MAYOR HASAN KILCA: KARATAY IS THE NAME OF UNITY, SOLIDARITY, BROTHERHOOD, AND TOLERANCE

HASAN KILCA: WE ACHIEVED OUR GOALS EARLIER

MAYOR KILCA: THE TRUST OF OUR 362 THOUSAND FELLOW CITIZENS FROM KARATAY IS IN SAFE HANDS

Hasan Kılca, the Mayor of Karatay, announced to the public at a press conference the projects realized in the district during his three-year mayoral tenure, important investments, and new plans. Stating that they consider Karatay as the name of unity, solidarity, brotherhood, and tolerance, Mayor Hasan Kılca said, “In the past 3 years, we have acted with the understanding of “He whose two days are equal, is a loser” and we brought new projects and investments to our Karatay almost every day. We achieved the goals we set 3 years ago earlier and we set new targets for ourselves. Our 362 thousand fellow citizens from Karatay should feel comfortable, because their trust is always in safe hands.”

Hasan Kılca, who has completed his third-year tenure as the Mayor of Karatay, explained the services carried out throughout the district during this process and the new term planning of the municipality at the press conference. Kılca shared their work with members of the press under headlines.

The press conference held at the Celalettin Karatay Youth Center was attended by the presidents and representatives of press professional institutions and organizations, the executive editors, editor-in-chief and news directors of the newspapers, television, radio, and magazines broadcasting in Konya, the provincial representatives of national newspapers and televisions, as well as Karatay Municipality's Deputy Mayors and unit managers

KARATAY IS THE NAME OF UNITY, SOLIDARITY, BROTHERHOOD, AND TOLERANCE

In the program, which also includes promotional videos about the projects and services implemented by the Karatay Municipality in a three-year period, Karatay Mayor Hasan Kılca emphasized the importance of Karatay for Konya and our country.

Mayor Hasan Kılca stated the following; “Karatay, the distinguished district of our Konya, is a blessed district that embraces Mevlana and Şems-i Tebrizi, the sultan of hearts and lovers living in these lands blessed with the Islamic climate. Karatay is also the name of unity and solidarity, brotherhood and tolerance. In addition to its mosques and commercial buildings, Karatay also shed light on every period of history with his madrasahs and scholars who grew up in education and science centers, and he reconstructed, built, and revived these lands. With this inspiration from our ancestors, we are working to facilitate the lives of all our fellow citizens in Karatay, which has an ancient heritage and unique riches, to add happiness to their happiness and to touch our people. Over the past 3 years, we have increased our work, projects and investments in our Karatay with the understanding of “ He whose two days are equal, is a loser '. We reached the goals we set early and set new goals right after. We are taking firm steps towards these goals.”

A HUGE CONTRIBUTION OF 156 MILLION LIRAS TO EDUCATION IN KARATAY WITHIN 3 YEARS     

Hasan Kılca, who stated that they, the Karatay Municipality, have implemented very big plans in every field in a short time, started his evaluation presentation, which included 3 years, with the title of education, which they attach great importance to as a municipality.

Kılca stated the following about his investments and activities related to education: “We gave wide publicity to education among our investment topics. In the past 3 years, we have provided our Karatay with six training facilities consisting of a total of 101 new classrooms. We have used a resource of TRY 156 million for many other works such as support, projects, workshops, and events together with these investments. We started the project work of three new schools, which will consist of a total of 68 classrooms, in our Nakiboğlu, Keçeciler, and Kızören Neighborhoods. In the last three years, we have provided TRY 15 million of support only for our activities such as maintenance, landscaping, forestation, repair, renovation, and cleaning. We will bring a new education facility to our Fetih and Köprübaşı Neighborhoods, where Islamic sciences will be taught, with an investment cost of 4.6 million liras.”

600 THOUSAND TONS OF ASPHALT PAVEMENT WAS MADE IN 3 YEARS FOR THE TRANSPORTATION COMFORT OF THE DISTRICT, AND 623 KM OF ROAD WORK WAS CARRIED OUT

Hasan Kılca, the Mayor of Karatay, also talked about the transportation projects they have implemented in the district in the last three years.

