Turkish authorities on Wednesday began demolishing illegal additions to a Russian oligarch-owned villa on the Bosporus following backlash over the negligence of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB).
The IBB has been under fire since the scandalous news broke last month that it allowed illegal construction atop the verdant hills of Istanbul’s two high-profile districts overlooking the Bosporus, one in the European Sarıyer district, said to belong to Halk TV owner Cafer Mahiroğlu and another in the Asian-side Üsküdar district’s Vaniköy neighborhood.
Media reports said Russian oligarch Boris Borisenko, a representative of Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich in Türkiye, secured the IBB's permission, claiming he would do interior repairs for the illegal villa in Vaniköy. He instead constructed seven separate buildings on the site over six months, cutting down over 100 trees, including mature beech trees, in the process.
In its defense, the IBB said it issued a simple repair permit for Borisenko’s request, arguing the work exceeded the scope of this permit.
According to the municipality’s statement, the site in Vaniköy contained two reinforced concrete buildings with four independent sections each, all of which had valid occupancy permits. Previous structures on the parcel were demolished, and the new construction sought repair and renovation permits from IBB.
The IBB, however, was accused of negligence when it was revealed that its officials had conducted weekly audits on-site but had not intervened with the illegal constructions.
While the Justice Ministry launched an investigation into the incident, the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change sealed off the construction site and sent a letter to the IBB to demolish the illegal additions since the Bosporus region falls under the municipality’s planning department’s jurisdiction.
On Wednesday, it said its Istanbul directorate would coordinate the demolition of the unlicensed buildings.
IBB Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu has been facing an onslaught of criticism for “bearing the responsibility” of the construction. Some have also accused the mayor of allowing Borisenko to build his villa in exchange for funding his trip to Paris during the Olympics earlier this summer, although there is no such evidence.
