Yıldırım vows to launch new projects for İzmir

“Dear people of İzmir, don’t think that we forgot; İzmir’s crazy project is coming. We will bring the Gulf Passage to İzmir, certainly. Just like how we built the Konak Tunnel, how we are building the Sabuncubeli Tunnel, we will build the Gulf Passage for sure. We will unite Kordon with Kordelya, and Konak with Karşıyaka,” said Yıldırım, during his first premiership visit to the city, where he was once a mayoral candidate. 

“As long as İzmir is behind us, there is no obstacle we can’t overcome,” Yıldırım said, addressing the crowd in the city from a Presidential bus, as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also attended the gathering. 

During his address, Yıldırım said that he “took over this responsibility” thanks to the people of İzmir and added that, as the government, they would do more than what they had promised for İzmir. 

“We will rescue İzmir from lack of services for sure. We will complete some 35 projects we have begun. We will also bring new projects to İzmir,” said the prime minister. 

Referring to March 2011 as a turning point for him, Yıldırm said when he was first nominated to be the mayor of İzmir, he was nervous about coming to the city, which he was a “stranger” of.

“But when I came to İzmir, and saw this amazing fervor, I said, ‘İzmir is my city; [the] people of İzmir are my brothers [and] sisters,’” said Yıldırım, vowing to remove İzmir’s “lack of service” and make it a city that is “competing with Istanbul.”