Turkiye ruling party demands cancellation of twinning between Izmir, Tel Aviv

The Justice and Development Party bloc in the Izmir Municipal Council (on the Aegean Sea in western Turkiye) is preparing to submit a proposal to cancel the twinning between Izmir and Tel Aviv, the capital of the Israeli occupation state, and to declare all cities in the Gaza Strip as twinned cities.

The head of the Justice and Development Party (the dominant party in Turkiye) in Izmir shared this during a press conference, stressing: “Izmir, like other cities in Turkiye, stands with the struggle of the Palestinian people.”

“The twinning between Izmir and Tel Aviv must be reconsidered, and this mistake must be urgently ended.”

The party leader added: “Izmir cannot and should not be a sister state or city with one that slaughters innocent civilians and children. Therefore, I would like to make a public appeal to the mayor of Izmir and to public opinion to end this irreparable disgrace as it is a historical disgrace.”

He also confirmed: “The Justice and Development Party bloc will present a proposal at the first meeting of the municipal council to end the twinning agreement between Izmir and Tel Aviv and declare all Gaza cities as ‘twinned cities’.”

A twinning agreement is an official agreement between two cities to establish cooperation and partnership relations in various fields, such as cultural, economic, educational and tourism cooperation.

The twinning agreement was signed between Turkey’s Izmir and the capital of the occupying state in 1996 during the rule of President Suleyman Demirel of the True Path Party.

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