Controversial ‘Morsi Park’ stirs debates in Antalya

ANTALYA – Doğan News Agency

The park was named after Mehmet Mursi, a rice agriculturist in Antalya’s Konyaaltı district in 1920s. DHA photo

A park named “Mursi” in the Mediterranean Turkish province of Antalya raised eyebrows before it was understood that the name was derived from a late local personality, rather than the ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi. 

The park, which was carrying the name “Mursi,” the Turkish spelling of the former Egyptian President’s name, was named after Mehmet Mursi, a rice agriculturist in Antalya’s Konyaaltı district in 1920s. 

Some locals who did not notice the park’s name earlier, took their complaints to the Konyaaltı Mayor Muhittin Böcek, asking why the local authority “was taking sides” in the Egyptian conflict, assuming that it was named after the deposed president. 

The neighborhood head Mahir Bölük said that the origin of the park’s name came from a farmer who had engaged in rice agriculture in the twenties, whose familial roots were based in Egypt, Alexandria. Bölük remarked again that there was no such thing as naming the park “Mohamed Morsi” in his speech later.
The farm, which was built in the twenties, where Mr. Morsi had engaged in farming and rice agriculture near the Liman neighborhood, has been known as “Mursi’s Farm” for a long time.