The mayor of Turkey's capital Ankara has been sued for using public money to build a 6m tall statue of a robot.

Turkey’s Chamber of Architects and Engineers (TMMOB), which brought the suit, told Hürriyet that mayor Melih Gökçek had “wasted taxpayer’s money.”

The statue was erected at a major intersection to promote the city's new theme park AnkaPark, which has been described as a “prestige project” by Gökçek.

Gökçek himself defended the decision, simply saying, "respect the robot." 

20 similar statues - which despite their likeness, are not legally allowed to be called transformers - will be built within the park.

TMMOB’s Ankara branch head Tezcan KarakuÅŸ Canda called for the plan to be scrapped:

“We must know how much each of these robots cost. We cannot accept the building of such a freak statue with our taxes.”