The Economics Congress of the Second Century was held by the Izmir Metropolitan Municipality. Didim Mayor A. Deniz Atabay also attended the meeting where CHP mayors from all over Turkey came together.

Within the scope of the program held in Izmir, President Atabay, who defined the Second Century Economics Congress as “a repetition of a congress held 100 years ago”, thanked Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Tunç Soyer.

Didim Mayor A. Deniz Atabay, who made statements after the congress, said, “What can be done about the earthquake, pointing out that the subject is earthquake at the Mayors Meeting? What to do before, during and after an earthquake? What are the duties of local governments within the scope of their responsibilities and authorities in terms of both raising public awareness and taking precautions? He noted that attention was paid to topics such as:

Continuing his speech, President Atabay said, “There are many things we want to do or need to be done without getting stuck with the bureaucracy. As local governments, you do not have the authority to many of these. The central government needs to make some improvements in this regard. Then I think that much faster and more important solutions will be provided.”

“WE NEVER ALLOWED A HIGH FLOOR IN DIDIM”

President Atabay underlined the earthquake reality of Turkey, There are no very high-rise buildings in Didim, Your plans for a coastal town have been prepared very well, Our highest floor is 5. In some regions, there are only 2-storey detached houses. Tried to puncture this several times. Made in 2014 and before. When we arrived, we never allowed a high floor in terms of both the silhouette of the city and in order to create a healthier coastal town and not to spoil the creation. In fact, when it was said that we should switch to horizontal construction instead of vertical construction, we had limited the height issue with a parliamentary decision much earlier. The history of our parliamentary decision is also clear,” he said.

President Atabay said, “Of course, the job does not end with the floor. A 5-storey building can also be demolished, but a 40-storey building may not collapse if it is built taking into account the earthquake reality and fully complying with the regulations. But I’m going to the silhouette side of things, because we are a tourism district. Of course, we control it very strictly, but we also have the building stock that was built during the period when earthquake regulations were not applied or there were very incomplete earthquake regulations. The city was not established from yesterday to today. In this sense, we started these studies within the scope of the laws that came up to the first earthquake regulation before and after 1980 and within the scope of our citizens and our responsibilities. Newly, we have to take some measures and we are finalizing them. We will pass through the Assembly what needs to be passed through the Assembly. We will take the decisions that need to be taken by the council and we will continue. We, as local administrators, are responsible for ensuring the health and safety of our citizens.”

TALKING ABOUT PEACE OF RECONSTRUCTION SHOULD BE A GREAT CRIME

President Atabay said, “21. I think it should be a great crime to even think about, let alone talk about, issues such as zoning peace and zoning amnesty in the 20th century. Talking about zoning peace in a country that is almost entirely in an earthquake zone and can be exposed to severe earthquakes should never be a question of thinking about zoning amnesty. These mistakes were made before and they were going to be made again when there was an earthquake; It took our lives a lot, thousands of buildings were destroyed, our cities were destroyed, but I think it taught a lesson to those who think about it,” he said.

“SALE SLOWED CLOSE TO STOP”

President Atabay stated that, “In the last three years, the reasons such as the pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war, economic problems in Turkey have also negatively affected the tourism season, while the sales went well this year, they had the chance to test it at the Berlin Fair in Germany, but after the earthquake, the sales decreased. Expressing that there is a slowdown close to a stop, he stated that sales started to open again in the process.

“TURKEY IS A COUNTRY WITH KNOWLEDGE, EXPERIENCE AND POWER”

President Atabay said, “I always say. Turkey is a country that has the knowledge and experience to overcome all kinds of difficulties, the power of solidarity and culture of the people. We’ll get through all of these, but just as it is important to get over it, it’s also important not to get caught. If we make our plans in advance and take our precautions in advance, I think it would be much better if we spent the energy we would spend to improve Turkey’s progress, beautify it, and increase our welfare level,” he concluded.

Source: (BYZHA) – Beyaz News Agency