Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz Visits BAU

Experts in local government and municipal administration came together at a roundtable meeting hosted by Bahçeşehir University.

The roundtable meeting organized by the Bahçeşehir University School of Government and Leadership was attended by Enver Yücel, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Bahçeşehir University; President Prof. Dr. Şenay Yalçın; Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz; Mayor of Beşiktaş İsmail Ünal; Mayor of Beyoğlu Ahmet Misbah Demircan; Mayor of Fatih Mustafa Demir; former Member of the European Parliament Ozan Ceyhun; German regional parliamentarian Özcan Mutlu; and Head of the Bahçeşehir University School of Government and Leadership Burak Küntay, as well as academics including Dean of the Bahçeşehir University Faculty of Medicine Prof. Dr. Türker Kılıç, Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences Prof. Dr. Necip Çakır, UYGAR Head Prof. Dr. Mustafa Ilıcalı, Director of the Bahçeşehir University Center for Civilization Studies Assist. Prof. Dr. Burhan Köroğlu, Prof. Dr. Serdar Pirtini, Assist. Prof. Dr. Süha Atatüre and Assist. Prof. Dr. Deniz Tansi.

Delivering the opening speech, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz spoke about the size of the Turkish community in Brooklyn and the role Türkiye will play in world peace. Explaining that Brooklyn shares many problems with Istanbul, Markowitz named traffic as the main one. He then talked about New York's fight against traffic and the methods they use. Taking the floor at this point, Mustafa Ilıcalı talked about the Metropolitan Municipality's projects and explained the master plan. Mayor of Beyoğlu Ahmet Misbah Demircan, speaking about urban transformation, described the transition from the neighborhood system to the school district system. Enver Yücel, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Bahçeşehir University, took the floor and talked about the problem of urbanization in Istanbul and municipal administration. Mayor of Beşiktaş İsmail Ünal described the factors causing traffic in Istanbul and noted the importance of sea transport. Mayor of Fatih Mustafa Demir described the measures reducing the use of motor vehicles in central London and talked about the process of making the Sultanahmet area vehicle-free. Özcan Mutlu and Ozan Ceyhun, who spoke next, talked about the pedestrianization policies of municipalities in Berlin, Paris and London and the effects of pedestrianization. They noted the benefits of applying the same approach in Istanbul and, in this context, emphasized the importance of mayors being role models for citizens.

Assist. Prof. Dr. Burhan Köroğlu described the effects of municipal administration on culture and the support it can provide to artists, and stressed the importance of municipalities' role in neighborhoods becoming identified with artists and culture. Speaking next, Dean of the Bahçeşehir University Faculty of Medicine Türker Kılıç offered a very interesting analysis, comparing Istanbul to the structure of the human brain; he emphasized that there is a natural system for solving the problems of metropolitan municipalities, namely the human brain, and that the human factor and the harmony of different cultures with one another must not be forgotten in finding solutions.

The meeting ended with closing remarks by Head of the Bahçeşehir University School of Government and Leadership Assist. Prof. Dr. Burak Küntay. At the end of the meeting, Enver Yücel, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Bahçeşehir University, thanked Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz for his participation and support and presented him with gifts. The Brooklyn Borough President, in turn, presented certificates to Chairman of the Board of Trustees Enver Yücel and President Prof. Dr. Şenay Yalçın.