At a Public Meeting where they listened to residents’ demands and suggestions, Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality Co-Mayors Serra Bucak and Doğan Hatun thanked the public for their strong participation and underlined that the city would continue to be governed and rebuilt together with its people.

The Department of Press and Public Relations is continuing to organise public meetings to enable residents to convey their demands, suggestions and views directly to the municipal administration. Within this framework, Co-Mayors Serra Bucak and Doğan Hatun met with hundreds of residents in the Ali Emiri Conference Hall at the municipal building. The meeting was also attended by DBB Council Co-Spokesperson Demet Ceylan; Co-Chairs of the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) Diyarbakır Provincial Organisation, Gülşen Özer and Abbas Şahin; Co-Chairs of the Democratic Regions Party (DBP) Diyarbakır Provincial Organisation, Ruçem Vefa Elyakut and Ahmet Doğan; Secretary General Emrullah Gördük; DBB Council members and heads of departments.

Co-Mayor Bucak: The struggle of the people is admirable

Addressing the Public Meeting, Co-Mayor Bucak stressed that the struggle waged by the people of Amed and their commitment to collective and paradigmatic work is highly important and truly admirable. She said:

“The fact that these municipalities have been governed for more than 20 years by your party and through your will at the ballot box is of course your success, your labour, your insistence on this political stance.”

Noting that, in the face of serious destruction and devastation, they have been working intensively to deliver on the projects they promised, Co-Mayor Bucak continued:

“Of course, this is not enough. You will be the ones to assess this best today. I would really like to thank you for the crowd in this hall; I would like to extend a warm welcome to our valued people.”

Co-Mayor Bucak added that since being elected they have had the opportunity to listen to residents at various neighbourhood meetings, and that they will continue to hold such meetings with the public in neighbourhoods across the city.

Co-Mayor Hatun: We will decide about the city together

Co-Mayor Doğan Hatun also thanked residents for attending the meeting and said:

“We live together in this city. We may be the ones in office today, but that does not mean we alone are the decision-makers. As we said during the election period, we will decide about this city together; we will build this city together.”

‘We have addressed many of the shortcomings from the trustee period’

Co-Mayor Hatun noted that they had previously stated they would first address the shortcomings arising from the past ten years under state-appointed trustees, and continued:

“In this nine–ten-year trustee period, we have resolved many of the shortcomings that emerged. Even though there were not many resources, we have, within our means, dealt with the outstanding problems. Of course, this does not mean that we have done everything perfectly. There may be shortcomings on our side as well. Share your criticisms with us; we are open to criticism. We have been on the ground for a year and a half now. There are only a few issues left that we have not already followed up. There are some matters which, at first glance, you think could be solved in a year, but once you get into them you see that not one but five years are not enough. On these issues we need to understand one another. We must show patience and tolerance accordingly. If we show one another patience and tolerance, we can work harder and make our city more beautiful more quickly. We can find quicker solutions together to serious problems that have built up over decades. But if we lack patience and tolerance towards one another, we will not be able to get even the smallest thing done. Problems that have gone unresolved for forty years cannot be solved in a single year. If we understand one another, we will carry out clean and valuable work together.”

‘We have prepared projects for next year’

Emphasising that local authorities and the central government need to work together, Co-Mayor Hatun concluded his speech as follows:

“The foundation of our first water treatment plant was laid 25 years ago. Last month we laid the foundation of the second. Solving infrastructure problems is not so easy. Effective work requires joint action by local government and the central government. Sometimes seven or eight different institutions have a say even on a single sewer pipe. Bureaucracy at times causes work to progress slowly. This year, many villages were left without water due to drought. We have worked on what we can do for next year and we have prepared projects. Our colleagues from all departments are ready: tell us your problems, and they will take note of them.”

‘Public meetings are very important’

DEM Party Provincial Co-Chair Gülşen Özer also underlined the importance of public meetings, saying:

“This people has expressed its will, and it is thanks to this that these gatherings are taking place. We have left a year and a half behind, and we are always grateful to our people. This public meeting is very important. When we go among the people, the municipality’s problems are brought to us. But we are a political party. The work of the municipality is one thing, ours is another. Our colleagues [in the municipality] are the expression of our will; we will carry out our work together. For ten years, the municipalities were in the hands of trustees. The trustees provided no services. They spent the municipal budget on other institutions.”

Residents set out their demands

Following the Co-Mayors, residents took the floor and emphasised the importance of holding regular meetings as a priority for the city. Thanking the Metropolitan Municipality for its work, participants stated that the services being carried out in the city are visible, but that there are still issues awaiting solutions. Residents shared their expectations and proposals on matters such as environmental cleanliness, transport, employment, base stations, student accommodation, water cuts, pavement and paving works, the zoo, the Tigris Valley Project, infrastructure and substance addiction.

Co-Mayors responded to questions

The Co-Mayors listened to residents’ demands, expectations and criticisms, took note of them and responded to questions. The criticisms, demands and suggestions from the public were recorded one by one by the relevant unit managers.