CHP announces plans for Ankara in local poll campaign

ANKARA

The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has held a special event to introduce Mansur Yavaş, its mayoral candidate for Ankara Metropolitan Municipality, and its plans for the capital.

“Mansur Yavaş will govern Ankara on the centenary of the Republic. We will change the destiny of Ankara,” said CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu on Jan. 15 at the party’s event to introduce the candidate who will run for the upcoming March 31 local elections.

“Mr.Yavaş will give account of every penny he spends to the locals of Ankara,” he added.

Kılıçdaroğlu also stressed that Ankara has become a “concrete jungle” but would change under the helm of Yavaş.

All employees will be ensured job security and will be held in high regard, the party leader said.

“Our citizens will be familiar with the green areas and the horizontal architecture of Ankara. We are promising fresh air, clean water and transportation in comfort,” said Yavaş.

“We will continue social aids and help the children of the families in need to get education,” he added.

The mayoral candidate also pledged to decrease the number of official vehicles of the municipality and to remove their warning lights.

“We will support agriculture and bring the consumer and the producer together,” he said.

The CHP’s candidate also stressed that policies on reducing unemployment will be carried out while improving diversity in tourism.

Along with a 32-kilometer bicycle lane, Yavaş also promised public transportation and urban planning in favor of citizens with disabilities.

CHP leader: Nobody can dare threaten Turkey

Meanwhile, Kılıçdaroğlu also recalled the recent tweets by U.S. President Donald Trump who said he would “devastate the Turkish economy” in the event of an attack against Kurds.

“Nobody can threaten the Republic of Turkey with a bullying tone. The state of the Republic of Turkey was not established at the mercy of sovereign powers,” he said.

Kılıçdaroğlu recalled the struggle led before the First World War, when the Ottoman Empire had collapsed and the nation was fighting to emerge as a republic.

“There was a Turkish National Movement, fighting to stand firm against sovereign powers,” said Kılıçdaroğlu.

“We are the descendants of the Turkish National Movement’s members. They founded the CHP. Being a member of the CHP is not easy. It is a party founded in battlefields, not in law firms,” he added.

On Jan. 13, Trump threatened to “devastate Turkey economically if they hit Kurds,” which Turkey slammed because Washington had kept conflating “Kurds” with the YPG. Ankara sees the YPG as the Syrian branch of the illegal PKK.