Hotel and marina built on ancient city, Council of State cancels plan

In the Bodrum district of Muğla, they built tourist facilities, luxury villas, and a marina on a 1st-degree natural protected area containing the 4,000-year-old Ancient City of Termera, as well as Byzantine and Ottoman ruins. After a 6-year legal battle, the Council of State found the NGOs and environmentalists to be in the right and cancelled the plan. During their protests at the Anthaven Construction site in Aspat, NGOs, political parties, and professional chambers demanded that the licenses granted to the company be revoked and the buildings be demolished.

According to a report by Yaşar Anter from the Sözcü newspaper, the project, which began in 2018 and is alleged to have cost approximately 2 billion dollars, continued despite the EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) cancellation lawsuits filed by the TMMOB Bodrum District Coordination Board and was completed last year. A hotel, luxury villas, a marina, and restaurants were built in the ancient city.

Following the Council of State's cancellation of the plans, the TMMOB Bodrum District Coordination Board held a protest and press statement at the historic Aspat location in the Akyarlar neighborhood. Architects, engineers, political party representatives, and legal experts supported the statement.

Stating that the construction was completed despite all legal challenges, TMMOB Bodrum District Coordination Board member Mustafa Erdoğan said the following in his press statement:

We are at the foot of Çıfıt Castle; we are in Caria's Termera, Byzantium's Strobilos, the Ottoman's Sıravolos, and the now-ravaged Aspat of Halil and Gülsüm. We are in Aspat, where one of the high-rent-seeking projects of an understanding that does not take its share from the ancient cultures of these lands, and does not feel in the slightest how humans and nature live intertwined, continues to be realized, causing total natural and public harm.

'ASPAT TURNED INTO BANK DEPOSITS'

We are in Aspat, which until 8-9 years ago was largely alive with its history, soil, stream, trees, coast, modest facilities, and even its statues, but has now been turned into bank deposits with decisions and approvals that even circumvent the legislation!

We are here in Aspat to announce and share with the public that, with the decisions of the 4th Chamber of the Council of State dated 30.05.2024, with Case No. 2024/270 and Decision No. 2024/3548, and Case No. 2024/752 and Decision No. 2024/3549, regarding the lawsuit filed by the TMMOB Bodrum IKK which we have attached, the 'EIA not required' decisions—which are the basis for all decisions, approvals, permits, and licenses granted regarding the Anthaven project on plot 404 parcel 1, and plots 407 parcels 2, 4, and 6 in the Tuzla Aspat location of Akyarlar neighborhood, Bodrum district, Muğla province—have been definitively cancelled by the 4th Chamber of the Council of State, and to demand that the necessary actions be taken urgently by all relevant, authorized, and responsible institutions.

'IF THE EIA PROCESS HAD BEEN CARRIED OUT...'

If the cumulative EIA process had been carried out in accordance with the legislation, as clearly stated in the aforementioned Council of State decisions, instead of the unlawful process that lacks social legitimacy, Aspat would still be alive with its stream, trees, soil, history, coast, and wind. The 'rent coalition' is responsible for proceeding with 'EIA not required' decisions by breaking the project as a whole into low-capacity pieces, such as stream mouth dredging, tourism facility capacity increase, flood prevention and stream improvement, tourism accommodation facility and mass housing project revision, and yacht mooring and spur projects.

The Bodrum Municipality, which approved the construction project and its occupancy, must urgently cancel the granted licenses in line with the Council of State's decision. We are drawing public attention to the processes of seizing public property through lawless, illegal methods, which are almost identical across our country, as seen in the examples of Cennetkoy, Usuluk, Tavşanburnu, Adalıyalı, Gökburun, Saplıburun, Firenkazmağı, Ali Hoca Burnu, and Gerenkuyu on our peninsula.

'DO NOT TOUCH OUR SOIL, OUR WATER, OUR AIR'

We state that we know where and how they look at our fields, forests, wetlands, streams, pastures, mountains, and even our cities and villages, and that we will continue to protect our people and nature on the basis of rights, law, and justice so that zoning and planning processes are carried out with scientific principles and social benefit in mind, and we warn the rent coalition once again: take your hands, your eyes, and your ideas off our living spaces, do not touch our soil, our water, our air.

Former Muğla Chamber of Architects President Gamze Türk said, "Within 6 years, every time an 'EIA not required' report was cancelled, they managed to get a new one. The relevant ministry issued an 'EIA not required' report 3 times, and the courts cancelled them all. The municipality should not have issued a construction permit for a place where the 'EIA not required' report was cancelled, but they did. They successfully and cleverly bypassed the law and destroyed natural protected areas on the ruins of the ancient city. Now we want the municipality to cancel the licenses it issued; our legal struggle will continue."

'BYZANTIUM'S STROBILOS, OTTOMAN'S SIRAVOLOS...'

Legal expert Mehmet Çilsal also assessed, "This project reveals the administration's cooperation with companies. The administration is both the one that establishes the transaction and the one that does not apply the law. So, there is such a tragicomic situation. Nowadays, the administration is always in a state of cooperation with companies everywhere. All companies are in cooperation with the administration, and together they do not apply the law. In a state of law, this image should not exist. Justice that comes too late, unfortunately, does not restore the massacre of history and nature. It is a great pity for today's Aspat, which was Caria's ancient Termera, Byzantium's Strobilos, and the Ottoman's Sıravolos."