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The curtains are open and we, the rabble, were finally able to pay a virtual visit to Reis Erdoğan’s summer residence, modestly known as the “Summer Palace” which we paid for with our taxes.
Located in the Bay of Okluk in Marmaris, Muğla district, there used to be a humble dwelling where the 8th President of the Republic, Turgut Özal, spent his summer holidays. It was demolished in order to erect Reis Erdoğan’s little cottage. Construction of the Summer Palace was completed in 2019 but remained surrounded by mystery, until the architect of the building, Şefik Birkiye, shared photos on her website…
Şefik Birkiye also designed 7 mosques, including the one imposed on Taksim Square in Istanbul and, among other profitable projects, the building housing Turkey’s Central Bank, built in Istanbul’s Finance Center…
For the palace, 640 million Turkish lira (59 million euro) were taken from the presidential budget between 2018 and 2021… Construction was done in great secrecy by the “Rönesans” enterprise. The palace, consisting of 5 separate elements sits on a piece of land of 92 000 m², with three blocks of lodgings added to the complex as living quarters for the staff servicing the great man…
A section of the shore measuring 10 966 m² was filled in with special sand to build up a private beach equiped with bungalows and pontoons for those refreshing little dips… Since landfill to shorelines is forbidden, several voices were raised questioning this artificial beach…
Before – After
With its 300 rooms – bedrooms, living rooms, leisure and reception areas – the palace greeted some of Erdoğan’s friends last summer, such as Edi Rama, Prime Minister of Albania and Ilham ALiyev, President of Azerbaïdjan…
Ilyas Tetik
Following the photographic revelations, indignant reactions rained down on social media, contrasting the constantly growing misery of the most destitute, and the daily increase of suicides caused by despair. To mention only one, that of Ilyas Tetik, a virtuoso violinist who took his own life after having performed for the most famous and popular artists in the country… He killed himself on July 5th.
Unemployment, poverty, problems of survival… Such is life under Erdoğan’s corrupt regime. As a matter of fact at the end of 2020, the famine threshold set by the TÜRK-İŞ Union at 3 146 TL (equivalent to 300 €) for a family of four, consisting of minimal food rations, was raised to 11 186 TL (equivalent to 1 100 €) as the poverty threshold, once lodging, clothing, transportation, etc were worked in. (Cumhuriyet — February 2021)
The minimum wage which stood at 287 € in early 2020 stood at 245€ by year end. The number of persons living under the threshold of famine and poverty has increased by 20% in one year.
According to the DİSK Confederation of Unions, unemployment stood at 28,8% in early 2021, the number of unemployed being of 10 million 382 thousand. Even the Turkish Institute of Statistics TÜİK, with its tendency of “masking” results, could not disguise this situation. Last May-June, close to 200 thousand people lost their jobs. Among youth, unemployment is even more severe, with 1 young person out of 4 being unemployed. Still according to DİSK, Turkey is the leading European country in number of suicides linked to economic problems. The number of poor, 23 million, increased by 700 thousand people in one year. (The Independant Turkish June 18 2021)
Recently, an AKP mayor allowed himself the following comment concerning an economic suicide: “If suicide could be linked to the economy, then, half the citizens would kill themselves.” In a way, he was thus acknowledging the country’s economic reality…Yet, these suicides exist, they are clearly identified by the messages left by the victims themselves and relayed in the media. In 2020, the average number of suicides in Turkey was of 9 persons per day. It should also be noted that there are also 40 times more attempted suicides… (The Independant Turkish June 18 2021)
This is why this Summer Palace for Erdoğan, at the taxpayer’s expense, provokes so much indignation and why the unacceptable comments by politicians and other AKP personalities, along with the headlines in the regime’s propaganda-spewing media illustrate this outrage…
Indeed, the recent headlines in “allied” media are indecent, as are those on social media, such as these, among others, on Takvim published under the headline “Do not go shopping before reading this article”, offering such good advice as “do not go shopping on an empty stomach, do not bring your children along” or the reportage in A Haber, claiming that “Long periods without eating prolong life”… We should also mention the documentary produced by the State TV station TRT, “How to Feed Off Garbage”. Considering how alternative lifetstyles, the fight against food wastage and pollution generated by garbage and transportation are not really defining features of the Turkish regime, no more than it is a frontline defendor of freeganism, it is easy enough to imagine how this documentary was received by the public…
We must also remember the benevolent advice against poverty of First Lady Emine Erdoğan. It is fresh in our memories, since these words were pronounced last June 30…
“Come, let’s take some simple measures: let’s prepare a shopping list before setting out, let’s reduced our portions.”
And so, in order to visit Erdoğan’s new summer palace, you are kindly requested to leave your shoes at the door.
The shoes left behind by Adem Yarıcı who immolated himself in Hatay at the end of February 2020…
Translation by Renée Lucie Bourges
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