The parliament building is located in Patara, which was the capital of ancient Lycia, in modern-day Turkey's Antalya. The first stage of the restoration of the building, which hosted the oldest known democratic federation, the Lycian League, has begun and is expected to continue through the end of this year.A New York Times report in 2005 titled “A Congress, Buried in Turkey's Sand” put the spotlight on Patara, noting that some of America's founding fathers referenced the league as they worked on a model for the United States' own republican government. The building is now being restored under the auspices of the Turkish Parliament.
It is hoped that next year the building that housed the Lycian League's Patara Parliament, which served as a model for modern Western administrations with its constitution and procedure, will host the heads of the world's parliaments. In a statement to the Anatolia news agency, Patara site chief Professor Havva İşkan Işık said the first stage of restoration work would continue until the end of the year, noting that the building was built in the second century B.C. and can seat 1,455.
Işık said the Lycian League had a proportional representational system wherein cities in the league held a number of votes that was determined according to their size in terms of both their economies and populations. In the Lycian League, smaller towns could come together and exercise a joint vote to combine their power, allowing everyone to be represented and for power to be distributed, she said.
Major refitting of the building is slated to begin at the beginning of 2010, Işık said. “We are trying to get the building ready in time to host the 2010 World Parliament Speakers Conference the Turkish Parliament plans to organize,” she said.
The Lycian League, established in 168 B.C., was the first democratic parliament in history and has been described as “the best of the ancient democracies.” It was the first “national” league and the first democratic one in terms of its structure. While in the Athenian parliament leaders stayed in office for life, in the Lycian League's Patara Parliament, the head deputy was chosen anew from a different city every year. The deputies and administrators in the government were largely civilians. There were 1,455 seats in the parliament building and women also served, even in the top parliament spot.
