Energy minister criticizes Turkey’s southeastern municipality in electricity debt crisis

Kayseri – Doğan News Agency

AA Photo

Referring to the latest electricity supply crisis between grid firm DEDAŞ and some of Turkey’s southeastern municipalities due to unpaid debts, Energy Minister Taner Yıldız said Turkey’s southeastern province of Diyarbakır’s Metropolitan Municipality could not just say they will not pay their debts.

“A much as the state has a debt toward the citizens, so do the citizens have a debt toward the state. The mayor in Diyarbakır who does not pay her debt has to pay the $265 million,” said Yıldız during a speech at the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) provincial congress in the Central Anatolian province of Kayseri Jan. 25.

DEDAŞ, an electricity grid firm, cut power to water refining plants in Diyarbakır after stating the Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality was in debt. In return, municipalities closed DEDAŞ facilities and dug ditches around the DEDAŞ headquarters to prevent entrance on the grounds that it was conducting sewage work.

Stating that similar debt payment problems had emerged in the eastern provinces of Batman and Şırnak, Yıldız said the municipalities in these two cities had agreed upon a payment plan with the company.

“The grid company said ‘give me a payment plan,’ to repay the debt, but the Diyarbakır Municipality did not announce a plan,” said Yıldız, adding that the Diyarbakır municipality had said previous debts were not their business.

“[By doing so] the Diyarbakır Municipality is being unfair to the citizens of Diyarbakır, too,” Yıldız said.