CHP Demands Parliamentary Investigation Into Ak Saray

The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) has asked for a research commission to be formed in order to investigate claims of damage to the state budget resulting from the construction of a newly built controversial presidential palace dubbed the “Ak Saray."

CHP Deputy Chairman Sezgin Tanrıkulu submitted a parliamentary question on Monday to the Parliament Speaker's Office asking whether state coffers were damaged during the construction of the Ak Saray. He also inquired as to whether its cost had deliberately been listed to be as much as four times its real value, as a number of media outlets have claimed.

Tanrıkulu argued that the state budget lost as much as TL 500 million during the construction of the palace.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's palace continued to stir up controversy as Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek recently announced that the cost of the palace was TL 1.3 billion and another minister added that more money will be allocated to complete the project by the end of 2014.

The CHP also brought to Parliament's agenda claims that the new presidential office has been illegally using electricity because it does not have a habitation certificate.

The presidential palace has been constructed on the most important green area in Ankara, the Atatürk Forestry Farm (AOÇ). It is at the center of swirling debates inside and outside Turkey for its cost as well as because the construction went on despite court verdicts requiring it to stop. When the courts ordered construction on the new palace to cease based on the fact that the spot chosen for it is technically a protected area, construction still continued.

One of the more striking aspects of the palace is the vast numbers of trees chopped down during its construction. A plot of land measuring 300,000 square meters was used, and because of all the new buildings, roads and changes made to the topography, more than 10,000 trees were uprooted and moved, and more than 3,000 were cut down.

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)