Murat Zorluoğlu, appointed as a trustee to the Van Metropolitan Municipality by the AKP, has started to sell off municipality real estate one by one. DBP’s Van Metropolitan Municipality has been confiscated by the state and the trustee has hollowed it out by gifting its assets to supporters and AKP members.

The Van trustee’s first act after the Van Metropolitan Municipality was taken over had been to fire hundreds of people, and second was to shut down many institutions within the municipality, starting with women’s institutions. Cultural and artistic efforts of the municipality were halted and the green spaces used for the people’s rest and relaxation were assigned to the public housing authority TOKİ for development. The Van trustee made a name for himself as a misogynist and revoked the one day a week free public transport for women.

TRUSTEE LOOTING PUBLIC ASSETS

The trustee has almost looted the Van Metropolitan Municipality, and has appointed hundreds of people determined by the AKP provincial branch for the jobs vacated by the hundreds fired. The Van trustee has gifted public assets to their supporters and has put the parking garage built by the DBP Van Metropolitan Municipality to solve the parking issue in Van up for auction for well below market price to gift it to their supporters. If that wasn’t enough, he sold off the Auto Gallery Estate valued at over 100 million liras for 17.5 million. The public’s property being looted and gifted to AKP members and supporters without even asking the public garnered protests.

BOZBAY: “THE MUNICIPALITY IS BEING DAMAGED”

DBP’s Van Metropolitan Municipality Council Chairperson Cahit Bozbay stated that the Van Metropolitan Municipality is greatly damaged by the trustee. Bozbay said the Auto Gallery Estate is valued at over 100 million liras and added: “The Auto Gallery Estate is built on 66.392 square meters of land. The plot is among the most valuable in Van. The land alone is worth over 100 million liras. The aim behind its sale for 16 million liras is to damage the municipality. It is unacceptable to sell off public assets without consulting the people. The sale and damaging of municipal real estate is grounds for an investigation by the interior ministry.”

"TRUSTEE SELLS OFF THE REAL ESTATE TO COVER HIS DEBT"

Bozbay stated that the large scale investments by publicly elected DBP’s Van Metropolitan Municipality being sold off without consulting the public is unacceptable and added: “Before this, they put another one of the municipality’s large scale investments the parking garage up for auction well below its value. The price the trustee determined for the parking garage is below the value of the land the garage is built on. Selling off public assets owned by the municipality aims to greatly damage the municipalities. Those who sell off public real estate have no concern for answering to the people, that is how they can sell off property that belongs to the people at any price they want. Today the Van Metropolitan Municipality is going through a serious economic hardship and they can’t make regular payments anymore. That is why they are trying to sell off public assets, to cover their debt. It is not right for these real estate properties to be gifted off and cast away. This goes to show that they are aiming to leave huge debts for the municipality that will come after this.”