The Turkish president has unveiled his new presidential palace on Wednesday amidst huge controversy.
Opposition politicians have mocked the extravagance of the palace – which has 1,000 rooms and is understood to have cost more than 270 million euros – and say it is evidence of the president’s autocratic tendencies.
Environmentalists are angry that the complex has been built on one of the city’s best preserved green spaces and that hundreds of trees were cut down.
It was originally planned as a palace for the prime minister but once Erdogan stepped down as prime minister and was voted in as president, the plans changed.
More than 4,000 people had been invited to an evening reception although media outlets critical of his policies were not on the guest list.
In the end the reception – to mark the annual Republic Day – was cancelled after the mining disaster in the south of the country.
