Barely 24 hours after we reported an improvement in the situation at the Beykoz shelter, Muharrem Ergul, the Mayor of Beykoz is once again back to square one.

Yesterday Yasemin Baban, the head of our association went to the shelter to recover some of her personal property illegally appropriated by İhsan Öksüz.

Upon arrival to the shelter the security guard, an individual named Erol who barely a few days ago was happilly accepting “donations”, abruptly stopped her at the door. He was under personal instructions from Öksüz not to allow any of us at the shelter.

For an instance Yasemin considered calling the Jandarma and asking once again for their help in dealing with this situation but she decided against it. The situation was immediately reported to our lawyer and has passed to engross our legal files in our court case against Ergul.

Mr. Ergul is from Trabzon, in the North of Turkey, the Black Sea region. The people from that region as widely known as honest, honorable, hard working, industrious and strong headed. It seems we have someone here that has only inherited the last of the traits.

From this blog the Group of Volunteers of Beykoz make you a promise Mr. Mayor. This issue will never go away until you face reality, make an act of contrition and apologize to us and the world for bringing the situation to this point. It may take days, weeks, months or years, but we will never give up. Furthermore we will never allow the interest in this case to wane, on the contrary, the actions will intensify as time pass.

Mr. Erguls team has the support of Nesrin Citirik, Adanas Barbie, from then downwards he is only supported by İhsan Öksüz, the head of cleaners.  On the other hand he is facing mounting international pressure and a growing team of people working tirelessly to bring justice to this issue. Our plattform is made up by individuals from the public and private sector, diplomats, businessmen, intellectuals, academics, lawyers, doctors, publicist, media experts and an ever growing mass of normal citizens that have decided not to stay silent any longer. Furthermore this plattform has gone international, with supporters all over the European Union spreading the message tirelessly… and this group is growing day after day.

It is always a bad idea for a politician to turn an issue into a personal vendetta. Unless he resorts to the physical elimination of the problem (that is, killing us all here!), he is the party that stands to loose more in the process. Mr. Erguls career stands to be permanently damaged by all of this.

Incredibly Mr. Ergul advertises himself on his own website as a man of culture, an enlightened educator, a sportsman, an gentleman-scholar responsible for the relations of Istanbul Municipalities with the European Union.

(http://www.beykoz.bel.tr/b_kisi_detay.asp?tur=284&id=94)

It is up to Ergul himself to go down in history as the person that solved the stray dog problem in Beykoz through the correct implementation of Neuter and Return or as the man who turned his municipality (and his career) as the butt-of-all-jokes.

Ok.. here he is.. Muharrem Ergul, elected Mayor of Beykoz. Please feel free to leave a comment at the blog.. we know he reads it.

Desperate Mayor asks for funds in Germany..

The Major states that:

The dogs of Beykoz dont need food!. The dogs of Beykoz need Vaccines, drugs and dewormers.
The dogs of Beykoz also need money. As much money as possible. This money will be placed
in a bank account of the municipality and (from Germany) you will be able to see that it will be spent very well.

This would sound like a sincere call for financial assistance if it came from an NGO doing direct work on the field.. but such an absurd call for funds coming from the Mayor of one of Turkeys richest municipalities? A municipality that in recent years is flush with money coming mostly from the licensing of real estate projects?

Vaccines, drugs and dewormers? That we can understand… there is a plague of disease and parasites at the Beykoz Municipality.

To Muharrem Ergul, Mayor of Beykoz
Mr. Ergul,

No more room for dodging the truth.
The Group of Volunteers of the Beykoz Shelter challenges you to an encounter in front of the media.
It is time to come out of hiding.
It is time to come clean and face the truth.
It is time to admit guilt and ask for forgiveness in front of Turkey and the world.
We are waiting.
The world is waiting.
Volunteers of the Beykoz Shelter

email: beykozkillers@gmail.com