The company which contracted the project from the government is widely reported on the internet as MultiTurkmall wholly or partially owned by Multi bv, a Dutch commercial developer of inner-city retail space in Europe. The name of the company is not officially announced by the Turkish government neither by the company itself.
According to the Turkish press reports of the project, parts of the Emek movie palace such as the ceiling and the ornaments will be removed from the theater before demolition and will be put back in place in the replica Emek theater which will be build inside the mall and placed side by side with other movieplex theaters inside the shopping mall.
Turkish Minister of Culture, High Council of Preservation of Natural and Cultural Entities, Istanbul Municipality and the Beyoglu Municipality where the movie palace is located have all approved this project.
In the face of public criticism, the Minister of Culture and Tourism Ertugrul Gunay, Istanbul Mayor Kadir Topbas and Beyoglu mayor Ahmet Misbah Demircan have all defended the project of demolition and the building of a shopping mall in TV programs and press interviews during the week of April 4-9. The Turkish Professional Engineers and Architects Association (TMMOB) had petitioned Turkish courts on March 12, 2010 to stop the potentially imminent demolition. The Minister of Culture has stated let's pray (hope) the project will go ahead without Turkish courts stopping it.
According to the court petition presented to the Turkish court by the Turkish Professional Engineers and Architects Association the demolition is claimed to be against the European Preservation of Architectural Heritage and UNESCO heritage preservation acts signed by Turkey. In a February 2009 article on Cinema Treasures, a website dedicated to movie theater preservation in the US, Emek is not only the most beautiful movie palace in Turkey but among the nicest few in Europe.
Unfortunately famous Turkish filmmakers and actors, are mostly mum on the subject. This is a tragic silence, especially so since it takes place when Istanbul is a European city of Culture for 2010. The biggest support for the movie palace comes from film and art lovers and those who would like to preserve a cultural heritage of Turkey and a handful of prominent Turkish actors and writers.
Our facebook group has over 7500 members since its founding in mid March. And over 3600 people have signed the petition. This website was opened end of March and since then thousands of people from all professions, architects, university professors, doctors, actors, writers, engineers, lawyers, university students, managers, economists, workers, art historians and people from virtually every profession have signed our petition to stop the demolition of Emek movie palace and support the transformation of Emek movie palace into a film center which supports both Turkish and World cinema by showing independant and art house cinema films to audiences.
IKSV, calismalarina yeni binasi Deniz Palas'ta devam ediyor. Lutfen yeni adresimizi not edin:
Istanbul Kultur Sanat Vakfi
Sadi Konuralp Caddesi, No: 5
Sishane 34433 Istanbul
T: 0 (212) 334 07 00
F: 0 (212) 334 07 16
Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV) has moved to its new building. Please note our new address:
Istanbul Kultur Sanat Vakfi
Sadi Konuralp Caddesi, No: 5
Sishane 34433 Istanbul
Turkey
T: +90 (212) 334 07 00
F: +90 (212) 334 07 16
