New palace for Turkey’s president

The Ak Saray was unveiled this week

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan this week unveiled a new presidential palace on the outskirts of Ankara, denounced by ecologists as an environmental blight and by the opposition as evidence of his autocratic tendencies.

Mr Erdoğan was due his first official event at the new palace on Wednesday at a ceremony congratulating dignitaries on the annual Republic Day, which marks the foundation of modern Turkey in 1923 out of the ruins of the Ottoman Empire.

But, he announced late on Wednesday that he had cancelled the reception because of a mine accident in central Anatolia, where at least 18 miners remain trapped underground.

Environmentalists have condemned the construction of the palace, which comes at the expense of one of Ankara’s “best preserved” green spaces and requires the cutting down of hundreds of trees.

According to columnist Orhan Kemal Cengiz, “there are at least three injunction orders from different administrative courts to stop this construction” noting that the President would be opening a palace that was “built against the courts’ orders.

“Now other Justice and Development Party (AK Party) members are just following in the footsteps of their leader,” he continued, writing in Today’s Zaman.

“They completely disregard the law and court decisions.”