Istanbul Mayor announces Istanbul's 'Central Park' project

Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Kadir Topbas on Sunday announced a project for Istanbul's biggest park on a 500,000-square-meter area to the west of the city walls. Speaking to reporters while attending a suhur (a meal eaten early in the morning by Muslims before beginning the day's fast during Ramadan) with citizens at Istanbul's Sultanahmet Square, Topbas said, "When the Veliefendi Hippodrome is registered and becomes a protected area, we will have an area of 1 million square meters along with 500,000 square meters of land at Cirpici Meadow. This will be the biggest area in central Istanbul, a park like New York's Central Park and other parks in European centers."