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University College London Development Planning Unit

Table of Contents 2 3 4 5

Introduction The Issue... About the report Theoretical framework Objective

12 13 14 15 16

Setting the scene Turkey... the state Istanbul... the city Sulukule...the neighbourhood

17 18 19 22

Methodology and Analysis Methodological Framework Analysis Tools: Identifying assets Problem tree Identifying Stakeholder Mapping Meetings Workshops Secondary resources

27 28 30 30 32 35 37 49 50 54

1 2

4 Action Projects

Table of Contents List of Figures and Maps Acknowledgement Excutive Summary

5 6

Findings

Towards Local Development Plan [LDP] Deﬁning LDP Area Guiding Principles Priority Action Programme

65 66 68 70 74

Action projects : 1. Halt Demolition in Hatice Sultan & Neslisah 2. Neslisah Land Development Association 3. Building Community through MultiFunctional Organized Community 4. Sulukule Business Development Unit 5. Housing Improvement in Sulukule 6. A Study for Recycling Opportunities 7. Astudy for potential uses of Heritage as a Platform for Local Development .

75 80 86

90 96 107 115

Conclusion

127

Appendix

131 2

List of Figures & Maps List of Figures:

List of Maps:

Figure 1 : Methodology Framework Figure 2 : Identifying assets for Istanbul , Fatih and Sulukule Figure 3 : Problem Tree Figure 4 : Typical Urban Stakeholders Diagram Figure 5 : Stakeholders Diagram in Sulukule Development Figure 6 : The Relationship between Action project, PAP and LDP Figure 7 : The Structure of the action project and the link to PAP and LDP Figure 8 : Matrix of Guiding Principle Vs. Action Projects Figure 9 : Halt Demolition in Hatice Sultan and Neslisah Framework Figure 10 : Neslisah Land Development Association Project Time Chart Figure 11 : Neslisah Land Development Association Figure 12 : Sulukule Business Development Unit Framework Figure 13 : Housing Improvement in Sulukule Framework Figure 14 : Guide for Housing Improvement in pilot action Project Figure 15 : Kuru Street Pilot Project Figure 16 : The activites of A Study for Recycling Opportunities in Sulukule action project Figure 17 : The structure of the activities of ”study the potential uses of cultural heritage” action project. Figure 18: The activites’ timeline for “study the potential uses of cultural heritage” action project

Map 1 The site Plan for the Municipality Proposal Map 2 The boundaries of Romani community of Sulukule, Fatih Municipality Development Plan, UNESCO World Heritage Site Map 3 The types of open spaces in the study area Map 4 Empty plots, demolished buildings and physical condition of buildings Map 5 Land uses Map 6 Main streets and circulation Map 7 Streets activities Map 8 The three identiﬁed sections of the Theodesian Wall Map 9 Mapping of the Main characteristics for the Theodesian wall Along Sulukule area Map10 The location of the open spaces adjacent to the wall Map11 The selected area for LDP in relation to Sulukule Neighborhood, Hatice Sultan and Neslisah Mahalles, Municipality Development Plan, World Heritage site Map 12 The selected area for Priority Action Plan in relation to LDP area, Hatice Sultan and Nesllesha Mahallas and World Heritage Site Map 13 Location on one street Pilot Housing Project

Acknowledgment We would like to express our gratitude to the people that have helped us with the project: Alper UNLU Asli KIYAK INGIN Funda Oral Gulden KALAFAT Egemen YILGUR Korhan GUMUS Hacer FOGGO Mustafa CIFCI Sukru PUNDUK Ugur OLCA

Professor, Istanbul Technical University Human Settlements Association Human Settlements Association Human Settlements Association Romani student, Bilgi University Human Settlements Association Accesible Life Association Fatih Municipality Sulukule Romani Culture & Development Association European Right Centre Lawyer

We would also like to express our gratitude to the following institutions for giving us some of their time to meet with us: Istanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture: the organizing committee for “Visions for Sulukule” Discussion Panel, Istanbul Metropolitan Planning Unit, Fener & Balat Rehabilitation Programme, United Cities and Local Governments, Middle East and West Asia Section, Chamber of Architects We would also like to thank the following people for their time and assistance in our ﬁeldwork: Ahmet , Asli, Berna, Dilek, Duygu, Ferzan, Gokce, Ipek, Hakan, Mehmet and Finally we would like to express our immense gratitude to the Sulukule community for all they did for us during our days in the ﬁeld. specially The “Imam” Asum , Memduh and all people who didicate their time and effort to help us prepairing this study.

