Court cancels road plan dividing Atatürk Forest Farm into pieces

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The construction plans related to alternative road routes in Atatürk Forest Farm for Anadolu Avenue in Etimesgut, Ankara have been cancelled by the court yesterday (July 12). 

The Chamber of Architects Ankara branch had brought a suit against the plan. 

In its judgement, the Ankara 7th Administrative Court stated that the planned road passes through the Atatürk Forest Farm which is a protected natural and historical area in first degree, that no concrete justification has been put forward technically or scientifically to show why the route selection is necessary and that therefore the plans are unlawful. The court has therefore cancelled the related plans.  

"The plans contradict with Atatürk's will"

Chamber of Architects Ankara branch chairperson Tezcan Karakuş Candan welcomed the court decision. 

Candan recalled that Mustafa Kemal Atatürk left the Atatürk Forest Farm to the people conditionally. "Therefore we wiill fight any plans that spoil the habitat of the farm, disintegrate the farm, that contradict with the public interest and that aim to reach at unearned income," he stated.

Atatürk Forest Farm 

The Forest Farm was established in 1925 by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk as a private farm. One year before his passing in 1938, he wrote his last will and donated the farm to the Treasury, including all agricultural enterprises, estates and assets within the boundaries of the Farm.

What protected the Atatürk Forest Farm till 2006 was the fact that it was declared a protected area.

In 1992, the Cultural and Natural Heritage Preservation Board declared the farm a "natural and historical protected area." In 1998, the Atatürk Forest Farm was recognized as a first-degree protected area.

In 2011, some parts of Atatürk Forest Farm were stripped of its "protected area status" and the foundations of "Presidential Complex" were laid there.

The construction of the building began in 2013. On March 4, 2014, the Council of State gave a decision of stay of execution for the construction of the building. After Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Chair of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), was elected the President in August 2014, it was announced that the building would be used as a Presidential complex.

In 2015, the Council of State Plenary Session of Administrative Law Chambers unanimously dismissed the resolution of the Preservation Board making way for the construction of the Presidential complex in the protected zone, once again confirming that the construction was unlawful. However, the construction was completed despite these local and high court rulings.

Shortly afterwards, the zoo inside the Farm was also closed and the construction of the then Ankara Metropolitan Mayor Melih Gökçek's controversial Ankapark project started.

Lastly, a 555-thousand square meter area has been allocated to the TEBA foundation, which established the Medipol group, once owned by Fahrettin Koca, the current Minister of Health of Turkey. (EMK/PE)