İYİ Party’s Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Candidate Prof. Dr. Ümit Özlale spoke to SÖZCÜ Television moderator İpek Özbey.
sozcu.com.tr
Release: 20:25 – 22 September 2023 Updated:
İYİ Party Leader Meral Akşener visited Prof. in Izmir the other day. Dr. He introduced Ümit Özlale as the metropolitan mayor candidate. Sözcü writer İsmail Saymaz asked Izmir’s CHP Metropolitan Mayor Tunç Soyer about Ümit Özlale. Soyer said that he found Ümit Özlale valuable as an academician, but he was not a strong candidate.
“I SEE ALL THE CANDIDATES AS STRONG CANDIDATES”
SÖZCÜ Television moderator İpek Özbey, Prof. Dr. He asked Ümit Özlale about Soyer’s statements. Özlale said, “He appreciated my academic side, thank you. However, he described me as a weak candidate. I see him and all the other candidates as strong candidates. It would not behoove me to use a hurtful adjective for my opponents. The real question to ask should be this. Which candidate governs Izmir better? “I see myself as the strongest candidate when this question is asked,” he said.
Ümit Özlale and Meral Akşener
“İZMİR IS TOO IMPORTANT A CITY TO BE A BARGAINING TOOL AT THE NEGOTIATION TABLES”
According to Soyer, Akşener’s move is related to Istanbul and Ankara. In fact, the Mayor of Izmir Metropolitan Municipality is ertive enough to say, “Akşener also knows that no results can be obtained from here.”
So is it so? Özlale asked Özbey: “Is your Izmir candidacy a bargain for Istanbul and Ankara?” He gives a harsh answer to the question: “These words of Mr. Tunç show the problematic area in his approach to Izmir. Apparently, according to Mr. Tunç, Izmir is not a city that needs to be managed well and its problems need to be solved, but an element of bargaining. IYI Party nominates a candidate because it never sees Izmir as a bargaining chip. We have never seen Izmir as a promotion of Istanbul and Ankara. On the contrary, this is the point we object to. “Izmir is too important a city to be a bargaining tool at the negotiation tables.”
Tunç Soyer
NOT FROM SATISFACTION, BUT FROM NECESSITY!
“Izmir is the stronghold of CHP… The Metropolitan Municipality has been governed by CHP for many years. To our question, “Why should CHP voters cast a different vote at the ballot box in the 2024 local elections, why should they vote for you?” Özlale answers, “We are aspiring for this job because CHP has not been able to manage this beautiful city well for years.” Stating that the people of Izmir are looking for a better municipality and mayor, Özlale says, “The people of Izmir have been voting out of necessity, not satisfaction, for years.”
AHMET AKIN: WE WILL ALSO TAKE THE MUNICIPALITIES OWNED BY AKP
Meanwhile, CHP Leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has still not announced his Izmir candidate. The name of Deputy Chairman of Local Governments Ahmet Akın is being talked about.
Akın also spoke to İpek Özbey and said: “There is no such thing right now. It is natural to talk about these things, I spent many years in Izmir. However, as the Deputy Chairman Responsible for Local Governments, my goal is to increase the number of mayors throughout Turkey and to win the municipalities controlled by the AK Party… We have completed the analysis studies. We established special teams in the provinces we lost by a small margin of votes last term. We are doing profile studies. Two separate committees are working for this. “My only goal right now is to do my job and come out of the local elections with success.”
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