Hande Yılmaz - Problematizing Urbanization

Problematizing Urbanization: Urban Transformation in Turkey: Urban transformation process in urban and rural areas gathered speed over the years in all around the world. The causes of the increasing urban transformation could become varied, but in this essay we will focus on the main causes and effects of the urban transformation of a particular country which is Turkey. Also, we will examine several transformation cases that caused a huge impact on the economical, sociocultural and urban condition of the area. While doing that, we will discuss the urban transformation process in Turkey with a judgmental approach because of the fact that it has reached to it’s extends especially in recent years and became an immense deal for the local community. We can discuss the process with primarily understanding what urban transformation is.

“Urban transformation means the operation of specifying the urban areas which contains the building that have the risk of collapsing at natural disasters such as earthquakes and changing the area for making it to be more liveable and enduring. The law predicts to remaking the buildings which completed their service life at the urban and rural areas of Turkey with utilizing the construction credit, rent support and municipality tax advantages that government provides. Urban transformation aims to prevent the construction of unlicensed buildings and eliminates the unpleasant appearance of the old, irregular buildings that effects the impression of the environment in a negative way. It also bears on providing the local communities their modern needs such as cultural centers, parks and entertainment areas” (Kentsel Dönüşüm Nedir?). Because of the unexpected growth of the country, the infrastructure and social services have improved severely and the Turkish government started to apply urban transformation through sudden. But while transforming the country with the way of demolishing what have been there all the time and placing it with something else that rapidly, the government ignored the consultations with citizens. Urban transformation practices were not systematic at all and they were visibly one sided decisions, which were unrealistic and devastating. “Therefore, protests started in İstanbul’s Taksim Square in response to the Taksim renovation project” (Pierini, 2013). These protests started as insignificant events yet, they turned into a major headache for the Turkish government in the process of time. Now, the government is asked to include citizens to the decisionmaking process somehow and give them the chance to direct the changes and transformations more ,as the way they like, which can be explained by the fact that the citizens are the ones that will experience the new transformed area.

There are many other important case examples of the urban transformation in Turkey. “In 2005, there has been a major inflow of European direct investment in Turkey as the reason of opening of the EU accession negotiations at that year. The country became an important source of European manufacturing industries. This growth caused

improvements of Turkey’s services and infrastructure, including airports, roads and highways, high-speed railroads, utilities, hospitals, universities, and museums. Because of the economical success bringed by being an important source for Europe, government provided İstanbul’s candidacy for the 2020 Olympic Games” (Pierini, 2013). Also, governtment tried to find solutions for the growing road and air traffic by thinking of constructing a new third bridge over the Bosphorus and a third airport for İstanbul. These megaprojects have predictable and huge impacts on the ecosystem in and around İstanbul that government have to consider. The importance and susceptibility of these environmental impacts can be understood by thinking of the need of destroying of the forested areas by constructing these megaprojects which need grand empty properties. With this case example, we can draw a conclusion that, people are not the only ones who got affected from the urban transformation, but the other creatures and natural elements of the urban area would also got affected substantially. Government should not undervalue the importance of the nature and it’s necessity to making a mutually benefiaical bond with the urban life. Similarly, the “Kanal İstanbul” project, a canal linking the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara that will run in parallel to the Bosphorus, would have the similar effects if it carried out. In fact, this project would not just affect Turkey, but the close countries as well such as Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Russia, Georgia, and Greece. The project had a wider scale than the previous examples and it aimed to protect the urban area of İstanbul from accidents and pollution resulting from increasing marine traffic. It also had the threat of affecting the sea temperature on both sides of the canal. “Other projects are more directly related to İstanbul’s urban transformation: Galata Port, the transformation of the Haydarpaşa rail terminal into a hotel, the redevelopment of Taksim Square, and renovations in the districts of Süleymaniye and Tarlabaşı” (Pierini, 2013).

All of these projects show that government has a purely economical manner when making decisions about the urban transformation process.

Besides it’s effects on the environment and urban pattern, the urban transformation is also associated with the social fabric. The current wave of urban transformation has massive cultural and socioeconomical effects such as otherization and elimination of some minority groups in Turkey.

Roma people are the most remarkable example of these groups which got obligated to leave their houses and they had no other choice. The Sulukule neighborhood was historically been inhabited by Roma communities until the government demolished the neighborhood and the local texture to make way for a renovation project. A 2012 report by the Open Society Foundation (2013) concluded that: “Evictions are about more than property; they interrupt the entire life, education, employment and progress of a family, possibly irreparably, and hasten the decline of the Roma people. Evictions must be viewed and addressed in this light.”

In conclusion, we examined some specific cases of the urban transformation in Turkey. As we saw in the cases, the uncontrolled construction led the urban transformation to deviate from it’s main and basic purpose and started to restrict the life of the citizens. The

government should abstain from being the only decision maker in this process but it should include the citizens themselves, cooperate with them and give them the opportunity change things, give them a greater voice at the decisionmaking process. It also harms the natural environment because of the government’s intention to make way for the new construction projects even if it means to demolish the existing nature which can’t be replaced as easily as the concrete buildings. Government should be more systematic and it should foresee that the comeback of harming the natural environment would be much more unable to carry through. The another main important result of the urban transformation is elimination of the ethnic groups by demolishing their houses. The government should ensure proper places for these minorities to stay after their removal from their original houses and preserve their cultural environment and neighborhoods.

Bibliography: 

yereldemokrasi.net. Bölgesel İdare ve Yerel Demokrasi. [online] Available at: https://yereldemokrasi.net/nasil-mudahil-olabiliriz/yurttas-haklari-el-kitabi/bolum-ivmeraklisina-notlar/kentsel-donusum-nedir [Accessed 9 Jen. 2019].

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Pierini, M. (2013). Urban Transformation in Turkey. [online] carnegieeurope.eu.

Available at: http://carnegieeurope.eu/2013/06/20/urban-transformation-in-turkeypub-52142 [Accessed 9 Jen. 2019].

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Torus, B. (2016). Urban Transformation in İstanbul. [online] Available at: http://www.mukogawa-u.ac.jp/~iasu2016/pdf/iaSU2016_proceedings_305.pdf

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Eğercioğlu, Y. (2016). Urban Transformation Processes in İllegal Housing Areas in Turkey. [online] Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042816304074