Ortahisar mayor Ahmet Kaya joins YENİ Party with 21 council members

Ortahisar Mayor Ahmet Kaya joined Turkey’s YENİ Party alongside 21 municipal council members at a ceremony held by the party’s Ortahisar district organization in Trabzon.

YENİ Party Trabzon chair Mustafa Bak presented Kaya with a founding membership certificate and pinned on his party badge. Kaya said he and his colleagues had supported the party from the moment it was formed, although the formal ceremony took place later.

“

Wherever he is, it is our duty to be there without hesitation.

Kaya said he had worked with Özgür Özel in parliament for five years and regarded him as hardworking, loyal and patriotic. He also voiced support for Ekrem İmamoğlu, describing the former Istanbul mayor and presidential candidate as a politician who had introduced a new approach to municipal government and reached poor and needy residents through social assistance.

“

Our place is beside him.

The mayor said he had spent his political career in the SODEP and Republican People’s Party, or CHP, beginning at age 16. Leaving the CHP, he said, had been difficult, but became necessary after consulting voters who had entrusted him with office.

Kaya compared the decision to moments when political movements must begin a new struggle, invoking Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s departure for Samsun in 1919 during the national movement. He called on people unhappy with Turkey’s direction to enter politics under the YENİ Party banner.

“

We made this historic decision together with the cadres whose conscience, experience and competence we trust, and we set out on this journey together.