Ali Kurt, General Manager of the IMM subsidiary KİPTAŞ, who is also a former colleague of Murat Kurum, the candidate of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality for the People’s Alliance, said: „The promise of 650,000 houses is technically not possible. The institution says, ‚I will do it now,‘ which it did not do when I was Minister.“
Days before the municipal elections, the promises of the candidates are also being discussed. The highlights of Kurt’s statements, who answered BirGün’s İsmail Arı’s questions regarding Murat Kurum’s argumentative housing promises and the Istanbul Canal, are as follows:
„Even though the institution says, ‚The Istanbul Canal is not on our agenda,‘ construction works are rapidly taking place in this region. New tenders are being held one after the other. How do you evaluate the housing mobility in the canal area?“
Ekrem İmamoğlu said about the institution: „If the Istanbul Canal is not really on their agenda, they should say that we will not build it, even if the President says so,“ and he is right. They cannot afford to forego public investments in the region where the canal is planned. If there is a canal, the attractiveness of this region will increase. Significant land speculation has occurred in this area, leading to significant changes in ownership. They will not abandon the housing project there…
„The Istanbul Canal cannot be successful as long as the IMM is in opposition.“
In a city filled to the brim, the canal region is the area with the greatest development potential. The public also owns significant property there. But they cannot be successful as long as the IMM is in opposition. Because this region is in the defense basin of İSKİ. Without İSKİ, there is no possibility for technical understanding. There is a metropolitan region standing like a rock on the other side of the Istanbul Canal. What Mayor Ekrem said is very valuable: We are the guardians of Istanbul…
„For years, there have been victims of TOKİ and Murat Kurum in the country. For years, houses allocated to eligible citizens who received housing from TOKİ have not been handed over. Everywhere, victims are faced with the institution, but on the other hand, the institution promised to build 650,000 houses in Istanbul. Is this promise realistic?“
This promise is technically not possible. Murat Bey was the Minister of Environment, Urbanization, and Climate Change, to which TOKİ, the authority responsible for this matter, is affiliated. Between 2019 and 2024, TOKİ delivered more than 8,500 houses in Istanbul. As KİPTAŞ, we have delivered 10,039 units and will deliver another 1,190 within two weeks. So he says we will do something that he has not done yet.
„During Murat Bey’s tenure, TOKİ made incredible promises. How many of them were fulfilled?“
Most of them did not happen. So, he has such a record. Now, all buttons are pressed during the election period. We have implemented a system called Istanbul Renewing. Recently, TOKİ Leader compared KİPTAŞ and IMM to a mosquito. TOKİ is a public institution that buys as much land as it wants from National Real Estate, coordinates with public banks, and prepares zoning plans. KİPTAŞ is a company that does not provide these opportunities, but we build social housing at fixed rates. TOKİ sells it with variable interest rates, and citizens become victims.
„Murat Kurum said, ‚If there is an earthquake in Istanbul, there will be no cost to the country, no flag, no state anymore,‘ but during his tenure, nothing visible was done for the earthquake. How do you interpret this statement?“
We received applications from all 39 districts for the Istanbul Renewing project. In other words, we received applications for 470,000 independent units. Here, 1 million 716 thousand people live. Applicants say: Give us options with suitable payment conditions, and we will renew our structures. We are trying to find suitable banks and contractors. We are the administration that develops solutions for the riskiest structures. We demolished 2,093 risky independent units. In the last 24 years, 1,632 risky independent units were demolished. They say that KİPTAŞ has become the contractor for the middle of the neighborhood by demolishing a building in the middle of the neighborhood, but we are proud, we save lives.
„How do you evaluate the performance of your former colleague Murat Kurum in the election process?“
I feel very sorry for him. A bureaucrat cannot simply become political. Not every bureaucrat becomes a politician. I wish he had stayed within bureaucratic boundaries. He now says that Istanbul’s survival problem is an earthquake, but he should have said that when he was still a Minister.
T24