A huge red sphere now sits in the heart of the modern center of Istanbul. With its brand new opera house, the Turkish government intends to position itself as a “city that matters” in terms of culture and it has put the small dishes in the big ones. Because in addition to the 2,040-seat opera house, there is also a theater, a bookstore, café exhibitions, and even a design store!
With this monumental project, Istanbul seeks to become essential on the international cultural scene. During the inauguration, Recep Tayyip Erdogan himself came. The president welcomed the construction of a place “where the pulse of culture and art beats” from Turkey. And a specially created opera was performed, telling the story of Mimar Sinan, a famous Turkish architect who built one of Istanbul’s main mosques. The Minister of Culture was quick to let it be known over the weekend that the conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, who came to give a concert, told him that the acoustics of the building were “the best in the world”.
The place chosen to erect the opera house made a lot of teeth cringe. It may have kept its old name, the Ataturk Cultural Center (AKM), it still sits on the ruins of this building, admittedly aging, but which was one of the symbols of the Turkish Republic and of the protests in Gezi Park in 2013. The residents who had mobilized to protest against the destruction of one of the city’s rare green spaces had been joined by hundreds of thousands of demonstrators and, to local ecological concerns, had been added national protests against the limitation of the sale of alcohol, the ban on kissing in transport, the war in Syria … The photos of the building covered with banners against the government had been around the world.
For Pelin Pinar Giritlioǧlu of the Chamber of Town Planners, there is no doubt that the government wanted to destroy the symbolic charge of the building. “According to the reports that have reached us, the building should not have been destroyed. It would have been enough to strengthen it. This shows that this decision has nothing to do with any desire to conserve the cultural heritage. “ Mucella Yapici, from the Chamber of Architects, adds. For her, these works are neither more nor less than a cultural massacre: “The far right wing of the government has long sought to match Taksim Square with their ideology.”
“Inside the AKM there is a red sphere. It represents an apple, a nationalist symbol. This building represents a great disgrace in the history of Turkish society.”
Mucella Yapici, architectto franceinfo
Because it’s impossible to miss the huge red sphere which stands in the entrance of the building. During the inauguration, a video showed it gradually turning into a Turkish flag. So it’s an understatement to say that with the mosque inaugurated a few months ago just opposite, Taksim Square has definitely changed its face.