Opening Cleopatra Cove to construction is against common good: Chamber, bar

ANTALYA – Demirören News Agency

The Antalya Office of the Chamber of Architects and Antalya Bar Association have urged authorities not to open Cleopatra Cove in the Mediterranean resort Kemer district to construction.

“The area, a rare part of nature which also carries the natural park status, has been decided to be open to construction for tourism purposes with upper-scale planning for the sake of profit,” a joint statement read.

The statement said that the project was tendered for a contract in a “surreptitiously manner,” while the relevant zoning plan and the long-term development plans had not been shared publicly to “block the public’s right to information and legal remedies.”

The statement recalled that they had filed a lawsuit for the cancellation of a zoning permit for the famous bay, and stressed that the expertise report issued over the lawsuit had ruled the project was “not for the sake of public interest.”

“It is our deepest wish for our public that the order to halt the construction should be ruled at once in accordance with the expert report,” the institutions said.

The Antalya Bar Association announced in June 2018 that it would take legal action against the administration over a rent contract for the Cleopatra Cove.

The bar’s president, Polat Balkan, said the tender conducted by the Natural Protection and National Parks General Directorate in May 2018 is against the law and such decisions should be made only if it is beneficial for the public.

In July 2018, the bar and the Antalya Office of the Chamber of Architects filed a lawsuit concerning the consortium of three companies that won the 29-year-long rent contract for the 12-hectare plot of Tekirova National Park, including the cove, by offering an annual payment of 505,000 Turkish Liras.

They stressed that the Forestry and Agriculture Ministry did not have any authority to allow zone planning in that area.

It is believed that the sand in the beach of Sedir Island was brought from Egypt on vessels for ancient Egyptian queen Cleopatra and her lover Roman commander Antonius.