Council of State Allegedly Cancels Projects in Taksim Square

It has been claimed that Council of State (Danıştay) 6^th Division cancelled the construction plans that involve Topçu Barracks and Taksim Pedestrianization Project. The project included transferring Tarlabaşı Boulevard – Cumhuriyet Street traffic to an underground tunnel which opened 6 months ago.

1^st Administrative Court cancelled the (17.01.2012 dated, 1/5000 and 1/1000 scaled) reconstruction plan for protection on June 6^th, 2013 as a result of Chamber of Architects’ case.

The case was on an appellate procedure and the decision of State Council 6^th Division was expected.

Chamber of Architects lawyer Can Atalay spoke to bianet and said that the decision hasn’t been declared to them.

“If this decision is true, it means the State Council also approved that Gezi Park should stay as a green land and the Pedestrianisation Project doesn’t have a judiciary validity anymore,” he told bianet. 

Council process for Topcu Barracks

Topçu Contentment Project was rejected by the Protection Council on January 17^th, 2013 with the reason of the project being “against the benefit of public”. “We will reject the rejection” PM Erdogan declared right after this decision.

On February 2013, High Council for the Protection of Cultural Creatures (Kültür Varlıklarını Koruma Yüksek Kurulu) approved the project Protection Council No.2 rejected without any reasons.

After that, Gezi Park Protection and Embellishment Association sued the Ministry and demanded the cancellation of the decision.

On May 31, Istanbul 6^th Administration Court decided to cancel the conduction with the reason of “irretrievable harms”. But, the same court decided on rejecting the case on February 21^st, 2014 and said “The court hasn’t seen any judiciary inappropriateness on this case”. (NVENÜ/BM)

* Click here to read the article in Turkish.