Rotterdam District Council Resigns on Turkish Coup
ROTTERDAM, 03/07/13 - The entire management board of the Rotterdam district council Feijenoord has resigned following a scathing report on a political coup by Turkish Labour (PvdA) members.
The Bureau for the Integrity of Netherlands Municipalities (BING), part of the Association of Netherlands Municipalities (VNG), concludes that the Feijenoord administrators had not taken action for years against all kinds of forms of nepotism for Turkish residents and organisations. For example, Turkish politicians awarded each other jobs, and an illegal boarding school where 50 Turkish girls lived was never fined or closed down. Dutch cafes also received no licence for a terrace, even though Turkish businesses were able to get one within a day. The chairman of the Feijenoord executive was Labour (PvdA) member Seyit Yeyden. He and two unnamed council members are guilty of conflict of interest and the exercise of political pressure within the administrative organisation, according to BING. The board announced its resignation in a letter to the district council. On Sunday, council member Serdar Çiçek (PvdA) had already resigned. The board will answer to its responsibilities Thursday at a meeting of the district council. According to former Rotterdam Mayor Bram Peper, the problems began years ago when a large group of Turks carried out a coup at the PvdA, traditionally the biggest party in the major cities. They became all at the same day members of the PvdA and were immediately given jobs the next day, he said Monday evening on Radio 1. Both Rotterdam and Amsterdam have district councils, with their own coalition and executive board. The abolition of district councils has been discussed for years due to fraud, but nothing has yet come of it. The Feijenoord district council has been administered by a coalition of PvdA, Christian democrats (CDA) and leftwing Greens (GroenLinks) since 2010. |