Newly elected mayor of İstanbul Ekrem İmamoğlu has said some vehicles at the municipality were exchanged for cheaper models before June 23, when he was elected mayor in a repeat election.
Speaking on a program on Best FM on Tuesday, İmamoğlu said: “Some vehicles at the municipality were exchanged before I took office. So-called lesser models were bought.”
During his election campaign İmamoğlu promised to stop the waste of municipal funds, saying he would spend every kuruş for the benefit of İstanbul residents and avoid extravagance.
During the program İmamoğlu also talked about problems regarding Syrian refugees who fled an ongoing civil war in their country, which broke out in 2011, and took refuge in Turkey.
He said the Turkish government had failed to manage the flow of refugees to Turkey and left the refugees to their own devices.
“You [the government] scattered 3.5 million refugees everywhere. There are 600,000 refugees in İstanbul according to official figures, although it is estimated to be close to 1 million unofficially. I feel really sorry for those people. There are some refugees in İstanbul who are in difficult situations,” İmamoğlu said, adding that as the mayor of İstanbul, he would first of all work to improve the living conditions of the refugees by cooperating with the relevant government agencies.
