Istanbul mayor to file complaint against minister for ‘negligence’

ISTANBUL

Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu has announced that he will file a criminal complaint against Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu on the grounds that “he did not dismiss municipal workers with terror links though he had the authority.”

Reminding that a similar process was experienced in the İzmir Municipality in 2020 as problems were encountered in the archive research of some employees, İmamoğlu said the minister dismissed 15 workers at the end of the process involving the governor’s office.

“You declared all of our personnel, including our companies, as public servants in the report sent to the prosecutor’s office. That is, you could use your authority. We have proven the minister’s neglect of duty with an official document,” the mayor said. “We will file a criminal complaint against him.”

Since the authority to evaluate whether municipal employees meet the appointment conditions or not belongs exclusively to the mayors, they will be held legally responsible if they appoint those who do not meet the conditions, Soylu, however, said earlier.

More than 1,600 employees of the Istanbul Municipality were identified as “affiliated with terrorist organizations,” the ministry said earlier amid the investigation that opened last year.

It claims that there were reports and determinations that 455 of the personnel recruited in the municipality-affiliated organizations and companies were affiliated with PKK/KCK, 80 with DHKP-C, 20 with MLKP and some with FETÖ and other organizations.

Referring to the five names whom Soylu says to be working in the municipality despite being linked to terrorism, İmamoğlu suggested that four of them had a clean criminal record, and that the other is not an employee working at the Istanbul Municipality.

Pointing out that the Constitutional Court prohibited archive research and security investigation from Nov. 28, 2019, to April 18, 2021, he said, “Municipalities are not security and intelligence agencies. If there is a mistake, am I the cause of this or is it the minister whose negligence we have proven with documents?”

The report prepared regarding the employment process was submitted to the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office last month. The report was delivered to the special investigation unit, the office said in a written statement.