Donation Campaign Started in Gaziantep

The “Don’t Litter” campaign, initiated to keep the streets of Turkey clean, started in Gaziantep, the pilot region. The program organized in collaboration with Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality and the ATMA Association began with the “Cultural Path Don’t Litter Awareness Walk” attended by Gaziantep Metropolitan Mayor Fatma Şahin, Gaziantep Governor Kemal Çeber, ATMA Association President Pervin Ersoy, ATMA Association Founding Member Mine Özmen, institution officials, and citizens.

“It all starts with us”

Gaziantep Metropolitan Mayor Fatma Şahin, in her speech at the meeting, emphasized the need for voluntarism to fill the positions, stating, “ATMA Association President Pervin Ersoy has very high energy. Everyone on the board is busy people, but each of them leaves their work behind to protect our common home, the planet, by traveling from city to city. A piece of litter we throw here melts glaciers. These melting glaciers contribute to global warming, causing climate change. We experience water scarcity due to drought. We watch a world where children lose their lives due to not finding clean water. On the other hand, the litter we throw pollutes our soil, water, air, makes our people sick. That’s why it’s a very simple thing, ‘don’t litter.’ Don’t throw your trash on the ground. It all starts with us,” she said.

Emphasizing the importance of educating children not to litter, Mayor Fatma Şahin stated, “In the education we give to our children, we need to explain how the world will suffer if they pollute the environment, how its balance will be disrupted. Otherwise, we need to remind them frequently that they will not leave a new world to the next generation. Our children need to know how a polluted world makes society sick,” she said.

“We will wholeheartedly support this campaign”

Gaziantep Governor Kemal Çeber, while discussing environmental issues, mentioned that he often uses the phrase ‘Cities are not clean by collecting garbage. They are clean by not littering.’ He said, “Even if we assign thousands of officials in this city, if we still litter, we won’t catch up. Therefore, as the slogan suggests, we really shouldn’t litter. If we have to throw something, let’s shout ‘don’t litter’ like children. Therefore, we will wholeheartedly support this campaign. Gaziantep can achieve it if it sets its mind to it, if it says ‘I can succeed’,” he said.

“The contribution of this campaign to our city is very important”

Mayor of Şahinbey, Mehmet Tahmazoğlu, mentioned the importance of the content of the meeting, stating that cleanliness has been a concern for them for years and a subject they have been working intensively on. Tahmazoğlu said, “The duty of municipalities is to collect garbage. We already collect them from certain points. There is no problem with that. But if we assign a cleaning officer behind every person, at the beginning of every street, the municipality’s other activities cannot be carried out. Therefore, we have used a slogan for years, ‘The best cleanliness is not to pollute.’ We have always tried to explain this. This contribution is very important. Therefore, I sincerely congratulate everyone who organized and supported this program,” he said.

“We will say ‘don’t litter’ to keep our streets spotless”

ATMA Association President Pervin Ersoy also expressed that Gaziantep is the starting city for them, saying, “Starting with Gaziantep will bring us luck. It will create an awareness for us. Today, I see how accurate my predictions were. Today, we came here to say ‘Don’t Litter, Turkey’. We started saying ‘Don’t Litter, Turkey’ from Gaziantep. We came to say ‘stop’ to everyone who litters the streets. Ours is very simple. Ours is the beginning. We will say ‘don’t litter’ to keep our streets spotless. We will say ‘don’t litter’ so that our nature, our seas remain spotless,” she said.