressed his outrage.

 “Do it if you dare”

 Erdoğdu, stating that they knew where the AKP was going with this, said, “They are trying to exact revenge for the incidents of corruption to which reference has recently been made. However, the removal of opposition mayors from office in this way only happens in fascist regimes. We will never permit this. We will not sacrifice a mayor brought into office with the people’s votes to the Interior Ministry’s political instructions.” Erdoğdu, wishing for an investigation commission to be set up in Parliament and for all parties’ mayors to be investigated, commented, “Do it if you dare and we will see which mayors are without blemish and have probity.”

 “The aim is to change the agenda”

 CHP parliamentarians expressed outrage at İlgezdi’s removal from office.

 -Bülent Öz: The Interior Ministry’s removing İlgezdi from office is mobbing conducted against the CHP. You cannot silence the CHP with this mobbing conducted under the state of emergency.

 -Yıldız Tur Biçer: The members of the most discredited government in history with all kinds of graft and illegality at home and abroad are trying to splatter opposition municipalities with the dirt of its disgusting municipalities using its filthy grip on power.

 -Eren Erdem: They greet with bands and processions the FETOists who signed up to being gifted lot after lot, but they either assign curators to municipalities that they are unable to win through the ballot box or try to stage a “coup against the will of the nation” there with removals from office.

 -Ahmet Akın: What is being done to CHP municipalities is fear over the 2019 local election. If we pile up their own corruption and disgraces, this would stretch from here to the Isle of Man and they are using CHP municipalities to change the agenda.

 İLGEZDİ’S STATEMENT CONCERNING HIS REMOVAL FROM OFFICE

 The statement made by the Ministry of the Interior is as follows: “Due to reports compiled by the Civil Service Inspectorate and investigations and prosecutions being conducted by the judicial authorities into him, a decision was made on 06.12.2017 by the Ministry of the Interior to remove Ataşehir Mayor Battal İlgezdi from his office. In removing Battal İlgezdi from his office as mayor, the following matters were taken into consideration, deemed to be acts of abuse of duty by acting in breach of the Development Law, the Law on Making Statement of Assets and Combatting Bribery and Corruption and the Public Procurement Law, causing loss to municipalities/the public, bid-rigging, unjust acquisition of property and turning a blind eye to the compilation of untruthful documents by public servants: Even though Battal İlgezdi gave the impression of having ended following his election the business he engaged in prior to being elected Ataşehir Mayor, his continuation of this business through the intervention of close relatives and persons and companies he was in a political and business relationship with and concealing his own presence, the activities conducted through these individuals and companies being almost entirely related to Battal İlgezdi and involving sham elements and, where necessary, being carried out by having new companies formed or appointing close relatives to chair the board of directors at existing companies, the construction works performed by these persons and/or companies being carried out within Ataşehir Municipality’s area of responsibility, despite the serious violations of planning law involved in construction works being undertaken, the failure for the requisite statutory procedures to be performed and/or caused to be performed on time and in full by Ataşehir Municipality officials, or even the deceiving of other authorities through the compilation of untruthful documents, the acquisition of considerable amounts of immovable property by close relatives disproportionate to their economic circumstances, the causing of loss to the municipality by conducting transactions to the benefit of persons/companies that the Mayor is in collaboration with contrary to legislation in the sale and/or putting out to tender of shares in certain of Ataşehir Municipality’s immovable properties, the passing on with regard to the said matters of allegations and complaints about various improprieties and irregularities that were submitted to our Ministry, the commencement of procedures by our ministry into a portion of these and the granting of approval for investigation, and, additionally, the submission to the competent judicial authorities of allegations and complaints over which the judicial authorities are contemplating the necessary action, and the existence of a pending lawsuit brought against Battal İlgezdi by Istanbul Anatolian Chief Prosecution for bid rigging and unjust acquisition of property.

 The bringing about through sham transactions of the transfer of the municipal share in the plot on which the building known as Buz Rezidans was erected, the granting of an occupancy permit to Buz Rezidans despite breaches of the construction licence, the failure for the sanction pursuant to Articles 32 and 42 of the Construction Law to be applied and, when the necessity arose to apply the statutory sanction, the failure for it to be applied as required, the embarking on housing development illicitly, for profiteering purposes and contrary to planning legislation on the area known as Erguvan Park, bid rigging in the tender for the construction and to confer use of the buildings to be constructed in the area, the purchasing by a close associate of Ataşehir Mayor Battal İlgezdi who was one of his relatives of a plot in an area that is a residential area in the development plan, the construction of a private educational institution contrary to planning legislation on this plot that was a residential area, the subsequent sale of these premises to a company on which a relative close to Battal İlgezdi serves as board of directors’ chair and its also being rented out as a private school at a high price by this company, the conducting of procedures that were in breach of planning legislation at the buildings known as Oda Kule 1 and Oda Kule 2, and all these illicit and procedures that involve corruption being conducted by creating a complex chain of relationships involving the mayor’s close relatives and business partners and the latters’ close relatives and with him concealing his own identity, which are public knowledge, serve as examples of this corruption that is being brought to attention.”

 Battal İlgezdi: I am above board. I am without blemish.

