Turkish opposition CHP’s Paris trip raises questions on spending
Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu, who has been criticized in the past for vacationing or making other visits while the city faced serious problems, recently surfaced in Paris. This time, he was accompanied by his Republican People’s Party (CHP) Chair Özgür Özel and Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavaş. The trio’s trip as Imamoğlu seeks hosting duty for Istanbul for the 2036 Olympics raised eyebrows after their expenses were revealed.
The three men, accompanied by other mayors and party officials, were photographed at an “after-party” in France after promotional work for Olympics hosting, and the municipality hired a venue, with a weekly rent of 250,000 euros ($273,137.50), for publicity work for the Olympics. Before that, they were spotted watching a Turkish women’s national volleyball team game while accompanied by their spouses. Though the municipality clarified that the costs would be covered by sponsors, critics say the exact sponsorship of the PR work is unclear. Former CHP members and supporters of CHP’s main rival, the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), slammed the mayor for funneling the municipality’s resources to the Paris trip while raising prices for everything, from mass transportation to water bills for Istanbulites.
Gürsel Tekin, a former lawmaker for CHP, said in a live broadcast earlier this week that the “after-party” in the Olympics was “disturbing.” “CHP broke off with its traditions,” he said. Enver Aysever, a pro-CHP journalist said in a YouTube broadcast that the municipality likely spent 500,000 euros renting the venue alone for two weeks and called İmamoğlu to reveal the sponsors. Aslı Baykal, daughter of former CHP chair Deniz Baykal and a prominent critic of the current administration, said Imamoğlu might have rented a residence for himself in Paris since he was in the Olympics since they began. “Imamoğlu does not like staying in Istanbul very much,” she was quoted. Under regulations, Imamoğlu is entitled to a daily amount of payments in euros for his trips to Europe and his monthly salary. Social media users said Imamoğlu and his staff were wasting the municipality’s money in Paris while the people of Istanbul had to foot their bills through raised water prices.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also joined the criticism without giving names. As he inaugurated a new airport over the weekend in the southern city of Adana, Erdoğan responded to the opposition, claiming a new airport was unnecessary for the town. “The opposition did not change much in their opposition to public services. They should criticize those wasting people’s money in Paris. They don’t have money in coffers for social security payments but have all the money for a pleasure trip to Paris,” Erdoğan said in a speech, referring to mounting debts of CHP-run municipalities to Social Security Institution (SGK).
İmamoğlu played down the criticism in remarks earlier this week. “We have nothing we cannot explain. We faced a defamation campaign,” he claimed.