Hasan Kılca, the Mayor said the following; “We have carried out a total of 623 kilometers of road work as hot asphalt, surface dressing, and cobblestone road. In our hot asphalt works, we renew our record every year. We laid 150 thousand tons of hot asphalt in 2019, 200 thousand tons in 2020, and 250 thousand tons in 2021. In other words, we have worked on 643 streets and several points of our district with 600 thousand tons of hot asphalt pavement within three years. After the infrastructure works on Alaeddin Kap Avenue, our Metropolitan Municipality completed the renovation works. We completed our renovation work on the section of Küçükkumköprü Avenue between Topraklık and Fetih Avenue in 2021. Our district and city gained another important transportation line in 2021. Our Celaleddin Karatay Avenue, which connects Karaman Road and Topraklık Avenue, was completed and put into service by our Metropolitan Municipality. We have carried out 62 kilometers of road work by laying 120 thousand tons of hot asphalt in 22 neighborhoods far from the center next to our district center. We made a total of 170 kilometers of road work with 1.5 million square meters of surface dressing within three years in our surface dressing activities. We carried out 85 kilometers of road work within the scope of expanding and renewing the connection roads in our neighborhoods far from the center. Nevertheless, we have implemented 1.7 million square meters of interlocking paving stone and 485 thousand meters of kerbstone application in three years. With these figures, we carried out a total of 250 km long cobblestone road work in Karatay in three years. We paved the roads of our 32 neighborhoods and plateaus far from the center. For this year, we made a plan of 800 thousand square meters.”

WE PROTECT OUR HISTORY AND THE HERITAGE OF OUR ANCESTORS

Hasan Kılca, who underlined Karatay is a very important center in tourism, said they realize important works with this responsibility.

Kılca continued his words as follows: “Millions of local and foreign tourists visit our city every year on this occasion. We are at an exceptional point in our Karatay Thermal Holiday Village,  one of the important centers of tourism, which we brought to our city to develop our region, increase tourism diversity and contribute to accommodation. We hosted more than 100 thousand guests from 34 countries in a short period of 1.5 years in our Karatay Thermal Holiday Village. We have also made great progress on a new thermal hotel. Our project, which will have a capacity of 200 beds, shall include many more properties such as an aqua park and a congress center. We have come to the end of the restoration of the Obruk Inn and the landscaping of the Obruk Lake, which dates back 800 years. With this project we realized with a budget of 20 million liras, Obruk Inn will be one of the tourism bases of the region. The amphitheatre in the Ancient City of Savatra is among the ten most important archaeological discoveries of 2021. We are working to bring a welcome center to the Bozdag National Park region. We have been hosting the Konya (Poetry) Lovers' Festival, one of the most beautiful traditions of our country, for three years, and bring our folk poets from different countries and cities together in our city. We also perform the Mevlana Poetry Festivals every year without interruption.”

WE MADE LEAPS FORWARD IN KARATAY'S URBAN TRANSFORMATION AND PLANNED URBANIZATION

Hasan Kılca, the Mayor of Karatay, shared important information with the press within the scope of the works they have implemented as a municipality on urban transformation and planned urbanization.

Mayor Hasan Kılca, who underlined that they made a great leap forward in Karatay's urban transformation and its planned urbanization,  said: "We are also working carefully to transfer the traditional spirit of our district to the future. We have started work to restore the traditional architectural residence at six different points to its original form and to bring it back into the memory of our city. We have innovated a total of 12 independent sections, consisting of residences, mosques, and fountains in Mahmutdede Street in Akçeşme Mahallesi, in accordance with the original form and delivered them to the right owners. We expropriated 50 percent of the real estate in the region within the scope of the urban transformation works we carried out in our neighborhood. In the last three years, we have used a budget of TRY 38 million for the expropriation works of Akçeşme Urban Transformation. We prepared a project to make Karatay Business Centers suitable for the texture of the region. We concluded an agreement with 56 landlords for a total area of ​​​​2 thousand 480 square meters within the scope of the works in the area of reserve construction in our Sultan Mesud Neighbourhood. We carried out expropriation work on an area of ​​4 thousand 265 square meters in our Çimenlik Neighbourhood and an area of ​​2 thousand 180 square meters in our Fetih Avenue. We spent 10 million on our expropriation works in 2019, 21 million in 2020, and 91 million in 2021. However, we have gained 5 million 485 thousand square meters of land for our municipality with reserve, clearing and barter methods in the last three years. We are leading planned urbanization with mass housing moves. Our Akıncı Park Mass Housing project, which is the 41st mass housing move in our Karakulak Neighborhood, under the leadership of our municipality, consists of 252 flats. We realized our 42nd mass housing move under the name Aksa Park in our Kumköprü Neighborhood. The construction of this cooperative consisting of 312 flats and Akıncı Park projects continues. We will also announce our cooperatives, with which we have largely agreed on two new points, in the coming days.

