City Lines, a subsidiary of İBB, restored the 1952-year-old Paşabahçe Ferry from 70 at the 566-year-old Haliç Shipyard. Paşabahçe reunited with Istanbul, where it has been separated since 2010, with a ceremony attended by CHP Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. Kılıçdaroğlu said, “It is an extraordinarily beautiful thing to relive a history,” and said, “Ekrem President is very successful in one subject; He is extremely successful in overcoming all obstacles and reaching the goal.” Sharing the information that Haliç Shipyard's turnover in 2019 was 1 million liras, İmamoğlu said, “In 2021, we increased it to 132 million as of last year. This place had become impossible to build a ship. But now it has turned to a major shipyard that produces its own water taxis and presents opportunities for the future, from many composite passenger ships to tugboats to pilot boat construction," he said.
Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) restored the historical Pasabahce Ferry, manufactured in 2010, which was dropped from the City Lines fleet in 1952, in its 70th year. The ceremony held as part of the “566 Projects in 150 Days” marathon for Paşabahçe, which was reunited with its passengers by the IMM subsidiary Şehir Hatları, at the 150-year-old Haliç Shipyard, the world's oldest shipyard; CHP Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, CHP Deputy Chairman Seyit Torun, CHP Istanbul Provincial President Canan Kaftancıoğlu, IMM President Ekrem İmamoğlu, IYI Party Istanbul Provincial Chairman Buğra Kavuncu, deputies, mayors and City Lines General Manager Sinem Dedetaş.
KILIÇDAROĞLU: “RELIVING A HISTORY IS AN EXTRAORDINARY BEAUTIFUL THING”
Kılıçdaroğlu said, "It is an extraordinarily beautiful thing to relive a history," and added, "What makes nations a nation is their history. What makes a city is its own history. If the rulers become alienated from the city they live in or rule, they forget the history. In this context, it is an extraordinarily good event that our Mayor of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality restored and revealed the history of Istanbul. We opened the Basilica Cistern together again. In a sense, I saw it as the center of the world. Wherever you dig or touch in Istanbul, which has already served as the capital of three great empires, a history will definitely come out," he said. Kılıçdaroğlu, who shared the information that he had resided in Istanbul Göztepe for 12 years in the past, emphasized that the City Lines ferries were important for him as well. Kılıçdaroğlu, who included the memories of the ferry in his speech, said:
“EKREM PRESIDENT; ISTANBUL CAN SEE YOU”
“Our Istanbul Metropolitan Mayor, Ekrem Bey, really wants to serve the people of Istanbul with great devotion. He is making an extraordinary effort with himself and his staff. I know disabled people are removed. I know the difficulties have been removed. But Ekrem President is very successful in one subject. He is extremely successful in overcoming all obstacles and reaching the goal. He gave an example from the media, Mr. President. They don't matter. It does not matter. The Istanbulite sees you, Mr. President. Istanbulites know you. Istanbulites also know what you do for Istanbul. Not only Istanbulites, but the whole world knows. There is no other metropolis in the world that has built 10 major subways at the same time. All of these have stopped. They were not working. But now people are working hard here, to serve the people of Istanbul.”
SPECIAL THANKS FROM KILIÇDAROĞLU TO İMAMOĞLU
Kılıçdaroğlu, who shared a feature that the Nation Alliance municipalities liked with the participants, said, “Like being accountable to the city they serve; that is, they advocate a transparent administration, they are in favor of a transparent administration. Hopefully, we will do this in the context of Turkey as well. We will explain to the whole world, not just Turkey, that the state should be transparent while governing the state, that those who run the state hold their own people accountable, and that this accountability is an honorable duty. I want all my friends to be sure of this, too,” he said. Pointing out that it is important for the Haliç Shipyard, which is the legacy of Fatih Sultan Mehmet, to survive, İmamoğlu said: “Istanbul is also a cultural center, the cultural center of the world. I would very much like to have a serious intellectual accumulation spread to the whole world from here and to be told from here. In this regard, our President Ekrem is making every effort to do his best. Mr. President, in front of all the guests, I express my heartfelt thanks in your presence. Of course, the biggest thanks go to the General Manager, the woman sitting next to him. Thank you too. Women need to be in more active and active places in working life. Last week, I said to my friend, the Vice President responsible for local governments; 'How many women managers were there in the past in the municipalities we won, how many women managers are there now; take it out.” We have a significant increase. But I think that this increase will emerge more clearly in a certain period of time. Thank you all."
