The AKP government continues to collect money from the people calling it "donation" (often not so volutary) while transferring 125 million Turkish liras into the palace president Tayyip Erdogan is building in Ahlat, province of Bitlis, on the shores of Lake Van.

Likewise, 100 million TL have been put into the construction of a new 800-capacity prison in Erciş, also in the province of Van.

Erciş has a population of 200,000, Ahlat of 41,000. Some 85 percent of the people living in both provinces are poor and unemployed.

As states around the world use public resources to fight the coronavirus pandemic, Turkey is spending money to build Erdogan's palace and the new prison.

Palace for the president built by his old school friend

The construction of the palace for President Erdogan continues on the shores of Lake Van. The Constitutional Court had previously ruled for the canceling of the mansion project on the grounds that it violated the coastal law. However, this decision did not stop the construction of the palace. The cost of Erdogan's mansion increased from 30 million Turkish lira to 125 million.

The palace is being built by the Güryapı Contracting Company owned by Hasan Gürsoy, an old Imam Hatip high school friend of Turkish President Erdogan.

New prison in Erciş 

The construction of the new prison in Erciş has come to an end. It has been learned that 100 million Turkish lira have been spent in the prison, built on 64,189 square meters.

There are already 6 big prisons in Van and the construction of the new one is actually a concrete indicator of the hostility the AKP-MHP government feels for Kurds.