United Cities and Local Governments Middle East and West Asia Section (UCLG-MEWA) organized an online live stream local government talk with Rasim Arı, Mayor of Nevşehir and Treasurer of UCLG-MEWA, on June 10, 2020. The theme of the talk was “The Role of Municipalities in the Fight Against COVID-19 and Normalization Process.”
Starting his speech by mentioning the last meeting of UCLG-MEWA held in Nevşehir before the pandemic, Mayor Arı highlighted the activities of Nevşehir Municipality in the fight against the virus. Mayor Arı further stressed that the general cleaning and disinfection works had already been done in the city before COVID-19 spread in Turkey and even in the world.
Mayor Arı also mentioned that in addition to all the measures taken and support given to the citizens, they had done worldwide-known activities like cleaning streets and organizing drive-in cinema events and street concerts during the pandemic. Underlining the importance of social media for local governments, he said that the municipality’s activities had reached a large number of people thanks to social media.
During his speech, Mayor Arı stated that “our region is one of the leading cities of world tourism, and we will introduce a new destination here by opening the world’s largest hillside settlement not only to Turkish tourism but also to world tourism.” He pointed out that in order to preserve historical and natural beauties of Cappadocia, the municipality had established the Directorate of Historic Site of Cappadocia, and he further added that with the establishment of this directorate, inspections would speed up. Mayor Arı ended his speech by underscoring that the projects would continue for the development of the city.