Saudi Arabia seizes land inherited by Bülent Ecevit from his grandfather: A $2 billion property

The land inherited by former Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit from his grandfather, Hacı Emin Paşa, the Sheikh ul-Islam of Mecca who served in Saudi Arabia during the Ottoman Empire, has been expropriated by the Saudi Arabian government. No expropriation payment was made for the land, which is valued at $2 billion.

Hacı Emin Paşa, the maternal great-grandfather of Bülent Ecevit and the Sheikh ul-Islam of Mecca, established a large complex consisting of 5 foundations, 2 madrasas, and numerous libraries during his tenure. The area under the protection of Ecevit's grandfather, Hacı Emin Paşa, encompassed 110 dekars of land and real estate in the Al-Masjid an-Nabawi region.

HE WANTED TO DONATE IT TO THE STATE FOR TURKISH PILGRIMS

According to a report by Cem Yıldırım from Sözcü, Ecevit won the lawsuit he filed in 1992 in 2005. He then approached the President of the time, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, and expressed his desire to donate his inheritance to the state to be used for the service of Turkish pilgrims. The matter was forwarded to the Presidency of Religious Affairs, but no steps were taken in this direction.

THE ISSUE WAS BROUGHT TO PARLIAMENT

Following the lack of action regarding the land, the Saudi state expropriated the $2 billion property without paying for it. CHP Kayseri Deputy Aşkın Genç, who brought the land inherited by Ecevit to the agenda of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM), stated the following:

“There has been no concrete development to date regarding the transfer of the inheritance to the state and the exercise of rights arising from the real estate. The Saudi administration has not made the payments it committed to, including the price of the expropriated land. Lawyer Lale Beşe stated that the reason for this is that the King of Saudi Arabia was not granted zoning permission for Sevda Tepesi, which he had purchased in Istanbul.”

News Source: 12punto