Erdoğan's summer home continues to funnel millions after completion

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's summer home on the banks of eastern Turkey's Van Lake will continue to cost the Turkish public millions of liras annually despite its completion, the daily Birgün reported on Jan. 18. An annual 99 million liras were allocated to the mansion in 2021, after some 125 million liras were spent on its construction.

Monday January 18 2021 10:36 am

Duvar English

A whopping 99 million Turkish Liras were allocated to the maintenance of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's summer mansion in eastern Turkey, after construction has already cost Ankara some 125 million.

A budget of 99 million liras were allocated to the mansion on the banks of eastern Van Lake on the 2021 Investment Program, signed by Erdoğan himself, the daily Birgün reported on Jan. 18.

The presidential investment program projected a total of 89 million liras be spent on landscaping thousands of square-meters around the mansion, as well as building facilities and buying equipment in 2021.

The idea for building the Ahlat Mansion on Lake Van originally belonged to Devlet Bahçeli, Erdoğan's ally and leader of ruling alliance member Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), who suggested the project back in 2012.

Erdoğan put the construction in action in 2018, but the Turkish Constitutional Court ruled that the mansion violated legislation regulation construction on lake banks.

Erdoğan's summer house was completed despite the top court ruling, costing the country a total of 125 million liras in construction alone, although this item was kept out of presidential budgets by transferring ownership of the lavish home to the Youth and Sports Ministry.

Meanwhile, legislation passed at the end of 2020 cleared the path for construction on Turkey's lake banks, a practice that's been carried out by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) before it was legalized.

The construction company that completed the Ahlat Mansion belongs to Hasan Gürsoy, a classmate of Erdoğan from high school, who also completed Çamlıca Mosque, the Presidential Huber Mansion and the renovation of Istanbul's historic Galatasary University.