Top court approves Istanbul development that sparked protests

Turkey's top administrative court has removed its block on the controversial redevelopment of an Istanbul park that in 2013 sparked the most serious anti-government protests in years, a pressure group said today.
Istanbul authorities had planned to rebuild an Ottoman-era barracks on the site of Gezi Park, one of the few green spaces in the city centre, at the fringes of Taksim Square.
But the construction was blocked by court order after the mass protests in May-June 2013 that snowballed into a wave of public anger against the rule of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, then premier, and left eight people dead.

But the Taksim Solidarity pressure group, which monitors the issue, said Turkey's top administrative court, the Council of State, had reversed its previous decision to block the construction.
It denounced the authorities for putting "the pursuit of short term economic interests before our political, natural, historic and cultural assets" and said the decision was "evidence of the political pressure on the judiciary".
"The decision is devoid of all professional, ethical and scientific principles," it said.

The group warned that "Taksim Square and Gezi Park are no longer just under the protection of Istanbul and Turkey but under the whole world".

The court decision was taken on March 31, after a rare appeal by the municipality of Istanbul.
However the ruling was never communicated publicly and was first reported by the Cumhuriyet daily on Wednesday, before being confirmed by Taksim Solidarity.
Turkish opposition newspapers said that the ruling had been made possible because of the support of three pro-government judges who had joined the body in 2014.