Source: BBC Turkey https://www.bbc.com/turkce/haberler-turkiye-41885880
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan attended the introduction of the Atatürk Cultural Center (AKM) project in Istanbul. Erdoğan said regarding the project, “I got your word, it will be finished in the first quarter of 2019.”
Speaking at the introduction program held at the Haliç Congress Center, Erdoğan said that the AKM is no longer usable.
Erdoğan stated that the resistance against the demolition of the building is ideological and continued his words as follows:
“After protests, lawsuits, campaigns and all the fights and noise, we have finally come to the path of science, reason and logic. With the project to be introduced today, the demolition and reconstruction process of the Atatürk Cultural Center has begun. Turkey can only start today for a job it should have done 10 years ago. I am very sorry for this. Because we will have long since finished the AKM and put it into the service of our nation. Who will account for the 10 years our country has lost?”
AKM new building
‘The same mentality that tries to prevent the fight against terror’
Erdoğan also said that the resistance to the demolition of AKM is a lobby activity:
“There is an institutionalized lobby in our country that considers it a skill not to let anything happen, that uses the gaps in the system and even receives serious support from outside. We had identified this lobby the day I became the Mayor of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality. We became Prime Minister, we saw that this lobby was carrying out the same activity everywhere.
“We became President, we encountered extensions of the same lobby all around the world. The mentality that opposes the reconstruction of the AKM is the same as the mentality that tries to prevent the fight against terrorism,” he said.
Erdoğan also said that the entire Taksim Square will be pedestrianized and vehicle traffic will be completely moved underground.
Chamber of Architects and art professional groups react
A joint statement issued by groups including the Chamber of Architects Istanbul Metropolitan Branch, State Theaters Opera and Ballet Employees Solidarity Foundation TOBAV, Theater Actors Professional Union TOMEB, Cinema Workers Union SİNE-SEN and Culture and Art Workers Union stated that a crime was committed with the new AKM project.
The statement prepared on Friday stated, “We have learned with great regret that the Atatürk Cultural Center, one of the most important structures and symbolic value of our Republic-era cultural and architectural assets, which is under protection according to national and international protection principles, will be demolished and a larger and new one will be built in its place, and that the new project, which was prepared and approved in secret from the public, will be announced by President Erdoğan himself on November 6.” The declaration also emphasized that AKM is registered as a “1st group monumental structure”.
AKM new building
‘Opera building will have a capacity of 2,500 people”
The new AKM project was prepared by Murat Tabanlıoğlu, the son of the architect of the original building, Hayati Tabanlıoğlu.
Tabanlıoğlu said, “The newly constructed building, the opera house inside it will have a capacity of 2,500 people, it will be among the largest operas in the world. It will also have a concert hall for 800 people, a theater hall, a chamber theater, libraries, cafes and restaurants. It will be a building that we can use 365 days a year. There is another important thing. Operas were usually places where rich families went. But now operas should be places where we all go, ballets should be places where we all go. “We will turn the entire facade into a giant screen so that various ballets and operas can be shown outside while the performances are being held inside,” he said.
AKM new buildingSOURCE, HÜRRİYET
Photo caption,AKM’s new building will have a capacity of 2,500 people
The new building to be added to the existing AKM will have a theater hall for 800 people, a conference hall for 1,000 people, a cinema for 285 people, a room theater for 250 people, an exhibition hall, a library, and a parking lot for 885 vehicles.
It was used as a police station
The AKM, which was the first opera house in Turkey and whose foundation was laid in 1946, was opened in 1969 under the name of Istanbul Cultural Palace. It became unusable after a fire in 1970. It was reopened in 1978 after renovations.
AKM was closed for renovations in May 2008.
The building was used as a police station for over a year after the Gezi protests.