Europe

Home page

Europe

Ä°stanbul mayor says authorities drew lessons from what happened in Taksim

01 June 2013 20:25 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Ä°stanbul Mayor Kadir TopbaÅŸ has said the city’s authorities have drawn necessary lessons from recent clashes between police and demonstrators protesting the planned demolition of Gezi Park in Taksim as part of a rejuvenation project in the area, APA reports quoting Todays Zaman.

“We drew some lessons from these incidents. If we could have provided people with detailed information about the project from the very beginning through billboards, everything would have been different and we would not have given some abuse this,” TopbaÅŸ said in self-critical remarks during an interview with NTV broadcaster.

Noting that he thinks most of the protesters acted on "false" information that trees were being chopped down in Gezi ParkÄ± and that the construction of Topçu Barracks began, he said environmentalist groups came to Gezi Park with “good intentions.” “I think the problems were caused by a failure in perception management,” he added.

TopbaÅŸ earlier said the current work in Taksim has nothing to do with the project to build a replica of the Topçu Barracks or a mall.

“A pedestrianization project is currently under way in the area. This project was unanimously approved by the City Council and we launched the project. … It is related to neither the Topçu Barracks [project] nor the shopping mall,” TopbaÅŸ said to allay the fears of the public which was outraged with news reports on plans of building a shopping mall at the Gezi Park.

“There is just a work concerning expanding the roads. The issue just concerns carrying some trees due to relocating some walls [of the park]. We are sorry for this environment which is misunderstood and misrepresented and abused by some,” TopbaÅŸ said at a press conference on Friday.

The Taksim pedestrianization project was approved by the government in February 2012 and includes the construction of replicas of previously demolished buildings in the famous square. The historic Topçu Barracks was a 35,000-square-meter building that was demolished by Ä°stanbul authorities in 1940. It is to be constructed in what is now Gezi Park, the site of the original Ottoman barracks. The ministry had previously announced that part of the garden in Gezi Park will be protected by the construction of the barracks because the structure will limit public access to it.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan said in April that new barracks to be rebuilt will become a shopping mall and a residential area.