A summer palace with 300 rooms and four-meter-high walls is being constructed at Okluk Bay, in Marmaris, for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Cumhuriyet daily reported on Wednesday.
While Erdoğan’s 1,150-room presidential palace in Ankara has been at the center of debate for three years due to questions about the legality of its construction and the overall cost of the palace, a new summer palace is being constructed in Marmaris according to the reports.
A Birgün daily report said a four-room guesthouse was built in the same area during the term of eighth Turkish President Turgut Özal and that the initial aim was to renovate the guesthouse, which has not been used by succeeding presidents. Then the renovation plan was replaced with construction of a summer palace, for which an air conditioning contract worth TL 3 million was signed.
The website of the presidency previously mentioned the bay as a grade 1 natural site area, where construction was not allowed and that the four-room guesthouse was a prefab building. This information was removed from the website as the guesthouse was demolished to build a summer palace.
Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Muğla deputy Akın Üstündağ said: “The construction of a summer place here is not legal. It is illegal, and it is damaging the natural surroundings. Construction in the area is illegal. The bay is even closed to fishing. A little further on is the spawning area for Mediterranean seals.”