Two critical reports and claims for the treasury building

It is learned that the Middle East Technical University (METU) and the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization have prepared two separate reports for the Ministry of Treasury and Finance’s skyscraper building, which is said to be evacuated because it carries an earthquake risk.

The report prepared by METU is said to include information that the building can be made earthquake resistant through strengthening without the need for demolition. It is feared that the building will be demolished with the excuse of seismic risk and that the valuable 55 thousand m2 land will become a profit with the zoning change.

It was learned that if the building is evacuated, it is also on the Ministry’s agenda to move as a tenant to the TOGO towers, which are in court, or to one of the skyscrapers built in Ankara and which are empty.

THE WARNING SOUND COMES FROM THE DEVICE

The claims of “earthquake-resistant structure” in relation to the Ministry of Finance building, presented by SÖZCÜ, are attempted to be clarified with scientific reports. Last week it was claimed that the skyscraper housing Minister of Treasury and Finance Mehmet Şimşek’s office was not earthquake-proof, and staff were verbally ordered to leave their rooms and collect their belongings. It was known that suspicions about the risk of the building arose from the warning signals coming from the devices placed on the columns, which generated great concern.

TWO REPORTS WERE PREPARED

It was reported that measures were taken in response to the warning signals coming from the devices, help was requested from the METU to inspect the building, and the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization was also informed, and it was learned that both the university and the ministry carried out earthquake resistance tests on the building and prepared two separate reports.

WE REQUEST BOTH REPORTS

Ankara Chamber of Architects President Tezcan Karakuş Candan said they wrote an official letter to both METU and the Ministry of Environment to review the reports prepared on the building. Candan stated that they would have received more accurate information if the reports had reached them, saying: “In fact, this information should be given directly to the public. “There is nothing natural about the public finding out what is happening in a public building and what the real situation is,” he said.

Candan said that even if there are findings about earthquake risk in the reports, the building should be strengthened rather than demolished, and that there is no building that cannot be strengthened with current technology.

RENTAL CLAIM

Mayor Candan pointed out that the 55-decar plot of land where the ministry building is located is on the Eskişehir road, one of the most valuable places in Ankara, and said: “It doesn’t smell good to the nose. Previously, in the same profit axis, they wanted to demolish the provincial building of the Ministry of the Environment, right in front of METU, and replace it with a tourism and commerce area. It would become a rental with a zoning change. We filed a lawsuit and stopped it. Now we are concerned that the same method will be applied to the Treasury building, using the earthquake risk as an excuse. “We can never allow this,” he said.

WILL THE TREASURY BE BECOME A TENANT?

Candan also stated that they had heard that the building was planned to be demolished and sent as a tenant to the nearby TOGO building due to the earthquake risk. Stating that the TOGO towers were stopped and demolished by a court decision because they went against the zoning plan, Mayor Candan said: “We don’t know if the goal is to save the TOGO towers by handing over valuable Treasury land for profit and making the ministry a tenant under the excuse of the earthquake. “But the rumors we hear are not very pleasant,” he said.