THE fate of Altinkum’s worst eyesore site – located less than 20 metres from Main Beach – is a little clearer after a key decision in a decades-old court case.
A judge has finally ruled in favour of the owners of the 20,000sqm fenced off plot that dominates the water front close to the Poseidon statue and opposite Didyma Shopping Centre.
The plot’s owners, the General Directorate of Foundations and Education, has won the right to cancel the tender that it initially put out ten years ago for the development of the site.
DİYAP İnşaat Tic.Ltd, the company that initially won the tender, sought to make a number of changes to the contract specifications which were rejected by the General Directorate.
The General Directorate wanted the contract to continue in its original form, but eventually cancelled the tender and the matter was legally contested.
After seven years of legal wrangling, a judge, on Friday June 13, ruled in favour of the General Directorate’s decision to cancel the tender.
However, the company has sought to appeal the decision, which could see the site, complete with its eerily neglected buildings and rusting play area to rot in full view of the thousands of tourists and residents for another summer season.
Hasan Solak, the company owner, said the original plans included a shopping centre, cinema and entertainment centre, and other facilities.
He lamented the fact that the legal fight had taken so long as Didim had moved on and seen an explosion in its population. But he believed he would fight on “as I firmly believe we have justice on our side.”
Nevertheless, the decrepit site, now locked again in legal dispute, will continue to be another long-running topic of conversation among expats and foreign tourists as to why such a prime site with fantastic views of the Aegean has been allowed to remain vacant.
The buildings and park area were already in decline before the General Directorate took it over as there have been suggestions the site had been long abandoned, may be as far back long as 1960.
Former mayor Mumin Kamaci, before he was deposed in April, had hinted the General Directorate may have been considering a new way forward after the legal dispute. He said: “It will be gratifying for the area to be returned to the people and a green space created for the enjoyment of everyone.”