Karayalçın slams mayor’s allegations
Güncelleme Tarihi:
by İzgi Güngör
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Aralık 19, 2008 00:00
ANKARA - The main opposition party’s Ankara mayoral candidate and former Ankara mayor, Murat Karayalçın, has denied allegations of corruption leveled by Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek in a live television program Wednesday night.
"We were acquitted of all cases filed against us during my mayoral term. It is the Gökçek administration who should give account of his mayoral actions, from the Ankara’s polluted air and drinking water to the uncompleted subway lines," Karayalçın told the Hurriyet Daily News & Economic Review yesterday.
"The money collected in advance from Ankara's residents for natural gas wasn’t paid to the state-owned Turkish Pipeline Company, or BOTAŞ. Gökçek has to explain this controversy," he said.
Karayalçın was with a group of youths at a conference while Gökçek and the Republican People’s Party, or CHP’s, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu were engrossed in a live heated debate late Wednesday. Karayalçın said he had the impression such programs did not serve their original purpose, instead creating a ground for the accused to blur the discussion. In a counterattack, Gökçek accused Karayalçın of purchasing the mechanical natural gas counters at an even higher price than he himself had. Meanwhile, Karayalçın detailed his possible mayoral plans in a conference held by the nongovernmental organization, the Arı Movement, late Wednesday in Ankara.
Karayalçın said his policies would be based on transparency, solidarity and participation and promised employment opportunities for 25,000 people in the capital, if he were elected next March.
"Women, especially, will benefit from this project. We aim to create job opportunities for 10,000 people in elderly care services and 10,000 in care services for the disabled. Some 5,000 people will also be employed in forestation projects," he said. In addition to what he calls "urgent treatment projects," such as the completion of the subway lines, the purification of the Kızılırmak River - the source of Ankara’s drinking water - and water transportation from the cleaner Gerede River.
Meanwhile, Eskişehir Mayor Yılmaz Büyükerşen from the Democratic Left Party, or DSP, said he could run in the elections as the CHP’s mayoral candidate in Eskişehir.
"The money collected in advance from Ankara's residents for natural gas wasn’t paid to the state-owned Turkish Pipeline Company, or BOTAŞ. Gökçek has to explain this controversy," he said.
Karayalçın was with a group of youths at a conference while Gökçek and the Republican People’s Party, or CHP’s, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu were engrossed in a live heated debate late Wednesday. Karayalçın said he had the impression such programs did not serve their original purpose, instead creating a ground for the accused to blur the discussion. In a counterattack, Gökçek accused Karayalçın of purchasing the mechanical natural gas counters at an even higher price than he himself had. Meanwhile, Karayalçın detailed his possible mayoral plans in a conference held by the nongovernmental organization, the Arı Movement, late Wednesday in Ankara.
Karayalçın said his policies would be based on transparency, solidarity and participation and promised employment opportunities for 25,000 people in the capital, if he were elected next March.
"Women, especially, will benefit from this project. We aim to create job opportunities for 10,000 people in elderly care services and 10,000 in care services for the disabled. Some 5,000 people will also be employed in forestation projects," he said. In addition to what he calls "urgent treatment projects," such as the completion of the subway lines, the purification of the Kızılırmak River - the source of Ankara’s drinking water - and water transportation from the cleaner Gerede River.
Meanwhile, Eskişehir Mayor Yılmaz Büyükerşen from the Democratic Left Party, or DSP, said he could run in the elections as the CHP’s mayoral candidate in Eskişehir.