Western Turkey hotel owner builds tower in defiance of prosecutors
Monday, November 8, 2010

VERCİHAN ZİFLİOĞLU

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Linguist and academic Sevan Nişanyan has defied an order to demolish his boutique hotels in the Şirince village of the Aegean province of İzmir by building a 12-meter tower at the site of his hotels.

“I defy [the authorities]. They’d have to kill me in order to make me give up on these houses,” he told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review.

The tower bears an inscription explaining the reason it was built. An opening was recently held for the tower with the participation of villagers.

The boutique hotels built by Nişanyan were the first examples of their kind.

16 lawsuits opened against Nişanyan

Nişanyan built the hotels in the early 1990s but 16 lawsuits were filed against him almost immediately after they started operating. Seven of the 16 lawsuits are for unlawful construction, two are for development pollution and the others are for breaking a seal.

A few years ago, a Şirince cultural and natural assets committee provided local authorities with its views on conservation in the area, said Fatma Sedes, an architecture and restoration expert at Istanbul Aydın University, but added that officials were not interested.

“We have also examined the Nişanyan Houses and have not seen any construction inconsistent with the historical fabric,” Sedes said, adding that since there is no law currently stating otherwise, additional structures should be allowed in line with existing regulations.

As the lawsuits continued, Nişanyan added 12 extensions inspired by Aegean architecture to his hotels between 2005 and 2006 and was sued again for the extra work.

“Many lawsuits have been filed against me, and the court ordered the destruction of all the buildings, including the poultry,” Nişanyan said, noting that his hotels had been shut down and that he had been threatened many times.

“In all these suits, the top limit of the sentences totals 10 years. All these court decisions are waiting at the court of appeal. They can issue an arrest warrant for me anytime, but I am not afraid. The prosecution process was accelerated due to an article of mine on [Turkish republican founder Mustafa Kemal] Atatürk.”

“It is not conceivable how such an atmosphere has occurred even though [new] laws are not ready. I think both parties are being obstinate with each other. A middle way can be found,” Sedes said.

‘I am not leaving Şirince’

After some alleged that the court cases against Nişanyan were due to his Turkish-Armenian identity, other villagers with unlawful buildings were also prosecuted.

Many Şirince villagers, however, have apparently supported Nişanyan. "They are the victims of the same rotten system and want someone to stand up for their rights. I believe that in time they will gain courage to stand up and fight for their rights themselves,” Nişanyan said.

Nişanyan said that despite all that he had gone through, he had not thought of leaving Şirince.

“I love traveling. But I have a debt to Şirince. It is not enough to travel the entire world like a tourist and enjoy all its beauty. I must leave something behind for the next generations,” he said.