WE ARE WORKING HARD TO UNEARTH KARATAY'S SPORTSMAN TREASURE.

Hasan Kılca also referred to the works they have carried out in the fields of youth and sports as a municipality. Kılca, who stated that Karatay has a great treasure in terms of sportsmen, emphasized that they are working hard to unearth this treasure as a municipality.

Karatay Mayor Hasan Kılca who recalled that they revived Karatay Belediyespor Club in 2019,  continued his speech as follows: “Our club, which is successful in 12 branches due to its registered athletes, sends players to our national teams in many branches and proudly carries our flag with a crescent moon and star.  By cooperating with our Provincial Directorate of Youth and Sports, we are changing our Celaleddin Karatay Youth Center into one of the largest book cafes and a new youth center in our country. We worked on a special project for the field out of action on Ali Ulvi Kurucu Avenue located in our Köprübaşı Neighborhood. We aim to start the tender process of this project, which will have some properties such as gyms, playgrounds, library, cafe, classrooms, private classes, and a conference hall, in a short period of time. We almost came to the end of our project work for indoor and outdoor tennis courts at the tennis center we have planned in our Ulubatlı Hasan Neighborhood. The gym, which we will build next to 15 Temmuz Şehitleri Anatolian High School in our Çimenlik Neighborhood, will be a multi-purpose center that will meet the needs of our youth in a large region. We have also completed our project for the Trainer Center, which will meet the needs of our trainers to a large extent and will be used intensively, especially in the Islamic Games Olympics, and we went out the construction tender. We started the construction of 30 new astroturfs in our district. We have completed eight astroturfs and continue our works at 11 points.”

WE BRING NEW HEALTH FACILITIES IN THE LAST 3 YEARS

Hasan Kılca, the Mayor, who stated that they have carried out important projects and services in the social and health fields of the district as Karatay Municipality, underlined that they act with the understanding of "Let the people live so that the state can live.".

Hasan Kılca, who stated that they have brought the facilities that will make the health infrastructure of the district stronger and offer health services to fellow citizens with better opportunities, said, "We have completed the construction of our family health center no. 15 in our Selim Sultan Neighborhood with an investment amounting to TRY 3.1 million and put it into service. We are also carrying out another health investment in our Karakulak Neighborhood. The construction process of Family Health Center 51, for which we allocated a budget of TRY 4.1 million and laid the foundation in 2021, is progressing rapidly. Another investment that makes the health infrastructure of our Karatay stronger is the Sedirler Family Health Center No. 16. We are providing project support here as a municipality. Its construction was undertaken by  Ahmet Yaşar Eşmekaya, the benefactor. The health center, which we will start to build in our Nakiboğlu Neighborhood, will provide service in three different fields.

WE CONTRIBUTE TO THE SOCIAL LIFE, CULTURE AND EMPLOYMENT OF THE DISTRICT

Hasan Kılca, the Mayor, who enlightened about the social facilities brought to Karatay, emphasized that the social facilities and course centers will significantly contribute to the social and cultural life, education, economy, and employment of the fellow citizens.

Hasan Kılca, the Mayor of Karatay,  gave the following information about social facilities: “One of the fields we have made great leaps forward is our social facility structures. We have added new social facilities to our neighborhoods, including a gym, a national coffeehouse, workshops and classrooms, children's playgrounds, and a vocational training center. We provide our facilities in the central neighborhoods as well as those non-central. In the last three years, we have carried out multi-purpose facility works in 11 non-central neighborhoods. We have completed these investments in a short period of time in our neighborhoods of Hayiroglu, Yaglibayat, Akörenkışla, Acıdort, Büyükburnak, Esentepe, Yenikent, Divanlar, Ortakonak, Yavşankuyu, Zincirli. We started our project and tender processes to bring more similar facilities to our five neighborhoods. The Ismil Bazaar Project, which consists of 30 workplaces and will cost TRY 6.8 million, has become one of the exemplary applications in its field and its construction continues.”

