(MENAFN- AFP) The gigantic new airport Turkey is building in Istanbul could be named after outgoing prime minister and president-elect Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the transport minister said Wednesday.
Turkey is building the airport on the outskirts of Istanbul to become a new global air hub as the city's existing main airport - named after the founder of modern Turkey Mustafa Kemal Ataturk - is at full capacity.
Comments by Transport Minister Lutfi Elvan on Wednesday raised the prospect the new airport could be named Recep Tayyip Erdogan International Airport, or "RTE" for short.
Elvan said that naming the airport after Erdogan was the least that could be done to thank him for his work in modernising the country over the last years.
"If there is stability in this country, if we continue to grow and our economic competitiveness continues to increase, we owe this all to Erdogan," Elvan told reporters in televised comments.
"He deserves it, if this is the case (that the airport is named after him)."
"Whatever is done will not be worthy of him, because he has given so much effort over the years," he added.
He was responding to a report in the Taraf daily earlier that the airport would be named after Erdogan.
The minister's remarks came three days after Erdogan was elected Turkey's new president, allowing him to extend his dominance over Turkey which began when he became premier in 2003.
Construction began this year of the new airport, which is billed as the biggest in the world. It should be operational by 2017.
The airport is just one of several ambitious construction projects Erdogan is spearheading, including the new tunnel under the Bosphorus, a planned ship canal in Istanbul and a high speed rail network for the whole country.
But opponents accuse Erdogan of increasing authoritarianism and megalomania, suspecting he wants to erode the secular legacy of Ataturk.
Along with Ataturk International Airport, Istanbul already has a second airport, which is named after the pioneering Turkish female aviator Sabiha Gokcen.
However it is distantly located on the Asian side of Istanbul and used mainly by charter flights.
Erdogan has already given his name to several facilities in Turkey, including a university in the Black Sea city of Rize and a stadium in Istanbul.
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