Debts of municipalities to the Social Security Institution (SGK) have stirred up controversy in recent days across Türkiye, but another debt brought Menderes Dal, the mayor of a small town in southern Türkiye, to the spotlight.
Dal of Döşemealtı, a town famous for its rugs, has few things in his office now, including one of those said rugs, along with two plastic chairs and a plain table after the municipality was forced to hand over the furniture in exchange for debts.
The mayor took over the municipality in the March 31 elections from a two-term mayor from his party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP). But his predecessor, Turgay Genç, apparently failed to pay an outstanding debt to a company serving the municipality. On Wednesday, the local sequestration office moved to seize the municipality’s assets after the company applied to collect its debt of about TL 100 million ($2.95 million). After talks with the mayor, Dal consented to part ways with his mayoral seat, computer, chairs, a sofa, TV, a cupboard and chandeliers. All were loaded into a truck and headed to a warehouse. The municipality hopes to take them back after paying their debts in the near future.
The incident was an opportunity for Dal to carve out an image of a man of people with his new minimalist office. "I am not accustomed to the trappings of a (conventional) mayor’s office anyway," he told Ihlas News Agency (IHA) as he admired the sight of his almost bare office. The mayor has already warned locals of the mounting debts of the municipality he inherited from the previous administration with a giant banner hung outside the municipality building. The municipality’s total debt to companies, banks and other institutions exceeded TL 1.4 billion, according to the municipality.
Dal said the debt that cost him his office chair was to a company in charge of laying asphalt on the town’s roads and they "somehow" filed for sequestration "just 10 days before the election."
He said they had already launched an "austerity program" to save money and would pay the debt soon.