AK Party mayor says Syrian or other foreigners cannot rent houses in Fatih district

Ergun TURAN, the AKP mayor of Fatih district, has told Haberturk news portal that they do not allow immigrants to rent houses in said district. Turan said “foreign nationals” could buy a house in Fatih, but they could not rent a house.

“A Syrian or a foreigner from another country cannot rent a house in Fatih”

Ergun Turan, an AKP mayor was a guest on a TV program on which occasion he said they had prevented immigrants from living in Fatih, after having made this request to the Ministry, in regards.

“Now we are not talking about in terms of anti-immigrant movement in the classical sense like some others. But we’re not saying that there’s nothing wrong, either. There’s an issue. This will become a problem when the issue is not managed. We have made a decision in Fatih and Esenyurt effective 17th of the first month, 2021; this was our request from the Ministry, any foreigner with a permit to live in Istanbul, a foreigner with a residence permit, a Syrian or another person of another citizenship cannot rent any house, in Fatih.”

“7 thousand migrants left Fatih in 8 months”

Ergun Turan of the AKP stated that 7 thousand resident migrants had left Fatih in 8 months after the decision taken in January.

“We have taken the decision as of 7 January 2021… In Fatih and Esenyurt, that is. We had a request, but obviously we really focused on this. The reason is no more foreigners should settle here anymore. And we thank our Ministry for this decision. There is a decrease of 7 thousand resident migrants in Fatih as of the end of the eighth month in 2021. There were about 50 thousand migrants. It’s not just Syrian, it’s mixed. We are talking about those who have residence permits. And we’re talking about the unregistered ones… For example, the population of Fatih is 400 thousand. But, so to speak, right now, if we close the doors during the day, there are 3 million people inside. There is a decrease in our number of residents. This is an important decision for us. Therefore, the migrant problem in Fatih is not a growing problem; I emphasize that it has now become a shrinking problem.”

“There is no rental, but there is property sales”

In a statement after the reactions, AKP’s Turan said that the sale of the property would be possible, and added;

“Property sale is not very frequent. The issue of property sales is not a big one. The important point has to do with renting. There is a problem of illegal immigrants here. Our governor’s office is working on this. Pandemic conditions affect the work of illegal immigrants.”