Atatürk’s Marmara Mansion demolished: TMMOB

ANKARA

The Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects’ (TMMOB) Ankara Bureau has claimed that a mansion that was once owned by Turkey’s founding father, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, and located in the Atatürk Forest Farm (AOÇ) has been demolished. 

“One of the Republic’s symbolic places, the Marmara mansion, which was designed by Ernest Egli as Atatürk’s farm house, was demolished. We are sad and angry. This anger should not be just ours but all of society’s. When we start to lose our values, we will lose our future; our children’s future is under threat,” said a statement made from TMMOB.

“Since the illegal palace was built, we have informed the public that the Marmara mansion was under threat. As of yesterday, based on pictures of Ahmet Soyak, and our City Observation Center’s examination, we have sadly detected that the Marmara Mansion is not in its place. They have demolished the Marmara Mansion, a registered building that was commended to us by Atatürk,” said TMMOB Ankara bureau head Tezcan Karakuş Candan, referring to the Turkey’s new presidential palace, widely dubbed as the “Kaçak Saray” (Illegal Palace), a play on “Ak Saray” (White Palace).

In 2015, Turkey’s Council of State ruled that construction on the presidential palace should be halted, even though the palace, which features over 1,000 rooms, was completed the previous year.

The cost of the palace, which was at least 1.37 billion Turkish Liras ($615 million), and the legality of building it inside the AOÇ have been criticized by the opposition.

Candan said the mansion, “one of the first examples on the republic’s modernity projects,” was declared a “building under risk” and that there were orders to restore the building. 

Noting that they had applied to the judicial system to protect the building, Candan said they defended the mansion, noting that the reconstruction of an existing building was against the principle of ruling No. 660. “If a construction that was registered as a piece of cultural heritage and is under threat, then it should be renovated,” said Candan.

TMMOB filed a case against the protection board, Candan said, adding that a court had ordered the suspension of the execution but that the case was still ongoing.