"CAFE KARATAY", THE NEW BRAND OF KARATAY

Mayor Hasan Kılca talked about another new project. Hasan Kılca who referred to hat the project called 'Cafe Karatay' will be carried out at seven points in the district,  said, "We have done all the necessary plans and we will see the first examples in Karatay Traffic Training Park and Büyüksinan Neighborhood very soon. Cafe Karatay will be located in Çelebi Park, Ulubatlı Hasan Park, Akabe Ahmet Çalık Park, Adalet Park and also our City Park.”

MARKETPLACES WILL PRODUCE THEIR ELECTRICITY

Mayor Hasan Kılca, expressed that the construction of Kalenderhane and Büyüksinan Covered Marketplaces, designed with the Solar Energy Power Plant (GES) model, is continuing rapidly,  and stated that the new marketplaces will be projects that produce their electricity.

Hasan Kılca said, “We have two more new covered marketplaces under construction. We are turning our open marketplace in our Kalenderhane neighborhood into a covered market. We are carrying out the same project in our Büyüksinan neighborhood. We moved the Arablar neighborhood market, which serves as a semi-open, to its temporary location, and initiated the construction works in its current area as soon as possible. We have also made great progress in the construction process here. Thanks to the solar energy panels that we will place on the roofs of these two covered marketplaces, which we have made with an investment of TRY 21 million, electricity will be produced and a savings of TRY 600 thousand will be achieved per year.

INVESTMENTS THAT WILL BRING PRESTIGE TO THE SERVICE CHAIN ​​COME TO LIFE TOGETHER

Kılca, who gave information about the investments that will bring prestige to Karatay,  continued as follows: "One of the most important rings we have brought to our service chain is the new Karatay Soup Kitchen. We will put our soup kitchen into service in cooperation with the Red Crescent. Our new soup kitchen, which we continue to build with an investment of TRY 8.7 million, will have a daily capacity of 2,500 people. In case of an emergency, this number can raise to 10 thousand people. We also rolled up our sleeves to bring the New Karatay Wedding Hall and Cultural Center to our Karatay. We have completed the design work that we planned near the Mevlana Cultural Center. We have gained a modern and comprehensive building for our Köprübaşı Neighborhood that will meet the needs of our heroic police force. By giving the name of our martyr Azam Güdendede to our Police Station, which we completed with an investment of try 5.8 million, we put it into service in 2020. We will soon start the construction of the Karatay Barrier-free Life Center. 2,000 fellow citizens benefit from our Gluten-Free Bread service project per day. We brought a Bread Factory to Ismil with an investment of TRY 1.5 million. We also solve the problem of freshwater requirements of our non-central neighborhoods through our reservoirs that we set up at 68 points and have a total capacity of over 400 tons.”

WE STAND BY OUR FELLOW CITIZENS WITH OUR SOCIAL WORK

Expressing that Karatay Municipality has attracted attention with its exemplary municipal practices, Karatay Mayor Hasan Kılca stated that they will continue to stand by the Karatay people with social works.

Mayor Hasan Kılca said, “We shared the happiness of our 15 thousand 292 families, who have experienced the joy of having babies in the last three years, with our 'Welcome Baby' application. We stand by our citizens in their sad moments with our four modern condolence vehicles. We stand by our citizens in the fields such as military family support, social cards, cash aid, food support, compassionate home, and repairs. We have provided direct support to 70 thousand citizens in the last three years with our social assistance. We have handed out 388,000 foods to families in need through our soup kitchen in the last three years. In addition to all these works, we also organize programs such as events, seminars, and conferences that will contribute to social life, and we endeavour to bring together experts in their fields with our citizens.

5.5 MILLION IS SAVED WITH THE “ZERO WASTE PROJECT”

Hasan Kılca who explained the importance they attach to the environment and greening works, said that they are attempting to make the citizens live in a cleaner district by intensifying the "Green Mobilization" they started.

