Bolu Mayor Tanju Özcan, a member of the CHP, has openly admitted to illegally canceling business permits for Syrians and imposing a tenfold increase on their water fees. The confessions, made during an interview on Fatih Altaylı’s YouTube program.
Accused of racism, Özcan stated:
“They receive enough aid from the state. I declared that I wouldn’t spend a penny from Bolu Municipality’s budget on them. I removed Arabic signs overnight and unlawfully canceled their permits. At that time, with the political momentum, they couldn’t even file lawsuits. Currently, there’s not a single Arabic sign left in Bolu. If they had gone to administrative court, they might have won, but the strongest time in politics is when you’ve just been elected. It created a shockwave, and they didn’t understand what was happening. Then I realized there wasn’t much movement. Being a lawyer myself, I increased wedding fees and water bills for Syrians by tenfold. That wasn’t legal either, and I knew it would be overturned if taken to administrative court. In fact, the tariff was reversed before it even came into effect.”
Turkey’s Justice Ministry on Jan. 5 launched an investigation into Bolu Mayor Tanju Özcan, from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), for admitting “unlawfully” implementing anti-refugee regulations.