Executive Summary Placing Sulukule is a fieldwork based project carried out by a group of nine students and four members of staff of the MSc Building and Urban Design in Development, from the Development Planning Unit (UCL). The context of the work is the neighbourhood of Sulukule, now under threat of demolitions due to the ‘urgent’ urban transformation proposals in the pipeline. The work in Istanbul took place from April 29th to May 19th, 2007, and concluded with a presentation at a multi-stakeholder meeting hosted by the organising committee of the Istanbul 2010 Cultural Capital of Europe, titled, “Visions of Sulukule in 2010.” 1. Background and Context While new areas of Istanbul are going through massive expansion processes, many older neighbourhoods are currently engaged in transformation and rehabilitation due to pressure for new development, conservation and promotion of heritage sites, and responses to risks of natural disasters. These dynamics are supported by (at times conflicting) legislations, such as the Urban Conservation Law 5266 (2005) for the protection of cultural heritage, and more recently adopted Urban Renewal Law 5366 (2007) and the urgency compulsory purchase act (2006), introducing powerful tools to local governments for redevelopment. The implementation of these policies in the urban landscape create huge opportunities as well as complex and contested situations and conflicts of interests. Sulukule, which is located along the city walls in the Fatih municipality

of Istanbul, is thought to be the oldest known settlement in the world of the Romani people. The community of Sulukule settled in its current location in 1054, when Istanbul was the Byzantine capital. The Sulukule people are well known throughout Turkey, and internationally, for their lively music and dance, and natural ability for entertainment. In the past, the community ran a series of entertainment houses, which were the backbone of the area’s economy, however in 1991 the entertainment houses where shut down by the police. Since this time, the economic condition of the community has worsened and many people in the community depend on their neighbours for day-to-day needs. Under the current version of the proposed development plan for Sulukule, which has been prepared by Fatih Municipality, the Romani neighbourhood is facing the risk of loosing both its cultural heritage and the urban fabric that has supported its heritage. The Municipality’s development plan proposes to replace most of the existing urban fabric with 480 new ‘ottoman’ style houses, an ofﬁce building, a cultural centre, a hotel and basement car parking. This radical transformation being proposed by the municipality has raised questions about the socio - economic consequence on the local community. Discussions with community members and local NGOs reveal that most residents will not be able to afford to live in the new development, nor in the proposed ‘relocation’ area because it does not ﬁt their level of income. Residents expressed concerns that the new development has not taken into account the

tenants’ loss of the right to continue living in the same area within the community they belong to. Moreover, others showed concern about the lack of consideration of the new development of the way of living of the local community and how they used the private and public spaces such as streets and open spaces as spaces for interacting with each other. Despite these issues, Fatih Municipality has positively stated their concern for applying a social development project that takes into consideration the socio-economic aspects of Sulukule. However, the gap between the proposed plan and the needs and aspirations of local community is still large, and for many reasons. The most crucial one is the question of community representation in the planning process, where the traditional mechanism of examining the needs of local community is considered not sufﬁcient in this context. This has led to an unbalanced representation of the local stakeholders needs in comparison to other interests and aspirations in the planning process. 2. Aim and objective. ‘Placing Sulukule’ is about conserving Sulukule and its people in the context of contemporary Istanbul. It wants to put forward a more socially inclusive approach to planning allowing its residents to stay, and being part of the city’s urban transformation, with new prospects of improved living conditions and income-generation. The overall objective1 of this project is to provide ways in which different stakeholders may ﬁnd a common ground for the people of Sulukule through a participatory approach by :

• proposing guidelines contributing to an alternative local development plan • proposing a series of pilot projects • building capacity for different stakeholders involved including the people of Sulukule, NGOs, and the Municipality of Fatih 3. Methodology: To analyse the place and its people, to grasp the interests of different stakeholders and to test our assumptions and proposals, various methodological tools are used, including assets identification, problem tree, stakeholder analysis, mapping, meetings, interviews and presentations, and “Planning for Real” based workshops. This analysis is summarised in a number of key findings. Based on these understandings, eight guidelines that lead towards an alternative Local Development Plan are formulated, for which a set of Priority Action Projects are developed. The proposals presented in this report are intended as a contribution and starting point for alternative development for Sulukule. These proposals address a new image for Sulukule and promote participatory approach. This document is meant to stimulate the discussion for finding alternative development scenarios by highlighting the potentials and possibility of what could be achieved through multi-stakeholder planning process; a process where a more comprehensive view can help to address problems with the current development plan and help to develop a future for the area based on social inclusion.

1 Refer Appendix A for further reading about project’s Term of Reference

4. Findings: The following ﬁndings are a summary of the rapid assessment of Sulukule: 4.1. Information Gap: There is a lack of information regarding socio-economic factors in Sulukule that can shape any development proposals. For example, better information is needed on the numbers of renters or families that are residing in the area and their ability to pay for new houses. 4.2. Social Stigma: Romani population have always been stigmatised, not only in Sulukule, but also all over Europe, since they are generally seen to not behave in accordance with mainstream principles and values. 4.3. History: In many ways, Sulukule is of historical importance for both Istanbul and the Romani people. There is evidence that the Romani community has been living along the Theodosian walls for more than 1000 years. This area of settlement has been, and still is, a unique place for Romani people and accounts of Istanbul’s divers and rich past. 4.4. Cultural wealth: Sulukule population’s skills in music and dance are extremely well developed, and their music groups are locally and internationally renowned. Many earn their livelihoods from performing and this has long served as a way to generate income. Since the police ordered the closing of the Sulukule’s entertainment houses in early 1990s, the area has been subject to vast economic decline. However many residents in Sulukule are keen utilise their music skills to increase their incomes through music schools, recording, distribution and performance.