İMAMOĞLU: “WE ARE TALKING ABOUT A VERY STRONG MEMORY OF ISTANBUL WITH ITS MEMORY”
Starting his speech with the words, "We are together at this beautiful moment of reviving the ferry that was torn from the sea and tried to be retired 12 years ago," İmamoğlu said, "Paşabahçe Ferry entered the life of this city in 1952 and was loved very much. We are talking about a very strong memory of Istanbul with its memories. It was perhaps one of the symbols of the love of the sea in Istanbul. It was actually an important part of our journey to bring back to life a shipyard that was abandoned and left to rot when we came to the management.” “We were all saddened to see that the Paşabahçe Ferry was not in the process and at the same time that no one was taking any action at the Golden Horn Shipyard,” said İmamoğlu. Today, we would like to present you a proof of how few people's opinions and thoughts are. You will make public values look 'useless', 'obsolete'; You will even go one step further, you will harm the public company. Then you will transform the process with other people or activities under the umbrella of 'privatization' to avoid the damage. But certainly this process is of no use to us. Not to the public, not to the society, not to our people, not to our future," he said.
“WE MADE A DIFFERENT PROCESS”
Emphasizing that they are carrying out a different process, İmamoğlu said, “As my dear companion Sinem Hanım said, since we look at the process as the construction of a different understanding, 'Increasing the share of sea transportation in Istanbul, we have a strong city lines operation, Those who went did not think that we could say, 'Let's have a dynamic shipyard to ensure that the story of the City Lines and the ferryboat, which is approaching a life of nearly 200 years, will continue for centuries. When Haliç Shipyard was taken over, its turnover at the end of 2019 was 1 million TL. And in 2021, we've increased that to 132 million as of last year. So this place was unable to build a ship. But it has now turned to a major manufacturing shipyard that produces its own water taxis, presenting opportunities for the future, from many composite passenger ships to tugboats to pilot boat construction. Of course, this place has turned into a shipyard that serves the sector, apart from the boats owned by the City Lines or the Metropolitan Municipality.
THANKS FROM İMAMOĞLU TO DEDETAŞ
Expressing his satisfaction with the fact that for the first time in the history of City Lines, a female general manager is also working during her term, İmamoğlu said, “It is also a source of pride. We entrusted it to Sinem Dedetaş. Of course, he always made us proud. I sincerely thank him, his team and all the employees of the shipyard. Today, thanks to the know-how of Haliç Shipyard, the masters who have dedicated their lives here, and the new generation, as well as the new masters and apprentices, Paşabahçe was rebuilt so beautifully in 1,5 years. I would also like to thank Beykoz Municipality and its esteemed President Murat Aydın, who did not leave us alone when these processes and calls regarding restoration were put forward, for their cooperation. Based on navigational safety and passenger safety, we made the ship capable of sailing while preserving its original structure and design. Hopefully, we will all taste that historical taste together today," he said.
“HALIC SHIPYARD IS ENCOUNTERED TO US FATİH SULTAN MEHMET”
Emphasizing that the Golden Horn Shipyard was entrusted to us by Fatih Sultan Mehmet, İmamoğlu said, “And this shipyard will be 25 years old after almost 30-600 years. The oldest shipyard in the world. I cannot describe the value and spirituality that the spiritual pleasure of keeping such a value alive and carrying it into the future adds to my cells. Words are not enough for this. At the same time, Paşabahçe Ferry is the place to say hundreds of thousands. We are honored to protect the memory of the city, which has entered the memories of our people in this city, maybe built its home there, as my dear server brother and dear friend expressed, and which carries and hosts many more memories.” used his statements. Emphasizing the importance of the Paşabahçe Ferry's being recognized by the public, İmamoğlu said, "This shipyard you see is protected with both these structures, its workshops and its pools, and at the same time, in a way that will appeal to Istanbul's cultural and artistic life, perhaps the most important part of Istanbul. I want to give the good news to the people of Istanbul that they are about to turn into valuable art galleries and that we will finish them this fall as well.”
