Midnight raid on Ankara theater campus results in cutting of dozens of trees

ANKARA

The incident took place at the İrfan Şahinbaş Workshop Stage owned by the DTGM, late March 9. AA photo

A construction company violated a court ruling ordering a stay of execution to cut down more than 100 trees late March 8 in an area that is owned by the Ankara-based General Directorate of State Theaters (DTGM), actors and actresses said March 9, describing the move as “despotic.”

“In a place which is surrounded completely with workplaces and concrete; in a place where the State Theater created a green area, an oasis and environment of arts, they entered with bulldozers and made this place desolate,” Şahin Ergüney, a representative for thespians at the State Theater Arts Executive Board, was quoted as saying by Anadolu Agency, adding that the move was the act of a despot.

The incident took place at the İrfan Şahinbaş Workshop Stage owned by the DTGM.

According to claims, the construction company bought the land which also includes the wooded area beside the stage’s facilities as part of the construction of a new business center. Following a complaint, the court ordered a stay of execution for the construction of the center.

Nonetheless, teams from the company reportedly came to the area late on March 8 and clear-cut the trees.

Both actors and actresses and personnel working at the facilities gathered at the stage on March 9 in a show of protest against the move.

Meanwhile, in a press statement released by the DTGM’s Press Office, lawyers for the DTGM argued that trees could only be cut upon permission, Anadolu Agency reported.

Ergüney said the area had been under the control of the State Theaters for 60 years and that it had become a green area.

Even small seedlings were ripped out, while décor materials in the theater area were also destroyed, Ergüney said.