Following the decision of the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization to assign one of the most important historical public spheres of Ankara to the Metropolitan Municipality of the city, which is controlled by a mayor from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP); the Union of Chamber of Turkish Engineers and Architects (TMMOB) had filed a claim against this decision for being against the public interest. An administrative tribunal of Ankara has dismissed the lawsuit for lack of jurisdiction of the chamber.
TMMOB has stated that the decision of lack of jurisdiction is a “manifestation of the fact that the justice system is politicised” and the aim is to get Melih Gökçek, the mayor of the capital, away from the court. Following the failed coup in July 2016, AOÇ was assigned to Ankara Metropolitan Municipality for 29 years.
TMMOB is an umbrella organisation of several chambers including architects, landscape architects, urban planners, agricultural engineers, environmental engineers, who filed a claim against the decision of the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization. TMMOB states that the decision is against the Constitution of Turkey.
AOÇ is one of the early symbolic public spheres of the Republic of Turkey, which dates back to 1920’s. The new presidential complex of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was built occupying 50 acres of AOÇ in 2014. Since AOÇ is a protected land, several court decisions were issued to stop the construction of the presidential palace, nonetheless, the construction was completed, thus the palace was branded “Kaçak Saray” in Turkish, meaning “Illegal Palace”.
