The Healthy Cities Association of Turkey (SKB), which was established in 2005 under the leadership of Bursa Metropolitan Municipality in order to develop the healthy cities movement and is still chaired by Bursa Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Alinur Aktaş, will now carry out its activities from its Ankara office.
The Healthy Cities Association of Turkey was included in the World Health Organization (WHO) European Healthy Cities Network, which was established in 1988 as a global network, in 2005 as a political and intersectoral initiative to be implemented through direct cooperation with cities with the ‘urban health theme’.
The Healthy Cities Association of Turkey, which started its activities with 10 founding municipalities ‘based in Bursa’ under the leadership of the late Hikmet Şahin, the Bursa Metropolitan Mayor of the time, has become an important institutional structure that pioneers the formation of healthy cities in Turkey with its 130 member municipalities. The Healthy Cities Association of Turkey, which has carried out its activities in Bursa until today and is still chaired by Bursa Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Alinur Aktaş, will now carry out its activities based in Ankara.
Opening of Ankara office of Turkish Healthy Cities Association; Turkey Healthy Cities Association President Alinur Aktaş, Turkish Union of Municipalities President Fatma Şahin, Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Özgül Özkan Yavuz, MHP Secretary General and Bursa Deputy İsmet Büyükataman, AK Party Bursa deputies Hakan Çavuşoğlu, Efkan Ala, Muhammed Müfit Aydın, Zafer Yıldız, Emine Yavuz Gözgeç, Osman Mesten, Refik Özen, Atilla Ödünç, Ahmet Kılıç and Mustafa Esgin, Balıkesir, Ağrı, Kestel, Yenişehir, Karacabey, Yıldırım, Orhaneli, Harmancık, Büyükorhan, Ağrı, Ürgüp, Sandıklı, Trabzon, Darende, Çankırı, Şırnak and Artuklu mayors, AK Party Bursa Provincial President Davut Gürkan and bureaucrats from Bursa in Ankara attended the ceremony.
DOCTOR OF PRESIDENT CITIES
Turkey Healthy Cities Association and Bursa Metropolitan President Alinur Aktaş commemorated Hikmet Şahin, one of the presidents who pioneered the establishment of the union, with mercy, and thanked the presidents Recep Altepe and Menderes Türel, who contributed to the union’s current status. President Aktaş said that due to the international representation of the Healthy Cities Association of Turkey, they opened their Ankara office in order to make their cooperation more efficient in ‘joint working areas with ministries, the Union of Municipalities of Turkey, WHO Turkey office, other United Nations-affiliated institutions and organizations’. Reminding that hospitals and doctors come to mind first when health is mentioned, Mayor Aktaş said, “Mayors are also the doctors of their cities. At the end of every project we do, there is a health-related dimension. “Whether it’s a road, sewerage or infrastructure,” he said.
130 MEMBERS IN 17 YEARS
Expressing that the Turkish Healthy Cities Association, which started with 10 founding municipalities in the last 17 years, continues its institutional structure with 130 members today, President Aktaş said, “I would like to express with pleasure that due to the interest in the issue of urban health, the number of applications we receive is increasing day by day. The whole process, especially the disasters caused by the pandemic and climate change, teaches us important lessons. Now, we have learned that while planning our cities and the areas we live in, we have to see the reality of climate change.
Today, many of our municipalities can increase their institutional capacities, establish project partnerships and have the opportunity to share their experiences by becoming members of city networks established on different themes such as smart cities, safe cities, resilient cities, sustainable cities, solidarity cities, cities compatible with climate change. In this context, we, as the Turkish Healthy Cities Association, are aware of the fact that we are part of a network whose importance is increasing day by day, such as the WHO Healthy Cities Network, and we desire to improve our work. We believe that our Ankara office, which we opened, will accelerate our work.”
NEW GENERATION MUNICIPALITY
The Union of Municipalities of Turkey and Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Fatma Şahin reminded that what happened in the absence of health was experienced in a very painful way during the pandemic process. Pointing out that individuals, families, cities and countries must be healthy, Şahin said, “The titles of smart cities, green, resilient and safe cities that our President put in the local governments manifesto for a healthy world are a great entrustment to us. We have the seed we planted in 1994. The new generation municipality is to touch every aspect of life from birth to death. We are honored that the president of Bursa, the city of history and civilization, is at the head of the union. We have become the country that the World Health Organization shows as an example with the studies carried out. You cannot be healthy if you cannot manage water. You cannot be healthy if you cannot manage obesity. If you cannot increase the green space, you cannot be healthy. If you don’t do the urban planning that will make you do sports, you can’t be healthy. That’s why we must build green cities and a new generation of municipalism together,” he said.
Özgül Özkan Yavuz, Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism, pointed out that healthy cities are a developing, growing and discussed concept all over the world. Expressing that healthy cities mean raising the quality of life of the people living in the city, Yavuz said, “When we look at the subject with our culture and tourism hat, it requires that not only those who live in the city but also those who visit the city be healthy, and that their quality of life, experience and experience should be good. For this reason, it is necessary to attach importance to sustainability and being a healthy city. In the last 20 years, we have been making breakthroughs in all areas such as healthy, green, sustainable, culture and tourism. I congratulate all our mayors who worked hard for this,” he said.
MHP Secretary General and Bursa Deputy İsmet Büyükataman thanked everyone who contributed and contributed to the formation of the beautiful union that was established under the leadership of Bursa Metropolitan Municipality.
Bursa Deputy Efkan Ala, stating that the word city is much more accurate than city, said, “You can build, remove, change the city, but you cannot rebuild the city without living that history. Because the city is a city with time, together with what is lived. If it is a 1000-year-old city, it will take 1000 years to build that city,” he said.
After the speeches, the Ankara office of the Turkish Healthy Cities Association was opened by cutting the ribbon.