A theme park inspired by the world-famous Disneyland opened its doors in Istanbul yesterday, May 26,2013. The project, located on 600,000 m² of land, is set to employ 4,000 people.
The biggest entertainment park in Istanbul, Vialand, has opened its doors with a ceremony attended by the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Vialand Istanbul close to the city’s Golden Horn region, claims to be the biggest shopping center with its park, aquapark, themepark and shopping center lying on a 1 million m² area in Eyüp district.
The project was launched in September 2011 and has employed nearly 1,000 people in the construction stage and 4,000 people upon completion.
The 600,000 m² project area, located within the Eyüp and Gaziosmanpasa Municipality borders, has the Transit European Motorway (TEM) to the North and the E5 Highway to the South.
Prime Minister Erdoğan said at the ceremony that the area used to be a stone pit when he was the Mayor of Istanbul between 1994 and 1998. Haliç, known as the Golden Horn, which connects to Istanbul’s Boshporus, had lost its habitat feature for sea animals but efforts were being made for it to re-gain its natural existence, Erdoğan said.
Erdoğan said it was a “love business” for him. “My people know that the AK Party [the ruling Justice and Development Party] holds its promises. We never cheated and we did not let anyone cheat us. Who would believe there was going to be a fun center in this area 10 years ago? Look now we have it. ... These are all about love. This is a business of love,” Erdoğan said.
Erdoğan also said his party could not stand idle by poverty and asked Vialand managers to set some free entrance days as well.
