Istanbul, Ankara mayors to tackle disaster management, social policies if elected

ANKARA

Nation Alliance joint candidate and Republican People’s Party leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has announced that Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu will be responsible for disaster management and Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavaş for social policies if the opposition wins the May 14 presidential polls.

Kılıçdaroğlu, in a video message with İmamoğlu and Yavaş, recalled that the two men will serve as the vice presidents under his leadership if he wins the polls.

İmamoğlu’s job as the vice president will be to increase the Turkish cities’ readiness against disasters and create earthquake-resistant residential areas across the country, Kılıçdaroğlu stated.

Yavaş, for his part, will be responsible for strengthening the household economy through social policies and family support mechanisms, increasing women’s participation in labor, realizing agricultural development through technological means and the fight against poverty.

“Unfortunately, our cities have been left behind the contemporary world. We are ready to make all our cities and residential areas earthquake-proof and modern. We are ready for the happiness of our country,” İmamoğlu said.

Yavaş underlined the importance of social policies, saying, “We will surely build a structure by renewing the understanding of social policies so that no anybody will go to bed hungry and be deprived of education and proper nutrition.”

He also vowed to bring about a new model for agricultural development, stressing, “We will surely make a lot of success on strategic and national technological studies with our bright youth and qualified cadres in seven regions and all 81 provinces in the land, in the air, in the Blue Homeland and Cyber Space.”

“We will work very hard. We have no other option. We are too far from the global agenda, and we need to work hard to catch it up,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.

In case the Nation Alliance candidate wins the presidential race, the leaders of the five political parties that make the alliance will be appointed as the vice presidents. Following an intervention by İYİ (Good) Party Chair Meral Akşener, İmamoğlu and Yavaş were named as the vice presidents.

The timing of their appointment will be decided by Kılıçdaroğlu as there is a legal dispute about whether the mayors can work as vice presidents without resigning from their mayoral posts.