Yass?ada 'Democracy Island' construction project started

A construction project on the uninhabited Yass?ada, a small but infamous island located off the coast of Istanbul?s Asian side in the Marmara Sea, was officially started on May 14 in a ceremony with the participation of the prime minister.

The island, renamed ?Democracy and Freedom Island? after the approval of the provincial assembly on Nov. 7, 2013, will host a museum and a congress center. Government officials hope to turn the island into an attention point for cultural and historical tourism.

The ?flat island,? one of the smallest of the picturesque Princes? Islands archipelago, is known as the island where the political brass of the once-ruling Democrat Party was exiled prior to the 1960 military coup.

Turkish politics was indelibly marked by the executions of former Prime Minister Adnan Menderes, Foreign Affairs Minister Fatin Rü?tü Zorlu and Finance Minister Hasan Polatkan after they were tried on the island. 

The latest project was launched by Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu at a groundbreaking ceremony on May 14 on the island.

?This place will be utilized for peace talks that we intermediate, democracy workshops, and as a congress center.  The court hall, where Menderes, then-President Celal Bayar, and other defendants stood trial, will be preserved as it is and handed down to future generations, so that nobody will ever dare to make a similar attempt,? Davuto?lu said at the opening ceremony.

He said a ?democracy museum? would be built on Yassiada to commemorate the ?heroes of democracy,? referring to the politicians who were exiled there. 

Davuto?lu called upon opposition parties to hold a symbolic assembly of the Turkish Parliament on the island on May 27, the anniversary of the 1960 coup d?etat...