A court in the northwestern Turkish city of Bolu has overturned a controversial city council vote that aimed to charge a tenfold fee to the water bills of "foreigners" – in reference to refugees from neighboring Syria – and fees for performing marriage ceremonies.
The administrative court threw out a Bolu city council decision from November to increase water bills by more than 10-fold, and to charge 100,000 lira (7,540 dollars) for civil marriage ceremonies for foreigners, state broadcaster TRT reported.
The details of the ruling, or whether the city would appeal the decision, were not immediately clear.
Bolu Mayor Tanju Özcan has been under fire over his xenophobic remarks since becoming mayor in 2019, including from his Republican People's Party (CHP).
Özcan was also heavily criticized on social media for being "populist" and "fascist," with some even calling for a racial discrimination complaint to be filed against him.
The mayor said he was doing this so that “foreigners” would leave. “They overstayed their welcome. If I had the authority, I would deploy municipality officials to throw them out by force,” he said, reminding that he allocated free buses for refugees when Turkey briefly opened its borders to Europe for them.
“Let them sue me. I openly say the reason for the decision I made,” Özcan said. “I don’t hide anything and I know the municipality will be subject to an investigation by inspectors (of the Interior Ministry) after this decision. I know people will file complaints against me. I know people will talk about human rights and they will call me fascist. I simply do not care,” Özcan defiantly said.
Özcan, who had sparked criticism after he proposed cutting social aid to migrants in 2019, already faces a probe for allegedly inciting hate and discrimination.
His party separately started a disciplinary process concerning the mayor, the CHP said in November.
Turkey is home to 5.29 million foreign nationals, 3.7 million of them Syrian refugees under temporary protection, according to government data.
The number of Syrians registered in Bolu stands at a mere 1.4% of the city population.
Refugees are widely embraced by the public, but the opposition parties often look to fuel a xenophobic, anti-refugee discourse.
