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A piece of land worth TL 20 million in the village of Zeytineli in İzmir's Urla district has allegedly been rented at a figure below the normal rental price of the land to the Ensar Foundation, an organization known to have close ties with the Foundation of Youth and Education in Turkey (TÜRGEV), of which President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's son, Bilal Erdoğan, is an executive board member.
Taraf daily claimed on Monday that earlier this year, a total of over 42 hectares of land in the district, where President Erdoğan allegedly helped businessman Mustafa Latif Topbaş build six villas and reportedly received two villas in return, was given by order of the government to the State Airports Management General Directorate (DHMİ). However, government officials later reclaimed the land and rented it to Ensar at a price lower than the rental value of the land at the request of the foundation's executive.
Professor Savaş Genç from İstanbul Fatih University, speaking to Today's Zaman, said it was upsetting to see a conservative government embark on these kinds of practices, while they criticize previous governments for unjustly supporting some groups such as the Atatürkist Thought Association (ADD) in the past.
“I want to approach this issue not as a scholar but a regular citizen. In many different countries of the world, we see that governments support civil society organizations that are of the same mind with them. This is acceptable to a certain degree. But in Turkey, while greatly oppressing some of the non-governmental organizations such as Kimse Yok Mu (Is Anybody There), supporting the others is clear discrimination,” Genç told Today's Zaman.
The Urla district initially garnered public attention earlier this year following the exposure of a graft probe in which senior government members have been implicated. According to alleged phone conversations which surfaced in the media in January, a businessman close to Erdoğan, Mustafa Latif Topbaş, decided to build eight luxury villas near the village of Zeytineli in Urla but was denied a building permit, as the area was a first-degree environmentally protected zone. The businessman asked the prime minister to change the zone to a third-degree protected zone so that he could get the permits he needed. The prime minister allegedly helped the businessman and reportedly received two villas from him in return.
On Sept. 21, the Küçükçekmece Municipality in İstanbul, which is run by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), donated two of its buildings to Ensar Foundation. The municipality built three public buildings on a 40,000-square-meter piece of land in 2011. One of the buildings was turned into a “music academy” for young children in 2012 with a contribution from İstanbul Technical University. Küçükçekmece locals were hoping the two remaining buildings would be turned into recreational areas; however, the municipality recently donated them to the Ensar Foundation, drawing the ire of locals.
Ownership of a $2.7 million student dormitory built with public funds by the Antalya Metropolitan Municipality and a youth center has also been transferred to TÜRGEV. Students and activists protested in early September in front of the building against the conveyance of the two buildings to TÜRGEV.
Arslan Ayan (Cihan/Today's Zaman)
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