November 20, 2010
Kadir Topbaş [1] who served as President of MEWA and Vice-President of UCLG between 2004 and 2007, and is Co-President of UCLG since 2007 was elected to the presidency during the 2010 Mexico Meeting. Created in 2004, the UCLG is the result of three organizations: The World Federation of United Cities, The International Union of Local Authorities and Metropolis, the international association of major metropolises. Its mission is to be the united voice and world advocate of democratic self-government.
Kadir Topbaş (born January 8, 1945 in Yusufeli, Artvin) is a Turkish architect, right-wing regional politician and the current mayor of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality in Turkey.Topbas earned his PhD degree from Istanbul University-Department of Art History and Archeology, with a study on “Hidiv Mansion and its place in Bosphorus civilian architecture”. Topbas worked as an architect for many years.
Between 1994 and 1998, Kadir Topbas worked as an adviser for Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, when Erdogan was the Mayor of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality. Topbas also served as the deputy director of Istanbul 1st Cultural Heritage Protection and Monuments Committee of the Ministry of Culture.
Kadir Topbas was elected as the Mayor of Beyoglu (a district of Istanbul) in 1999. During this period, he launched and successfully implemented an urban regeneration project called the “Güzel Beyoglu” (“Beautiful Beyoglu”).
In March 2004 he run for Mayor of Istanbul and was elected with a vast majority of votes. He was re-elected in 2009 with a larger majority.
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