Main Ankara road briefly closed over court dispute

A controversial legal battle by a nongovernmental organization ended up with the closure of a major thoroughfare in the capital Ankara by a court, leaving hundreds of drivers frustrated in its wake. Hours after the rush hour passed, Ankara Municipality announced the road was reopened after the court ruled for its closure, suspending the implementation of its own verdict.

Ankara Boulevard, a 14.5-kilometer-long road connecting several districts, was shut down early yesterday after a local court sided with Turkish Chamber of Architects and Engineers (TMMOB), a nongovernmental organization claiming the road, completed in 2013, was illegally constructed in an area property of the Atatürk Forest Farm, a vast expanse of land that was once owned by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founding father of the Republic of Turkey. The farm, which had a status of preservation, is now public property operated by the same state that sanctioned the construction of the road. Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek, who is entangled in a legal dispute with the TMMOB in almost every project he has undertaken, had no choice but to implement the shutdown.

Concrete blocks, accompanied by huge banners reading the road was closed in accordance with the court order, were erected throughout the boulevard. Motorists who somehow did not expect the court order to be implemented were astonished when they saw the road closed. Gökçek helpfully pointed them where to vent their anger with large banners on the road reading the court order was due to a complaint by the TMMOB.

The TMMOB, meanwhile, attempted to shift the blame onto the Ankara Municipality. Tezcan Karakuş Candan, the head of the TMMOB's Ankara branch, said the municipality was supposed to have an alternative plan for transportation before closing the road. "You can't shut down a public road one day and make people suffer," Candan said, while insisting the road was illegally built and should be removed.

The road is used by approximately 350,000 vehicles every day, relaxing traffic in many areas of the capital including a road connecting the capital to Istanbul and western Turkey and districts of Bilkent, Sincan, Etimesgut, Şaşmaz, Eryaman and Batıkent.