Turkey Pres. Erdogan's new 1000 room palace is 30 times larger than US White House, Erdogan destroyed historic forest reserve to make more space for palace

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11/5/14, "Turkey president's new palace 30 times larger than White House," english.sina.com

"President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's grandiose new presidential palace is costing Turkey more than $600 million, nearly twice previous estimates, the country's finance minister said Tuesday.

The vast new 1,000-room palace -- more than 30 times larger than the White House and bigger even than France's sprawling Palace of Versailles -- has been condemned by the opposition as an absurd extravagance....

Simsek also revealed that another new Erdogan acquisition -- a brand new Airbus A330-200 presidential jet -- has cost $185 million.

Erdogan held the first official event at the new presidential palace on October 29 to mark Turkey's annual republic day....
 
Civil servants and advisors working for the president are also likely to be housed in the palace....

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."

Image: "President Erdogan is pictured here at the foot of a staircase in the Ak Saray," EPA photo via BBC

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11/5/14, "Erdogan presidential palace cost soars for Turkey," BBC.
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"Hurriyet says the palace project was controversial because hundreds of trees were cut down to make space for it, in what had been 

a forest reserve bequeathed to the nation by modern Turkey's founding father, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk."...





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