Kılca who stated that as the municipality, they meet the quantity of electricity they consume from the solar energy installed in Saraçoğlu and Tatlıcak, continued as follows: “We meet the annual electrical demand of our municipality and all our facilities from these two solar power plants. We have implemented our "Zero Waste Action Plan" to increase Zero Waste awareness in our district and separate wastes firsthand, and we have received a 'Zero Waste Certificate' in this context. Until today, we have informed 42 thousand households and 1,800 workplaces about zero waste and recycling. The total value of the savings and revenues we obtained from our Zero Waste and Recycling activities is TRY5.5 million. We prevented the cutting down of 506 thousand 429 trees, we saved 331 thousand 591 litres of fuel, we saved 91 million 702 thousand KW of energy, and  we prevented 602 thousand cubic meters of waste of water.”

WE GREEN EVERY POSSIBLE AREA

Hasan Kılca, the Mayor of Karatay, who stated that they have strengthened their sensitivity to green with new and typical park and garden investments, mentioned that green areas and parks are one of the most important elements that make up the identities of cities.

Mayor Hasan Kılca said; “We, the municipality, have worked on a total area of ​​750 thousand square meters in the last three years. We have carried six of our green belt park works, which we describe as new generation regional parks, each with its own unique equipment. We implemented the first one in our Keykubat Neighborhood in 2019. We have completed, Doğuş Park, our second green belt park, on an area of ​​11,561 square meters connecting Çimenlik and Küçük Kumköprü Avenues. We gave the name of our martyr Mustafa Koçoğlu to our 12 thousand 815 square meter green belt park work that we brought to our Ulubatlı Hasan Neighborhood. We carried out our second green belt work in Ulubatlı Hasan Neighborhood with very different equipment. We are bringing another green belt park project to our Akabe Neighborhood. We named this park after Ahmet Çalık, our football player from Konyaspor, whom we lost in a traffic accident. We realized our 6th green belt park project in our Çelebi neighborhood on Ali Ulvi Kurucu Avenue, which is near the city center. In addition to all these works, we have got in 29 neighborhood parks in the past 3 years. We have done a total of 70 thousand square meters of park work in the neighborhood. We have our new park work of 105 thousand square meters in this year's program for a greener Karatay. We brought to our city the Karatay Traffic Training Park, with an investment amounting to TRY 6.2 million. In the last 3 years, we have determined and afforested 16 more points as forestation areas, excepting parks, schools, and landscaping areas.”

KARATAY LAVENDER GARDEN HAS BECOME THE NEW FAVORITE OF KONYA

Kılca who said that they will continue to bring new attraction centers to the city and contribute to the economy, Hasan Kılca mentioned the following; "We implemented our Karatay Lavender Gardens project next to our Karaaslan Hobby Gardens by bringing 100 thousand lavender seedlings together with the soil in an area of ​​90 thousand m2 at the first stage. As a result of the great interest and the added value we obtained from lavender, we decided to enlarge our gardens four times, increasing the size of our gardens to 340 thousand square meters and the number of seedlings to 300 thousand. We have doubled our Karaaslan Hobby Gardens. Our Saracoglu Hobby Garden is at the disposal of our fellow citizens. We are founding a Nature School in our City Park.”

OUR MUNICIPALITY PROCEEDS ON ITS WAY AS A TRANSPARENT AND DEBT-FREE MUNICIPALITY

Kılca who indicated that  Karatay Municipality proceeds on its way as a debt-free municipality at the press conference, emphasized that the trust of 362 thousand Karatay residents is in safe hands.

Kılca, who stated that the people of Karatay deserve much more and that they will continue their work, concluded his words as follows: “All these works we have been doing for three years are a reflection of our vision of 'Another Karatay'. Karatay deserves much more, and we strive for much more. We are transparent, we plan and implement all our investments with realistic and reasoned methods. Therefore, we have made record increases in our budget every year. We increased our budget for 2022 to TRY 1 billion lby making a 55 percent increase in our 2021 budget. I think we will exceed this figure by the end of the year. While making all these investments, services, and activities, we never incurred debt. Karatay Municipality proceeds on its way as a debt-free municipality. We are taking steps to ease the financial burden in the future, as we do not borrow money. What we have told in all these titles converge on one point. Until today, we have never given up on our sensitivities and worrying about this city. The trust of 362 thousand fellow citizens in our district, together with all our colleagues, is in safe hands.”

 Hasan Kılca, the Mayor of Karatay, answered the questions of the journalists participating in the program one by one at the end of the press conference, where he evaluated his three years.