Ekrem İmamoğlu

Municipalities being run by the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) will continue to deliver aid to families in need due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak despite the blocks imposed by the government, the head of the party said, calling on the government to coordinate efforts for the sake of society during these difficult days.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on April 1 slammed the Republican People's Party (CHP) municipalities for carrying out their own fundraising campaigns to help citizens during the coronavirus outbreak, accusing them of attempting to be "a state within the state."

Turkey's Interior Ministry has said that municipalities run by the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) are "not abiding by the laws" in donation campaigns they launched during the coronavirus outbreak.

In a circular, the ministry said the municipalities need to get permission from the corresponding governor's offices for the launched donation campaigns.

Food packages will be distributed to some 50,000 people in Istanbul as part of measures taken to slow the spread of the coronavirus, the city's governor has announced.

The recipients of the aid will be people who are over the age of 65 and those with chronic diseases, people who live alone and are not able to look after themselves, as well as low-income groups, said Ali Yerlikaya.

Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu on March 26 criticized the government for holding the first tender of the Kanal Istanbul project in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak.

Turkey held its first tender on March 26 for Kanal Istanbul, a mega-infrastructure project involving the construction of a 45-kilometer shipping canal in Istanbul parallel to the Bosphorus Strait.

Works have commenced for the remaining part of the Üsküdar Square Expansion Project, which was stopped three years ago when cracks occurred on the walls of the Şemsi Ahmet Paşa Mosque in Istanbul's Üsküdar district, built in 1580 by the prominent Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan.

Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu has warned that the city's elderly were still widely using the city's public transport despite warnings to stay home amid the coronavirus outbreak.

He noted that the number of elderly people — aged above 60 — who use the megacity's metro and inner-city bus networks, indeed declined by 54 percent over the past two weeks.

The co-founder and honorary president of one of Turkey's foremost non-profit environmental organizations, Hayrettin Karaca was on Jan. 22 laid to rest in ceremonies held in Istanbul.

The Turkish Foundation for Combating Soil Erosion (TEMA) founder, Karaca died on Jan. 20 at the age of 97.

The city councils of Istanbul and the Aegean province of İzmir have decided to grant Alevi worship places, known as cemevi in Turkish, a legal status of "house of worship" in order to provide public services and discounts that are given to mosques, churches and synagogues.

A workshop on the Kanal İstanbul project - a mega-infrastructure project involving the construction of a 45-kilometer shipping canal in Istanbul parallel to the Bosphorus Strait, was held by Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality on Jan. 10