{"id":17110,"date":"2014-10-29T08:37:48","date_gmt":"2014-10-29T08:37:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/erdogan-unveils-turkey-s-controversial-new\/"},"modified":"2014-10-29T08:37:27","modified_gmt":"2014-10-29T08:37:27","slug":"erdogan-unveils-turkey-s-controversial-new","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/erdogan-unveils-turkey-s-controversial-new\/","title":{"rendered":"Erdogan unveils Turkey’s controversial new presidential palace"},"content":{"rendered":"
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{{AFP}}-{Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday unveiled a new presidential palace on the outskirts of Ankara, denounced by ecologists as an environmental blight and by the opposition as evidence of his autocratic tendencies.}<\/p>\n

Erdogan hosted his first official event at the new palace, a ceremony congratulating dignitaries on the annual republic day marking the foundation of modern Turkey in 1923 out of the ruins of the Ottoman Empire.<\/p>\n

The complex, located in the Bestepe (Five Hills) area, has become known as the Ak Saray — the White Palace.<\/p>\n

An immense project — built at a reported cost of $350 million — has an area of 200,000 square metres (21,50,000 square feet), 1,000 rooms and architecture that is supposed to marry modernism and the traditions of the mediaeval Seljuk dynasty.<\/p>\n

Erdogan cancelled an evening reception that was to be held Wednesday evening at the palace because of a mining disaster in the southern Karaman province that has left 18 miners trapped.<\/p>\n

“It would not be appropriate to hold this reception at such a time,” Erdogan told reporters in televised comments inside the palace, before heading to the scene of the disaster.<\/p>\n

According to Turkish media reports, invitations for the reception had been sent out to 2,500 couples.<\/p>\n

The palace will become the new home of the Turkish presidency, marking an historic break with the Cankaya presidential palace in downtown Ankara.<\/p>\n

The Cankaya has been the seat of the Turkish president ever since the modern republic’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk became president and for many has been a symbol of Turkey’s modern history as a progressive secular state.<\/p>\n

From Ataturk to Erdogan, it has been the home of 12 Turkish presidents.<\/p>\n

The move to the new palace is a vivid symbol of what Erdogan touts as his drive towards a “new Turkey”.<\/p>\n

But for the opposition, the new palace marks another betrayal by Erdogan of Turkey’s secular heritage bequeathed by Ataturk who based the republic on a strict separation of religion and state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{{AFP}}-{Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday unveiled a new presidential palace on the outskirts of Ankara, denounced by ecologists as an environmental blight and by the opposition as evidence of his autocratic tendencies.} Erdogan hosted his first official event at the new palace, a ceremony congratulating dignitaries on the annual republic day marking the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000054734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-17110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-internationl","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000054734,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton17110.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton17110.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton17110.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton17110.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton17110.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton17110.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000054734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17110"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=17110"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=17110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}