“SPECIAL TO HÜRRİYET” PARAGRAPH FROM İMAMOĞLU
In his speech, İmamoğlu also brought up the way Hürriyet Newspaper reported on the Paşabahçe Ferry and said: “I would like to thank Hürriyet Newspaper, which saw this feat and made almost full-page news. I scanned the page 6-7 times, my President, and unfortunately, there is neither Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, nor the company name of Şehir Hatları, nor the General Manager, nor anything… Think about it. I thought, 'Has it restored itself? Of course, it's good to have a little laugh. But it's not very important. A mind that manages not to even mention the institution that completed this process and put it into practice means that it really has no use left for this country; none. They cannot claim any value. They did the same thing in Yerebatan Cistern. It is very coincidence, my President; Again, when you open the next page of this page like this, you can see six photos on a single page of someone we are accustomed to seeing on television every day. I really don't think that this mind has anything left to give to this country, this city, this country's people, children and spirituality."
“NEVER GIVING OPPORTUNITY TO THE WASTEER, THE OPPORTUNIST…”
Expressing his thanks to everyone who contributed to the reconstruction of the Paşabahçe Ferry, İmamoğlu said, “I would like to thank my friends who have taken firm steps to increase the share of the sea in public transportation, especially in transportation, after years. I am happy that the Paşabahçe Ferry will embark on that beautiful journey where we will experience very good days, very good news, very special celebrations and very special moments in the 100th anniversary of our Republic. In this institution, we have adopted a philosophy and a principle that is a part of our understanding, transparency, accountability, merit, saving and using every penny of this country and this nation in the most correct way, never giving the opportunity to the wasteful and opportunistic. As management, we are walking our way. As I said at the previous opening, Chairman; We intend to tire you out a lot in these 150 days in Istanbul. We are waiting for you at our openings and surprises.”
DEDETAŞ: “THE PROCESS STARTED WITH A NEWSPAPER ANNOUNCEMENT”
Dedetaş stated that he is happy that the Paşabahçe Ferry has started sailing again in its 70th year, adding that the process started with a newspaper advertisement. Dedetaş explained the process, “As soon as we read in a newspaper advertisement that Paşabahçe would be sent for dismantling, we reached our President by phone and summarized the process. We had a very short and clear conversation. 'Let's move forward,' he said. And that's how the process started. With the cancellation of the tender by our Port Authority and Beykoz Municipality, we towed our ship to our shipyard and started the restoration process. Actually, we can't call it restoration. We can say that we almost built a new building”. Stating that they carried out the restoration process with the guidance of the advisory board they established, Dedetaş said, “This is a shipyard. We are making ships. We are building ships. These works have been done in this shipyard for 566 years. This is nothing new. But what's new is; We can say that it is not only a shipbuilding, but also the construction of an understanding. This understanding; It is actually the understanding of producing together by protecting our values, culture and history”.
PAŞABAHÇE hailed Fenerbahce
After the speeches, İmamoğlu and Dedetaş presented Kılıçdaroğlu the "No. 1952" of the 1952 commemorative stamps issued in memory of the Paşabahçe Ferry built in 1. Then, boarding the Paşabahçe Ferry, Kılıçdaroğlu, Kaftancıoğlu, İmamoğlu and their delegation made a tour of the Golden Horn with the pleasant narration of Sunay Akın. The delegation drank tea with bagels and shared their bagels with the seagulls. At this time, color images were formed. Meanwhile, the Fenerbahçe Ferry, which was put into service at the same time as the Paşabahçe Ferry, anchored at the Koç Museum and renewed at the Hali Shipyard, was also greeted by the delegation. The sounding of sirens from both ferries caused emotional moments. Kılıçdaroğlu and İmamoğlu, who also went to the captain's cabin of the Paşabahçe Ferry, posed for the journalists with their captain's hats. Paşabahçe will first be operated on the Adalar line. According to the arrangements to be made, there may be changes in the lines on which Paşabahçe will operate.
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