Work starts to demolish Atatürk Airport runways, opposition claims İstanbul Airport to be sold

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Dozers entered İstanbul's Atatürk Airport yesterday (May 16) to start work to convert the airport into a recreational area.

On April 29, the "Nation's Garden" project was assigned to the Yapı&Yapı company after a negotiated tender. The company had submitted a bid of 2.12 billion Turkish lira (~135 billion US dollars).

Since the opening of the İstanbul Airport in October 2018, the Atatürk Airport has been mostly idle. Part of the airport was turned into a field hospital during the pandemic.

There are allegations that the reason behind the move to turn the airport into a recreational area is that the İstanbul Airport will be sold to investors from Gulf countries, who don't want a second airport on the city's European side.

Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu repeated these allegations last night in Twitter posts, which included a message in Arabic for the government's "accomplices" from Saudi Arabia or Qatar.

"Let me speak your investor friends' language: Nothing that was built with what was stolen from our nation can be sold to you," he wrote.

Today, the CHP's İstanbul head, Canan Kaftancıoğlu, spoke to reporters in front of the airport. She also said they would "hold accountable" those who damaged the airport. "Because they fear this, they are trying to sell İstanbul Airport to their accomplices from Qatar or Saudi Arabia as soon as possible," she said.

Minister: We didn't sell the airport to Qatar

Murat Kurum, the minister of environment, urbanization and climate change, said the airport area will never be opened for development and there will be no housing projects in the area.

He dismissed the claim that the airport was sold to investors from Qatar and added that one runway will be kept operational for emergencies. (HC/HA/VK)