New land will be expropriated for Istanbul's third bridge

ANKARA – Anadolu Agency

A number of estates and “urgently needed” land will be expropriated for the construction of Istanbul’s third bridge across the Bosphorus.

A number of areas in Istanbul’s European-side districts of Başakşehir, Arnavutköy and Sarıyer, as well as the Beykoz, Çekmeköy, Sancaktepe, Sultanbeyli and Ümraniye districts on the Anatolian side, will be subject to rapid expropriation, according to a decision published in the Official Gazette on Jan. 14.

The government has been criticized for its recent decisions for urgent expropriation of the green areas affected by the construction of Istanbul’s third bridge.

The Official Gazette, where all laws and amendments are published, shows the increase in the Turkish government’s “rapid expropriation” decisions in recent years. In 2011, the cabinet decided on rapid expropriation in just 11 cases, a number that increased remarkably to 160 in 2012, according to the Sendika.org news website. The number of rapid expropriation decisions increased again in 2013 to 250, according to the Official Gazette.