Erdogan’s New Lavish Mansion is Raising Eyebrows in Turkey

New photos of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s summer vacation mansion have been released, and it’s apparent that Turkey’s president has no reservations over displaying excessive luxury: the 85,000 square meter palace has five buildings and a pool, as well as an artificial beach made with a 10,966 square meter landfill–despite the town already being located on the coastal waters of Marmaris.

Şefik Birkiye, the architect who designed Erdogan’s mansion, revealed the interiors and exteriors of the estate today, nearly three years after its completion. The home reportedly cost 640 million liras ($73 million dollars), but is only a fraction of the value of Erdogan’s primary home–also designed by Birkiye– which clocks in at a whooping $615 million dollars.

Erdoğan'ın 640 milyon TL maliyetle Marmaris'e yaptırdığı 'Yazlık Saray'ının fotoğrafları ilk kez ortaya çıktı. Fotoğrafları Saray'ın mimarı paylaştı.

İşte Erdoğan'ın 'Yazlık Saray'ı: pic.twitter.com/VYdB97OhaD

— Aykırı (@aykiricomtr) July 5, 2021

The home was funded by the Turkish state and constructed over the course of three years between 2018 and 2021, a window in which the value of Turkey’s currency, the Lira, decreased, and the Turkish people faced extreme poverty.

Erdogan’s summer mansion was constructed despite the Turkish Constitutional Court finding that the estate was in violation of regulation against construction on lake banks. The construction of the property involved significant amounts of deforestation.

Erdogan’s Mansion flaunts his wealth

Many have criticized the Turkish government’s poor management of it’s resources, not least the Turkish people themselves. 99 million liras ($11,394,504) of the Turkish government’s money was siphoned into the construction and upkeep of the mansion in 2021 alone, a year in which the Turkish people struggled with poverty and starvation.

Erdogan’s wife, First Lady Emine Erdogan, made a statement last week suggesting people limit their food consumption to smaller portions in order to combat hunger, a solution that shifts responsibility from Erdogan’s government and its tendency to direct more money towards the president than the Turkish people.

Speaking at an event to celebrate the “Preserve Your Food, Protect Your Table” campaign, a collaboration between the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Turkish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, the first lady said “Let’s stop storing food that we know will spoil and buy only as much as we actually need,” she continued: “In one part of the world, children are in need of a bite of bread and a glass of clean water. In another place, tons of food goes to waste because people take only one bite and leave the rest of their meal.”

The comment was immediately met with outrage, with many Turkish people pointing out the hypocrisy of the first lady’s remarks.

“Emine Erdogan, if you reduce your portions of the meals cooked in the palace, the people [in Turkey] would be healthily fed,” one Twitter user said.

“Emine Erdogan, who carries a $50,000 handbag … and has private fashion designers,  gives advice [on austerity]. You feel no shame, do you?” tweeted another.