Click to read the article in Turkish
Maçka Parkı Hepimizi (Maçka Parkı Belongs to All of Us) initiative was in front of İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality (İBB) yesterday (February 21) to protest the highway tunnel planned to be built at Maçka Park.
The trees started to uprooted as part of the tunnel project on February 12. Republican People’s Party (CHP) İstanbul Provincial Chair Canan Kaftancıoğlu and CHP İBB Assembly members supported the initiative members who have been keeping watch at the park since that day.
Unfurling a banner reading “If you destroy Maçka Park, we turn the municipality into a park”, the life defenders jumped rope and played football on the green field in front of the building.
It was stated that of the 199 trees 85 will be moved to Mehmet Akif Ersoy Part in Sarıyer, and 114 to different areas.
Maçka Park was planned to be used as tent city in case of a natural disaster that may occur in İstanbul. The park was designated as “Disaster Assembly Area”. (TP/TK)
