User:Hentschelc/BioIstanbul

Bio Istanbul is a controversial public-private partnership between the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization of the Republic of Turkey and the privately held Dutch Bio City Development Company B.V. It aspires to become the largest biomedical research park and biomedical innovation cluster in Turkey and the wider MENA region and is located 20km from the Ataturk International Airport in Istanbul and 25km from the historic city center. Bio Istanbul’s marketing improbably alludes to the region's first comprehensive tertiary care pediatric research hospital alongside commercial and non-profit R&D centers, as well as a graduate research university. Bio Istanbul is further branded in sales literature as the regions pioneering ‘smart city’. Following the Gezi park riots media coverage in Turkey is polarized as to whether such projects will in fact deliver the societal benefits claimed or will simply accelerate the destruction of the few undeveloped green spaces in and around Istanbul. A recent article in the English language Hürriyet Daily News has likened the disconnect between such claims and likely realities as similar to George Orwell's 'doublespeak' in his novel 1984.