Adıyaman Mayor calls for local government financing at Council of Europe

Abdurrahman Tutdere, the Mayor of Adıyaman and a member of the Union of Municipalities of Türkiye, addressed the 51st General Assembly of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France.

During a thematic session titled ‘The Cost of Crises: Financing Local Resilience,’ Tutdere detailed the devastation caused by the February 6 earthquakes in Adıyaman. He reported that approximately 10,000 people lost their lives and roughly 65 percent of the city's building stock was destroyed or severely damaged.

Tutdere emphasized the immense burden placed on local municipalities, which must manage not only infrastructure reconstruction but also social services and temporary housing. He noted that the city had to provide for approximately 125,000 people living in 59 temporary container settlements. He concluded by calling for the restructuring of existing financing systems to better suit the needs of municipalities facing such large-scale crises.