Proposed Conversion of Turkish Cities and Towns into States: Erdogan and His Party's Ambitious Plan

2023-07-29 20:14:00

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (Archyde.com)

Erdogan and his party

“The current Turkish government wants to increase the number of states and is moving quickly and practically to implement this scheme.”

Al Arabiya.net – Juan Souz

Posted on: July 30, 2023: 12:14 AM GST Last updated: July 30, 2023: 12:21 AM GST

With the approaching centenary of Turkey’s founding, which falls on October 29, Devlet Bahceli, leader of the right-wing “National Movement” party and allied with the ruling “Justice and Development” party led by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, proposes to convert 19 cities and towns in the country into a state to reach The total number of states is 100 instead of 81 states at the present time, so what is the aim of the ruling coalition in this step? Why did the local media shed light on it again?

According to Turkish researcher and political analyst Jawad Gök, the Turkish government finds it “necessary” to convert the 19 cities and towns into states, given previous experiences when the authorities turned large cities that belonged to states into separate states that became stronger than those that belonged to them in the past.

Behjali government

Gök told Al-Arabiya.net, “Corlu city belongs to the state of Tikrdag, but it is in fact more important than the state to which it belongs. Therefore, the government finds it necessary to transfer it to a new state, just like the city of Gebze in Kocaeli state, and it is a candidate to be a new state.”

He added, “The current government wants to increase the number of states, and it is moving quickly and practically to implement such plans, especially since the ruling party pledged during the recent presidential and parliamentary elections to transform these cities and towns into new states, and this will lead, for example, to a rise in real estate prices in those areas.” and strengthening its economy, in addition to facilitating its administrative affairs.

He continued, “There are requests from businessmen and residents of those cities and towns to convert them into states, and I believe the government will agree, at least, to convert 10 of them into new states,” noting that “the government will most likely announce its official decision regarding those cities and towns during the electoral campaign.” It will be carried out by the ruling party in preparation for the local elections that the country will witness next March.

The Turkish political analyst also stressed that “the government will start implementing its decisions regarding converting those cities and towns into states after the local elections.”

Turkish sources told Al-Arabiya.net that the ruling coalition had wanted to take this decision and implement it for years, but the country’s circumstances, such as the economic crisis it is witnessing, prevented it.

According to the previous source, the implementation of this decision, which was discussed by officials from the ruling party last month, may be delayed before the local media returned to highlight it again this week, due to the preoccupation of the local authorities with the rehabilitation of infrastructure in the states affected by the earthquake that struck the country on the sixth of May. last February.

Transforming the 19 cities and towns into new states would give their residents additional political and economic privileges, such as increasing the number of their deputies, in addition to opening service facilities such as large hospitals and universities.

This step requires obtaining the approval of Parliament, which the ruling coalition has an absolute majority.

The cities and towns that will become new states are located in different regions of Turkey, some in the southeast and west of the country, and others in the center and north.