TMMOB to bring Erdoğan’s lavish Ak Saray to European court; for violating Ataturk's last will.

TMMOB to bring Erdoğan’s lavish Ak Saray to European court; For violating Ataturk's last will. (HD).

The Turkish Union of Engineers and Architects' Chambers (TMMOB) announced on Monday that it will bring a case to the European Court of Human Rights claiming the lavish presidential palace, widely dubbed the AK Saray, was "illegally" constructed inside the Atatürk Forestry Farm (AOÇ) -- an environmentally protected area where construction is not permitted.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's luxury presidential palace, which was constructed on an area of 300,000 square meters in Ankara, continues to occupy the agenda in domestic politics. In the latest in a series of press briefings, on Wednesday TMMOB Ankara branch head Tezcan Karakuş Candan accused Erdoğan of ignoring several previous court orders to halt the palace's construction.

“All the domestic remedies have been exhausted. We were not the ones who were mistreated. It was the principles of the Republic of Turkey and the historicity of the Atatürk Forestry Farm. We are facing clear unlawfulness. It is very upsetting to see that we have nothing in hand even though all of the domestic remedies have been exhausted. We will therefore take the subject to the European Court of Human Rights,” Candan stated.

Candan also noted that Atatürk had donated the AOÇ to the state on the condition that it be left open to public use, and that therefore Atatürk's will has been violated as the area is no longer being used publicly. Read the full story here.

Turkey - 'The Battle of wills' has begun: Ataturk's Will against Erdogan's Will.

Turkey - 'The Battle of wills' has begun: Ataturk's Will against Erdogan's Will. (TZ).

An Ankara court has demanded to see the will and testament of the Turkish Republic's founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, in a case brought on the grounds that the will was violated regarding the Atatürk Forestry Farm (AOÇ), according to Tezcan Karakuş Candan, the chairwoman of the Turkish Chamber of Architects Ankara office.

Ak Saray, the name given to the new presidential palace, has been at the center of heated debates as Erdoğan has simply ignored a number of court orders to halt its construction. The orders were made because AOÇ is an environmentally protected area where construction is not permitted. Even after a court ruling in March of this year, when Erdoğan was still the prime minister, he said: “Let them demolish it if they have enough power to do so. They ordered an injunction, but they will not be able to stop it. I will open it and I will sit in it.” Hmmm....It was only a matter of time before the Islamists would clash with Ataturk's legacy, it has begun.Read the full story here.

In Erdogan's Turkey women employment in steep decline: UN official.

 Binali Yıldırım  is the current Minister of Transport of Turkey and a MP for Istanbul of the ruling Justice and Development and his wife.

In Erdogan's Turkey women employment in steep decline: UN official.(HD).In Turkey, although internationally commendable steps have been taken regarding gender equality over the last 10 years, female participation in the labor force has decreased 10 percent, according to a United Nations official.

The labor force participation rate for women, which was 40 percent in 2000, decreased to 27 percent in 2012 and in early 2013 has been less than 30 percent, the United Nations Gender Thematic Group Chair in Turkey and United Nations Population Fund representative for Turkey, Zahidul Huque, told the Hürriyet Daily News in a recent interview.

Lack of child care facilities and Turkey’s gradual move toward more conservatism may be reasons behind that, according to the U.N. official. Turkey has made significant progress in legislation on women’s rights, education and health, but in some areas Turkey falls behind, such as the gender inequality index, Huque said. Turkey ranks 77th out of 146 countries, according to the Gender Inequality Index (GII), which reveals gender disparities in reproductive health, empowerment and labor market participation.

When asked the reasons for Turkey regressing in female labor force participation, Huque addressed the limited scope of opportunities for women in senior positions. Noting that Turkey once had a female premier, interior minister and representation in the Supreme Court, Huque said, “But now you have only one minister and one governor. You can see that women are not really in the top positions in the country, although the government has declared a positive discrimination [affirmative action] strategy.”

Another argument he put forward for the decreasing ratio of women in the labor force is that “married women are not encouraged to come to work due to a lack of childcare facilities.”

“Secondly, maybe Turkey has been moving toward more conservatism, where Turkish men don’t want their wives to go to work. This is my observation,” Huque said. Turkey has a long way to go on reproductive rights, and has been regressing on the issue in recent years, Huque said, recalling that in 1994 Turkey was a leader of the International Conference of Population Development (ICPD ) regarding women’s reproductive rights and reproductive health.

“However, right now, the government is shying away from talking about reproductive rights. They talk about reproductive health. Reproductive rights ensures a couple, a woman or a man; it’s up to an individual to decide how many children they are going to have, when they are going to have them and how often they are going to have them. It’s being a little bit less talked about now.”

The U.N. official said they have observed that “access to reproductive health services for young adults is more difficult than it used to be.” “Society is becoming more conservative, government is also more conservative. Providers of help are also becoming less proactive in providing reproductive health education and services to young adults,” he said. Hmmmm......Slowly grinding down Ataturk's reforms.Read the full story here.