MAYOR ÜNLÜCE REPRESENTED TÜRKİYE IN STRASBOURG

Eskişehir Metropolitan Mayor Ayşe Ünlüce represented Türkiye as the head of the national delegation at the 47th General Assembly of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France.

The 47th General Assembly of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, where elected representatives of local and regional governments in Europe discuss their problems, share their experiences and express their views to governments, was held in Strasbourg, France.

Ayşe Ünlüce, who was recently elected as the head of the national delegation and represented Türkiye in France, first attended the seminar organized for new members during the 3-day congress. Then Turkish delegation consultation and political group meetings were held. Afterwards, Mayor Ünlüce and members of the delegation met with Mathieu Mori, Secretary General of the Congress.

Taking the floor on the last day of the General Assembly, Ünlüce conveyed his views on the “Initiative to Rejuvenate Politics” to representatives from 46 countries. Mayor Ünlüce said, “It is very nice to be here with young people, we have found energy and hope. Because unfortunately our generation could not live up to their end and we could not leave you a very good future. But know that the establishment of the Council of Europe, the establishment of the United Nations, the European Convention on Human Rights, the Declarations of Human Rights were all born out of the suffering of World War II, and after this suffering, we are doing our best to leave you a beautiful future, a world full of peace. But is it enough? It is not enough. We all say that young people should be more involved in politics. Come and work in our youth assemblies, work in youth boards... Many of the municipalities affiliated to the Council of Europe have established many platforms related to youth. Come and ask to participate in our budget work there, ask to participate in our strategic plans. Come and participate in our annual investment programs and take your rights from us. Because this world and the future are your rights.”

Speaking at the meeting held under the title of “Aging Societies - Ensuring Access to Quality Social Care for Older Individuals”, Mayor Ünlüce said: “Traditional roles are very dominant in Türkiye and because of these traditional roles; it is not very welcome for families to leave their parents in care homes except in metropolitan areas. It is not an issue that children also prefer. For this reason, as an elderly-friendly city for active aging and social aging, we are trying to make arrangements for active aging and social aging, especially day care homes, as well as day workshops, day training centers and parks where intergenerational communication can be intensively ensured. Again, one of the most important services we provide is home care services. In terms of gender equality, the burden of care is mostly on women. For this reason, these activities do not only provide elderly care and welfare for the elderly, but they are also very important in terms of liberating women. I would like to draw attention to one more point; the world is expecting serious migration very soon due to civil wars, wars between countries, economic crises, climate crisis and natural disasters. Maybe migration seems to rejuvenate the population in the first stage, but in the long run, unfortunately, it will lead to problems that we cannot manage; it will lead to financial crises. Because it has a very negative impact on the strategic plans of municipalities and I think it will also negatively affect the services we allocate to elderly care.

Evaluating the March 31, 2024 local elections, Mayor Ünlüce said, “Local elections in Türkiye have great difficulties. Because the elections are a bit complicated. In local elections, we elect our metropolitan mayor, district mayor, council members and mukhtars. Especially the mukhtarship has become a very popular election area in recent years and there are more than 20 mukhtar candidates in almost every neighborhood. The last local elections were really calm. Compared to the previous elections, there were not many suspicions. In fact, on the night of the election, after we learned that we had won, there was a great enthusiasm on the street as we went to the thank you speech with our winning mayors. Eskişehir was like a carnival. Everyone was dancing in the streets, listening to music. There was really a great atmosphere and that beautiful atmosphere, that beautiful enthusiasm ended safely without any incidents, with everyone retiring to their homes at a certain time of the night.” he said.

Mayor Ünlüce finally stated that the number of women mayors in Türkiye has increased and said, “I would also like to talk about women. While our women mayors were around 40 in the 2019 elections, they increased to 75 in these elections. Especially 5 metropolitan cities out of 30 metropolitan cities are currently governed by women. Of course, this number is very low, in order to increase this number, we need to continue on our way in a way that is open to the recommendations of the Council of Europe and dialogues. This dialog is very valuable for us and we need to continue it together.”

Following the speeches, on the last day of the General Assembly, the Local Elections in Türkiye were discussed. In addition, the reports prepared by the rapporteurs on the elections were discussed and debated. On the other hand, issues such as local and regional democracy around the world, digitalization, artificial intelligence and regional governance, reviews on the implementation of the European Charter of Local Self-Government, Russia's war in Ukraine were discussed.

Stating that extremely important issues were discussed at the General Assembly, Ünlüce thanked Ambassador Nurdan Bayraktar Golder, Permanent Representative of Türkiye, for hosting the delegation in the best way possible during the 3-day period.