Turkish Presidency officially announced its investment program for 2017. According to this new investment program, the total estimated budget is 350 million TL ($92 million), and around one-third of it will be spent for the presidential buildings in Ankara, the capital city of Turkey.
The Presidency has four projects in its investment program and the total project size is about 1,597 billion TL ($421 million). Local media reports that the highest investment will be made on the additional presidential service buildings in Ankara. Until now, around 930 million TL has been spent for them. The subsidy allocated for the presidential buildings in Ankara includes the new expenses for the much debated presidential palace of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
CONTROVERSIAL CASE OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PALACE
The palace was initially constructed as the office of the then-Prime Minister Erdoğan and officially announced as the presidential palace after Erdoğan won the August 2014 presidential elections. Prior to the construction of the presidential palace of Erdoğan, Turkish Presidents had officially used Çankaya Mansion in Ankara.
Since the palace was constructed inside the Atatürk Forest Farm (AOÇ), a first-degree protected site established by the founder of the Turkish Republic in 1925, several law suits were opened for the suspension of the construction. Hundreds of trees in the forest reserve were cut down during the construction. Although the construction of the palace had been barred by court decisions, the construction continued. Hence the palace is notoriously called "Kaç-Ak Saray" in Turkish, meaning an "Illegal Palace".
The Palace dominates the western edge of Ankara as an enormous complex with more than 1000 rooms. The construction expenses of the palace almost doubled the initial estimate, with its lavish marble corridors and furnishing, and high-security measures. The palace site also includes a 3000-person capacity mosque.
In 2016, the expenses of the presidential palace were listed in the reports of the Turkish Court of Accounts. As local media reported, the electricity bill of the palace per month was around 1 million TL ($262 thousand) and the natural gas expenses amounted to 250 thousand TL ($65 thousand). These expenses of the palace have gained intense public criticism.
