Presidential Palace, Ankara

Ak Saray, new presidential palace in Ankara

Presidential Palace (Turkish: Cumhurbaşkanlığı Sarayı)^[1] also known as the Ak Saray ^[2] (English: White Palace), is the new presidential palace of the Republic of Turkey. The Presidential palace is located in Beştepe neighborhood of Ankara, inside Atatürk Forest Farm.^[3]

In accordance with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's "New Turkey" concept, it is envisaged that the Çankaya Presidential Palace will become the Prime Ministerial compound and the president will move to the newly built palace. It was formally inaugurated as the official residence of the President of the Turkish Republic on the country's Republic Day, October 29, 2014.^[4]

Due to its construction being barred by the courts yet continuing regardless, it is regularly referred to as the Kaç-Ak Saray by opposition politicians and journalists, with the word kaçak in Turkish meaning 'illegal.'^[5] Erdogan suggested to use Cumhurbaşkanlığı Külliyesi, referrring to the mosque builded in the complex.^[6]

History

The palace was initially constructed to serve as the office of the Prime Minister. After Recep Tayyip Erdoğan won the August 2014 presidential election, he announced on September 2, 2014, that the building will be used as the new seat of the Presidency. The building was constructed inside the Atatürk Forest Farm (AOÇ), which was established by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in 1925. In 1937, he donated the farm to the state. In 1992 the farm was designated a first-degree protected site meaning that no construction should be done within its territory. On March 4, 2014, an administrative court in Ankara ordered the suspension of the palace's construction. The suspension order was supported by the Council of State on March 13. Erdoğan ignored the decision, saying "Let them tear it down if they can. They ordered suspension, yet they can't stop the construction of this building. I'll be opening it; I'll be moving in and using it".^[7]

Finance minister Mehmet Şimşek, quoted by Turkey's Hurriyet newspaper, said the construction cost of the palace would be 1.37bn ($615m), most of which had already been spent but another $135m had been budgeted for it in 2015.^[8][9] In December 2014, Turkey's state-owned Housing Development Administration (TOKİ) refused to divulge the actual construction cost on the grounds that releasing the information could hurt Turkey's economy, citing Article 17 of the Law on the Provision of Information. Tezcan Candan, head of the Turkish Chamber of Architects' Ankara branch, said the final cost could be over 5 billion liras.^[10]

Pope Francis was the first head of state hosted at the new Presidential Palace on 28 November 2014, during his visit to Turkey.^[11] Turkish architects had called on the Pope not to attend the ceremony at the "unlicensed" Ak Saray.^[12] A few days later, on 1 December 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin was the second foreign guest welcomed with the ceremony in front of the new palace.^[13] A welcoming ceremony for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on 12 January 2015 attracted controversy after President Erdoğan was pictured flanked by members of the presidential guard dressed in historic warrior costumes. Intended to represent the military costumes of 16 Turkic states, comments about their historical inaccuracy resulted in a viral social media joke about the guards at the presidential palace. The dean of Pamukkale University's Faculty of Medicine, Professor Hasan Herken, who tweeted "Do you know which Turkic state that man wearing a bathrobe represents?", later resigned his position after receiving death threats and protests by local youth branches of the AK Party.^[14]

Complex

Presidential complex

The compound consists of the main building and two other support buildings to be used for meetings with visiting heads of state and dignitaries. It covers an area of 300,000 m² (3,200,000 sq ft). Inspired by Seljuk architecture, the new Presidential Palace has at least 1,150 rooms,^[15] additional guesthouses, a botanical garden, a situation room with satellite and military communications systems, bunkers able to withstand biological, nuclear and chemical weapons attack, a park and a congress center. The complex employs high security measures with additional insulation against wiretapping. To prevent the planting of bugs, one of the offices in the palace has no electrical outlets.^[4]

Construction of the new presidential compound has still yet to be completed, including a new residence for the president's family with an estimated 250 rooms, a 4,000-person capacity mosque, and a culture center will also be built.

The Presidential Palace also has a special laboratory to detect nuclear, biological and chemical hazards which may be used as an attack against the President.^[16][17]

Şefik Birkiye was the lead architect of the saray.

C4I Bunker

The Presidential Palace compound is said to contain a top secret special operations command and control center housed in a secure bunker. The center has a 143 screened visual command centre which correlates data obtained from UAVs, MOBESE CCTV, TV and 3G transmissions from all 81 provinces of Turkey.^[18] The Gendarmerie, Disasters and Emergencies Management Directorate, the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK), Turkish Armed Forces and MIT can provide live feeds to the Presidential Command Centre.^[19] All data is archived in 2 special supercomputer servers to enable intelligence agencies to track back the paths of suspects. The Palace C4I system can target, track and follow individuals based on bio metrics and any 2D image of the target being uploaded into the system.

Criticism

The government has been criticized for the presidential palace due to its high cost and lavish furnishings and it continues to be a top agenda item in domestic politics, with opposition parties and nongovernmental organizations blasting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for wasting the nation's resources. In addition, reports in the media have alleged large-scale corruption during the construction process, suggesting that the construction company made profits exceeding 1,000 percent and violated regulations set by the Ministry of Environment and Urban Planning.^[20]

The cost of the imported glass used in the windows of the palace is more than TL 700 million, according to the Ankara branch of the Chamber of Architects. The figure, based on estimates provided by glass suppliers on the cost of glass with similar qualities, is about half of the total official cost of the entire palace, TL 1.37 billion. There was also controversy due to its extensive use of imported marble worth 3,000 euros per meter square. According to a statement released by the Ankara branch of the Turkish Union of Engineers and Architects' Chambers Bizassa marble imported from Italy will be used to decorate pools, bathhouses, saunas, and spas within the palace. Critics call the lavishness a waste of budgetary funds while President Erdoğan has shrugged off the criticism, insisting that the palace, which he said will be called the “Presidential Külliye,” boosts Turkey's reputation.^[21][22]

Gallery

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  Meeting room

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  Conference hall

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  Meeting hall

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cumhurbaşkanlığı Sarayı.

• Çankaya Köşkü
• President of Turkey

References

Coordinates: 39°55′52″N 32°47′56″E / 39.931130°N 32.798873°E / 39.931130; 32.798873