Local court dismisses lawsuit on presidential palace

ANKARA

AA Photo

An Ankara court dismissed a lawsuit by trade associations, led by the Turkish Union of Engineers and Architects’ Chambers (TMMOB), over the construction of the presidential palace in Beştepe on the grounds that the palace’s construction on the land of the Atatürk Forestry Farm (AOÇ) violates founder and first president Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s will and conditional donation of the land to the state.

Complainant TMMOB Ankara branch chair Tezcan Karakuş Candan said it is unnecessary to be Atatürk’s relative in order to be a party in the legal proceeding.

But the Ankara 26th Court of First Instance Judge Asuman Ada Şahin, citing a precedent by the Constitutional Court, threw out the case because of the party’s “person disqualification.”

The TMMOB has pursued 55 separate lawsuits regarding the presidential palace.

The new palace was built by order of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in 2014 on a part of the AOÇ in the Beştepe neighborhood of Ankara.

The first president of Turkey had donated his expansive recreational farming area to the state in 1937, 12 years after he founded it as a green oasis on previously barren land.

The complex lies on a 15-hectare area inside the historic farm, one of the most well-preserved green spaces in Ankara, and hundreds of trees were felled for its construction. The administration kept up with the construction despite a preventive court order, as well as an expert view, that stipulates the area’s protection, citing a violation of the principles of urban planning, ecology and science.