The role of metropolitan municipalities in rural development: Mersin example

In Turkey; There have been significant model changes in metropolitan area management, especially in the last quarter century. In this context; The number of metropolitan municipalities was increased and each metropolitan municipality was positioned as a "Leading Local Administration" above the district municipalities at the lower level. Especially; With the entry into force of Law No. 6360 in 2014, metropolitan municipalities began to provide services within the scope of provincial property boundaries, the legal entities of villages were abolished and transformed into neighborhoods, and special provincial administrations were abolished and their duties, powers and responsibilities were transferred to municipalities and other public institutions and organizations according to their relevance. Thus, the process of municipalities providing services to rural areas was initiated. There are many views and approaches regarding the activities and impacts of administrations towards rural development. The reason for this situation is that there are many factors affecting rural development and the institutions that will take steps to realize development consist of different administrations such as central government and local governments. In this context; development, agricultural development and their effects on the economy, problems related to rural development in Turkey, and the activities and effects of local governments and metropolitan municipalities have been tried to be explained by associating them with rural development. On the other hand; As a result of examining the connections between the points we mentioned above and rural development, the role of metropolitan municipalities in rural development is also discussed. Metropolitan municipalities have various activities in terms of protecting rural areas and supporting rural-specific production motivation, and Mersin Province has become the subject of research within the scope of the study. The choice of Mersin province was determined by its geographical location, the diversity of its rural area and its settlement type. Within the framework of these explanations, after the implementation of the provisions of Law No. 6360, the roles of metropolitan municipalities in rural development, the activities of Mersin Metropolitan Municipality towards rural development and their results, the reflections of the Law in rural areas, the survey conducted with citizens living in rural areas and benefiting from the services of the metropolitan municipality and the services provided to these areas. It was evaluated as a result of a semi-structured interview with the managers of the municipal service units responsible for providing transportation services. As a result of the study; In the case of Mersin, which includes differences specific to rural areas in other metropolitan municipalities, where metropolitan municipalities undertake an important function in terms of rural development, policies and activities for rural areas are generally deemed sufficient, innovative studies are carried out to encourage rural development, and various determinations are made, such as increasing activities and financial resources in this direction has been reached. Keywords: Rural Development, local governments, metropolitan municipalities