 Following Ataşehir Mayor Battal İlgezdi’s removal from office by the Interior Ministry, there were flurry-filled hours at Ataşehir Municipality. With party supporters who had gathered in front of the Town Hall expressing their support for İlgezdi, they displayed outrage at the government. The CHP urgently summoned all Central Executive Board members to assemble in front of Ataşehir Town Hall. The deputy general chairs, Istanbul MPs and CHP mayors and sub-province chairs in Istanbul convened with İlgezdi at the town hall and assessed the situation.

 There are acquittal rulings

 Battal İlgezdi, addressing those who had come to support him in front of the town hall, said, “As you know, I am the first mayor to have complained about himself. Do it if you dare. Let their own mayors go and complain about themselves. All of these allegations came before the judiciary and acquittal rulings were passed over them all. We are supposedly tampering with documents. The judiciary is in your hands and the media is in your hands. If there is something we have tampered with come out with it. The law has collapsed here. Political motives are involved in this. We are here. There is nothing that I cannot account for as mayor. I am above board. I am without blemish.”

 Covering-up operation

 CHP Istanbul Province Chair Cemal Canpolat, stating that the AKP was conducting an operation to cover up the corruption attributable to it, said, “This is an operation to secure the surrender of the Republican People’s Party municipalities. We will not surrender the CHP municipalities. We will never permit operations conducted under instruction. We will fight to the end. I invite all party supporters and all Istanbullians here. This is basically the price for five million votes in Istanbul being cast for “no”. Do whatever you will, we will take Istanbul and we will oust you in the election.”

 Isle of Man payback

 Istanbul MP Barış Yarkadaş, in turn, expressing his reaction to İlgezdi’s removal from office, said, “This operation is a payback for the Isle of Man documents. The rulership is trying to dispel and discredit the uproar created by the Isle of Man documents through the perception that there is corruption at CHP municipalities. The rulership, which has removed its own mayors from office without citing a reason but has been unable to lift the stain of corruption from these mayors, is turning its attention to CHP municipalities and is trying to establish what it sees as equivalence.”

 Engin Altay: We are entering a dangerous process

 CHP Deputy Group Chair Engin Altay assessed the removal from office of Ataşehir Mayor Battal İlgezdi by saying, “We are entering a new and dangerous process of tension. Tayyip Erdoğan is a politician who thrives on sectarianism and polarisation. He is now doing precisely this. This is a sign that even greater crisis-ridden days await Turkey.” Altay, noting that “the possibility of tampering with evidence” had been cited as grounds for İlgezdi’s removal from office, said, “This operation is a case of the guilty party brazenly accusing the innocent. More Interior Ministry staff and public prosecutors have come and gone to Ataşehir town hall than municipal staff. There remains nothing that has not been picked through and investigated. Non-existent evidence cannot be tampered with.” Altay, saying, “The degree is apparent to which Tayyip Erdoğan has been cornered and is being judged in the public conscience over matters such as the Isle of Man documents that General Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has disclosed and Reza Zarrab’s confessions,” said that İlgezdi’s removal was a political operation conducted to counteract the AKP’s loss of esteem in the public conscience. Altay, noting that the will of the people of Ataşehir had been usurped, said, “We will stand up for the CHP municipalities in their entirety through the person of Battal İlgezdi. What is in need of investigation is the Isle of Man documents, Zarrab’s confessions and the 17-25 December bribery and corruption affair of the century that has been closed.”

 CALL FROM CHP ISTANBUL

 The CHP Istanbul Provincial Chair’s Office called on all MPs, sub-provincial chairs, mayors and members to congregate in front of Ataşehir town hall building at 19.00 hours.

 ANNOUNCEMENT FROM CHP ISTANBUL PROVINCIAL CHAIR CANPOLAT

 CHP Istanbul Provincial Chair Cemal Canpolat, arriving in front of the town hall, made an announcement to members of the press.

 Canpolat said, “This is the AK Party’s operation to cover up and conceal the corruption attributable to it. Our Ataşehir Mayor made a criminal complaint about himself to the Republic Chief Prosecution two years ago. Saying, ‘Come and investigate the news reports emerging about me,’ he himself went along with the sub-province chair and applied to the Republic Chief Prosecution. He and his family come face to face with an inspector every day on each occasion. There is one sole aim here. This is an operation to portray a Republican People’s Party mayor’s success as being failure. This is an operation to secure the surrender of the Republican People’s Party municipalities.”

 Canpolat, saying that the Republican People’s Party municipalities would not surrender, commented, “We will never permit operations conducted under instruction against Republican People’s Party municipalities. We will fight to the end. Now I ask through the press. To the Interior Minister. Which paper have you requested and Battal İlgezdi did not furnish you with it? Which document have you requested and he did not supply it? You perceive him to be a threat and oust him. We will not let you conduct this operation. I invite all party supporters and all Istanbullians here. I invite all MPs here. We will not leave this country in your arbitrary rule. We are ready as Republican People’s Party members and as Istanbullians to put up every kind of fight, to engage in every kind of struggle and to pay every kind of price. This is basically the price for five million votes in Istanbul being cast for “no”. Do whatever you will, we will take Istanbul and we will oust you in the election. Everywhere in the world, a period in which assaults increase incrementally is a period in which the footsteps of fascism are on their way. We will not surrender this country to fascists and fascist dictators. We will fight this fight to the end.”

 http://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/haber/siyaset/882441/Atasehir_Belediye_Baskani_Battal_ilgezdi_gorevden_uzaklastirildi.html