The £400 million palace of Turkey’s President Erdogan is the biggest in the world. It is also a monstrosity. Thirty times the size of the White House, all the seats of government of Turkey’s Nato allies could be contained inside its vast marble halls and endless corridors.
No wonder the sprawling modernist structure is compared to the People’s Palace built by Romania’s dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. It actually looks more like a massive public lavatory. Saddam himself would blanch at the silk wallpaper in the bathrooms, the cabinets displaying gold inlaid glasses that cost £250 each, and the 63 lifts. The carpet bill was a staggering £7.8 million.
It was here that blood was shed during the botched coup. And it is in its absurd dimensions that we can learn so much about the overweening, ego-inflated ambitions of its prime resident – and, more critically, of the dangerous consequences of the failed putsch. The stakes could scarcely be higher.
From his humble beginnings, Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s rise to the top ought to be a classic heart-warming story. But his taste in mega-architecture reflects a personality that has more in common with the most grandiose of Ottoman Sultans. The high-handed way in which he overrode normal rules and budgets to push through his gigantic living memorial is why critics call him an elected dictator. Full story...
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No wonder the sprawling modernist structure is compared to the People’s Palace built by Romania’s dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. It actually looks more like a massive public lavatory. Saddam himself would blanch at the silk wallpaper in the bathrooms, the cabinets displaying gold inlaid glasses that cost £250 each, and the 63 lifts. The carpet bill was a staggering £7.8 million.
It was here that blood was shed during the botched coup. And it is in its absurd dimensions that we can learn so much about the overweening, ego-inflated ambitions of its prime resident – and, more critically, of the dangerous consequences of the failed putsch. The stakes could scarcely be higher.
From his humble beginnings, Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s rise to the top ought to be a classic heart-warming story. But his taste in mega-architecture reflects a personality that has more in common with the most grandiose of Ottoman Sultans. The high-handed way in which he overrode normal rules and budgets to push through his gigantic living memorial is why critics call him an elected dictator. Full story...
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