Urbanization plan canceled for Bozcaada, says Turkish environment minister

A plan that would pave the way for widespread construction on the Aegean island of Bozcaada, one of Turkey's untouched tourism destinations, has been canceled, Environment and Urbanization Minister ?dris Güllüce has said.

The Environment Ministry has made a new arrangement and reversed all development decisions for the island so that the idyll does not become the site of massive construction, Güllüce said.

A new urbanization plan for the western provinces of Çanakkale and Bal?kesir which paved the way to opening Bozcaada to vast construction projects was announced in September 2014.

The plan projected granting licenses to build new "vineyard houses" and "agricultural plants" on almost 90 percent of the island's territories.

The move came after Bozcaada locals reacted against a smaller plan revealed in 2013, having filed a legal complaint in a bid to cancel the plan.

The new plan, which automatically canceled the plan from 2013, heightened concerns, as it foresaw the Aquarium Bay, a sun-kissed beach currently open to the public, as an "urban development area." The eastern parts of the island were also marked as "tourism facilities area" in the new plan.

Güllüce said they evaluated the objections made about the plan and decided there was no need for new development areas based on the population forecast of the islands of Bozcaada and Gökçeada, an island north west of Bozcaada, for 2040.

"We lifted all the development decisions except the approved sub-scaled plan decisions," said Güllüce.
Stating that supplementary arrangements were made to preserve the agricultural lands on both of the islands, Güllüce said organized agricultural and stockbreeding areas were planned.

"Organized agricultural...