Fourth Week of the Local Governments Academy Completed

The fourth week of the Local Governments Academy 2 certificate program organized by the Bahçeşehir University School of Government and Leadership took place on Saturday, 8 October 2011, at Bahçeşehir University's Beşiktaş campus.

Our program, attended by District Governor of Beşiktaş Sadettin Yücel, Mayor of Konacık Mehmet Tosun, Advisor to the Chair of the Belediye-İş Union İsmail Hakkı Kurt, Bahçeşehir University faculty member Hasan Özdemir and Mayor of Beşiktaş İsmail Ünal, touched on many topics ranging from local governments to legislation and from the understanding of municipal governance to provincial administration.

Sadettin Yücelbegan his speech by offering a historical perspective on the provincial system dating back to the Ottoman Empire, the meaning of the district governor's position in those periods and the way local services were provided in the Ottoman era. Noting that the word "kaymakam" comes from "kaim-i makam," meaning one who substitutes for an office, Yücel explained that the title once meant lieutenant colonel in the Ottoman army but, like our entire administrative structure, became civilian over time and acquired its current meaning.

Mehmet Tosunsaid that since Bodrum, which has moved away from the citrus and livestock sectors, now earns almost all of its livelihood from tourism, they will place serious emphasis on work in this area and turn Bodrum into a tourism region in the full sense.

İsmail Hakkı Kurttalked about how newspapers change perceptions and how the accuracy of many of them is questionable. For example, he noted that a perception has been created that too many people work in the public sector in our country, whereas in fact we are among the countries with the fewest public employees compared to OECD countries. Underlining that he has observed a serious decrease in public employees since 2008 and that this is not linked to technological development, he stressed that this may be a development not reflected in statistics.

Hasan Özdemirgave a speech outlining the structure of the Turkish Administrative System and then the areas of authority of the legislative, executive and judicial branches. He also explained the limits of the duties of these institutions. Özdemir stated that membership in the Provincial General Assembly is a position of great importance and, as a natural consequence, emphasized that Special Provincial Administrations are highly important institutions since they consist of Provincial General Assembly members.

İsmail Ünalshared his knowledge on how municipalities should be managed and directed within the framework of 21st-century municipal governance, giving a presentation enriched with examples from his own area, Beşiktaş. İsmail Ünal described Beşiktaş not so much as a district but as a "city" whose daytime population reaches two million and where at least 250 thousand people sleep at night.