Presidential palace should be vacated over election results, Turkish architects say

ISTANBUL

AFP Photo

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s 1,150-room mega-palace and its residents should immediately be evicted, an architects’ NGO has said in a statement after the country’s critical June 7 general elections.

The Ankara Chamber of Architects said the election results, which resulted in the loss of a parliamentary majority for the Justice and the Development Party (AKP), have proven the illegality of the controversial palace, demanding it be vacated immediately.

“Our nation has shown their refusal with the election results that the palace was illegal at heart, as it was built in violation of the law and the will of [Mustafa Kemal] Atatürk on the Atatürk Forest Farm [AOÇ] and a luxurious, gaudy life is led inside. The most serious decision against the ‘illegal palace,’ which was twice in illegal status according to judicial decisions, was the election results. The residents of the ‘illegal palace’ should immediately be evicted,” the head of the chamber, Tezcan Karakuş Candan, said.

Candan also addressed Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç, saying he should keep his word about previous claims against Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek, accusing the latter of “having sold Ankara to the Gülen Movement plot-by-plot.”

“We are following the issue; everyone should keep their word. We promised our nation. We said this cause will not end until those who attempt to choke us by narrowing our living space and stealing our children’s future will be accounted for in front of the law and we are doing what is necessary. Thus, Bülent Arınç should keep his word and announce the places sold plot-by-plot, which he said he would announce on June 8,” added Candan.

The case into whether the will of Atatürk was broken in building the palace will be concluded in Ankara on June 9.