ISTANBUL It all started with asphalt. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan promised in his election campaign that 15,000 kilometers of four-lane roads would be built in Turkey.
The promise interested the Turks, because they had been driving on narrow and dangerous roads for too long. Good roads were rare at that time. The year was 2002.
And yes, Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party won the election.
You came too. The new roads built by Erdoğan were mostly rough oil gravel and without level crossings, but you could pass them more safely than the old roads.
It’s been a couple of decades since Erdoğan’s first election promises were fulfilled, but the construction frenzy just keeps going.
As long as Erdoğan has been in power, i.e. since 2003, giant buildings and other large-scale construction sites have been erected in Turkey.
For this article, we went through the president of the Turkish Association of Architects Eyüp Muhcun with the most significant construction sites with which Erdoğan has shaped Turkey to his liking.
Erdoğan’s construction projects are often related to religion or traffic. The construction of mosques accelerated at the beginning of Erdoğan’s reign, and one new mosque stands above the rest.
A mosque for a population the size of Vaasa
On the shores of Istanbul’s Bosphorus, you can’t avoid seeing the huge Çamlıca Mosque on the hill on the Asian side. On a weekday, the mosque is almost empty, and groups of schoolchildren and tourists roam the huge courtyard.
When all the facilities are in use, more than 60,000 people can pray here. It means that almost all residents of Vaasa could gather here. However, some would have to find a place in the courtyard.
The mosque has carefully thought-out details, such as four immense minarets. Their height is exactly 107.1 meters.
The height refers to the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, which has an important meaning in the history of the Turks highlighted by Erdoğan.
The interior of Çamlıca has a carpet of 17,000 square meters, or more than two football fields. In the text engraved on the marble slab, the president hopes that the mosque completed in 2019 will serve as a beacon of light for centuries.
The Great Mosque is therefore a symbol of the value of religion in Erdoğan’s empire. According to Architects’ Association Eyüp Muhcu, it is also an example of a wrongly placed building.
– A mosque erected on a high hill is in the wrong place in terms of the environment and urban planning, and it breaks the city’s silhouette, says Muhcu.
Muhcu has other things to point out about the building. He is outspoken like some other Turkish architects, and that annoys Erdoğan.
Architects in prison too
When Erdoğan became prime minister 20 years ago, the Islamist politician seemed to have emerged into a reformer who promised to promote Turkey’s EU membership and human rights.
But over time, Erdoğan became more authoritarian, especially after he became president in 2014.
Now power is concentrated in Erdoğan. Most of the media and the judicial system are under the control of his administration.
Journalists, scientists and politicians who criticize the president end up in prison. There are also architects in Turkish prisons.
According to Muhcu, the Çamlıca mosque built by Erdoğan does not conform to Islamic building traditions. Mosques were not usually built alone on top of a high hill.
Overall, according to the Turkish architect, the mosque is a poor copy of the historical Ottoman-era mosque.
– It was built because President Erdoğan personally ordered it, Muhcu states.
The palace as a symbol of the new Turkey
Erdoğan has spoken many times about Turkey’s growing prestige and its role as a large and influential state. After he was elected president in August 2014, a huge new presidential palace was completed in Ankara.
There is conflicting information about the exact total surface area of the buildings. Turkey according to the architects’ association (you will switch to another service) the roof area of the palace is estimated to be 35,000 square meters.
The buildings have several floors. The total area is estimated to be around 150,000 square meters, i.e about 1,000 medium-sized detached houses (you switch to another service).
– We asked for information about the construction project, but it was never given. There is no certain information about the surface area or even the number of rooms, says Muhcu of the architects’ association.
“You can’t save prestige”
When wondering about the size of the palace, Erdoğan stated that the 1,000 rooms mentioned in the public is not correct, there are about 1,150 rooms. The president also pointed out that the palace is not his personal property (you move to another service).
For those wondering about the expenses, the presidential administration has also answered that you can’t save on the state’s prestige (you switch to another service).
Magnificent buildings are the message of an autocratic leader to the people, Muhcu of the architects’ union explains and mentions – not so flattering – examples from history:
– Once upon a time, Hitler and Mussolini built huge buildings to show their citizens their power. They are a means of showing strength.
The presidential palace was built by what has been described as the father of non-religious Turkey Kemal Atatürk to the forest farm he founded, and according to Muhcu, that too is a message of a new era.
– The autocratic and old-fashioned administration builds its palace here to tell that times have changed.
Istanbul Airport is Erdoğan’s dream project
One of the biggest construction projects in recent years is Istanbul’s new airport. Last year, the airport was the busiest in Europe with 64 million passengers (switch to another service).
A new field was necessary, but there is also a lot of prestige attached to the field.
In October 2018, the first plane to land on the new and at that stage unfinished field was the president The plane carrying Erdoğan, with an enthusiastic president seen in the cockpit (go to another service).
Construction is the use of power
Even some of the president’s critics admit that the construction boom has also brought good things.
Especially in the early part of Erdoğan’s reign, health care developed, although there has been disagreement about the functionality of the gigantic hospitals, with even more than 3,000 places.
According to the opposition big public contracts go (you move to another service) usually for a few companies close to the government.
Construction in Turkey is largely an exercise of power, and everyone knows that.
– The public has a clear image that construction companies pay for contracts, says Eyüp Muhcu of the architects’ association.
Some of the media supporting President Erdoğan are also owned by construction companies.
Next in sight is the Bosphorus
Today, Sunday, there are elections in Turkey. According to Erdoğan’s critics, his election victory would cement an authoritarian system, and the persecution of opponents would intensify.
What about the construction side, what would be known there? Now we know Erdoğan’s architectural legacy.
There would be more construction. The wildest of the future construction sites is the plan to dig a canal bypassing Istanbul’s Bosphorus on the western side of Istanbul.
An ecological disaster is looming, say the opponents. The Marmara Sea south of Istanbul may become a pollution sink as nutrients and pollutants stored in the Black Sea are released by changing currents.
But before any projects can move forward, Erdoğan must win the elections.