President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan highlighted the importance of unity as he inaugurated the planting ceremony for a massive public park to be developed at the retired Atatürk Airport in Istanbul as the country celebrated the 569th anniversary of the conquest of the city.

A massive crowd of 560,000 people attended the ceremony, where the president, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Chairperson Devlet Bahçeli, Environment, Urban Planning and Climate Change Minister Murat Kurum and others spoke on Sunday.

"You are all beautiful people. You have shown that Istanbul is ready for the road to the 2023 elections," Erdoğan said.

The president noted that the People's Alliance is united and aims to reach its 2053 goals.

"Our vision that we are talking about today will become the truth in the future," he said.

The government plans to move ahead with plans to transform a large part of Atatürk Airport, the former aviation hub of Istanbul, into a public garden, one of many large parks that have been built across the country in recent years. The opposition, on the other hand, has defended keeping the airport intact, while authorities stress that it is no longer useful since the opening of Istanbul Airport.