The new Istanbul mayor was quoted by Deutsche Welle Turkish as welcoming the plans of a new political movement led by former deputy prime minister in charge of the economy, Ali Babacan.

Babacan, who is lauded for successfully steering Turkey’s economy during the first decade of Justice and Development Party (AKP) rule, announced his resignation from the party earlier this month as well as plans for a separate party.

"We are closely seeing that individual identities are causing more damage than providing benefit," Imamoglu said.

The 49-year-old mayor also stressed the importance of what he called determined stances in politics.

"Determined stances are very important in politics. It is very important that they don’t backpedal if they believe in something. Turkey is in need of determined stances," he said.

The Istanbul mayor also vowed to examine and effectively deal with the problems facing refugees in the city.

Rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) last week accused Turkey of detaining and coercing Syrians into signing “voluntary return” forms and then forcibly returning them to northern Syria, an area that is currently a war zone.

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