Huge opera house to be constructed after demolition of Atatürk Cultural Center in Istanbul: Erdoğan

ISTANBUL

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A huge opera house will be built after the demolition of Atatürk Cultural Center in Istanbul’s Taksim Square, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on June 13.

"The AKM project is now complete. We will build a huge opera house by connecting the space near and behind it. It is a magnificent project. We will fill a gap in Istanbul by constructing the building and continue our way with three huge projects for Taksim. They cannot block our way,” Erdoğan said at the parliamentary group meeting, adding that the building had already been damaged by the earthquake. 

He had earlier stated that the building would be replaced with a “very beautiful piece of art.”

“For years they have slammed the mentality, which introduced such a great work of art at the Beştepe National Congress and Culture Center in Ankara to Turkey, for wanting to demolish that morbid and absolutely ugly structure in Taksim and replacing it with a more beautiful piece of art,” Erdoğan said at an iftar dinner with artists and athletes at the Tarabya presidential residence in Istanbul.

“But, we have worked to bring an artefact worth for both Istanbul and the culture and arts world. The Harbiye Congress Center is an example of this,” Erdoğan said, adding that a new project that would replace the AKM has been concluded.

Erdoğan also voiced his dissatisfaction with the Turkish state “leading” the culture, arts and sports in the country. “The state should not be in a position of managing culture, arts and sports, but instead should be supporting them. Because every kind of work the state undertakes is bound to bureaucracy; recklessness and inefficiency is inevitable. For that matter, I will go ahead and say, as a principle, I do not even find it right that artists would become civil servants,” he said. 

“The obsession of holding culture, arts and sports under certain fractions’ monopoly is of no use to our country, but also such an attitude has led to dismay in every area,” Erdoğan added.