4.5. Community organisation: Currently there is a lack of community organization and also a general lack of confidence in the profile of Sulukule as a ‘good’ neighbourhood. For these reasons the residents feel powerless to interact with the authorities about their future in the area. Even though the community is not well organised to fight against the demolition of their houses, there is a strong sense of community in Sulukule, which is apparent in the way that they trust each other and care for one another. However, in order for an alternate plan to be developed using the participatory approach, mobilisation and the organisation of the community is needed. 4.6. Livelihoods: Sulukule is not only residential, but a space that supports many types of businesses, in addition to music. A variety of business activities are spread around: butchers, textile tradesmen, tombstone engravers, mini-markets and cafes, handicraftsmen, musicians, etc... These economic activities and their social and spatial relations must be recognized maintained and strengthened under any development plan. 4.7. Housing: People are living in poor and overcrowded housing conditions. Several families live in one house sometimes without basic infrastructure. Household structures are complex, and insights need to be gained in how to accommodate this in new urban typologies. Previously demarcated as an ‘urban conservation’ area, the residents were not allowed to make any changes. Now, an urban transformation area, redevelopment is orchestrated from above, and based on a new set of conditions and rules. 4.8. Cohabitation: Both Romani and Non-Romani people are living and working together peacefully in Sulukule. This cohabitation

between Romani and Non-Romani people is visible not only in the living spaces at neighbourhood level but also in the commercial activities. This peaceful cohabitation is a culture of social integration to be celebrated and promoted as a good example of the unique living heritage of Istanbul

proposals currently under consideration in the area and this has produced a feeling of uncertainty about the future among community members. This current problem reﬂects the need for representation of the perspective of the local community in any proposed development plan.

4.9. Heritage Site: Sulukule is located within the boundaries of the World Heritage Site deﬁned by UNESCO in 1985; this area should be preserved not only for its physical characteristics but its anthropological ones as well. The current Metropolitan Planning Unit plans at the 1:5000 and 1:1000 scales have not considered this boundary and consequently, Fatih Municipality has not included the area within the proposed Development Plan.

4.12. Participatory approach: The Municipality’s current practices are to approach property owners in Sulukule individually in a closed meeting, rather than addressing the residents as a group. This individual meeting tactic does not facilitate a participatory practice nor does it allow for a collective reﬂection of the needs of local community as group. This problem was highlighted numerous times to us during our workshops and meetings in Sulukule, as residents feel they are being bullied.

4.10. Open Spaces: Although very dense in terms of people per hectare, the area is not used to its capacity and there is scope for densiﬁcation and redevelopment. Three large open areas present important opportunities and have potential to be integrated into an alternative proposal for Sulukule. Moreover, the ‘Romani area’ of Sulukule presents an intense use of outdoor living space; people are using the streets with very frequently. In these areas, the streets perform many more functions than merely space for circulation - they are spaces to share and live with neighbours. 4.11. Lack of communication: There is currently a lack of communication between Fatih Municipality and the Sulukule community, which needs to be addressed immediately. The community is lacking information about the content of the different

Due to the culture, long history of inhabitation, and close knit nature of Sulukule, there is a very good opportunity in Sulukule to implement a truly participatory process for development, which would give the possibility for local community to represent itself. Sulukule could become an example of a positive process of social inclusion and living cultural heritage for Istanbul 2010 European Cultural Capital and for UNESCO.

5. Towards Local Development Plan (LDP): An important step towards a Local Development Plan (LPD) is the formulation of its guidelines in a participatory way. These will serve as the framework for actions and proposals in the short, medium and long term. The proposed guidelines for the whole LDP area are:

5.1 Guiding Principles for LDP: 5.1.1. Maintaining people in place 5.1.2. Strengthening capacity of community organization 5.1.3. Engaging people in local development plans using a participatory process. 5.1.4. Establishing social and cultural links at the community and city level 5.1.5. Encouraging economic activities that sustain livelihoods 5.1.6. Adaptable and affordable housing solutions on site for all residents 5.1.7. Transforming unique world heritages into opportunities for local development, for example: the wall, Romani heritage, and the cohabitation of different cultures. 5.1.8. Promoting environmentally sustainable activities

Sulukule), and various international charters, laws and covenants to protect human rights, and ethnic minority groups (Romani community in Sulukule). 2. Neslisah Land Development Association The community’s inability to take one position on the proposed development plan has signiﬁcantly reduced their capacity to negotiate with authorities. The objective of this project is to create the Neslisah Land Development Association to mobilise the community and strengthen their capacity to negotiate with the municipality on land development issues, engage in property and land management, and access funding for the alternative proposals from funding institutions.

5.2 Pilot Action Projects Following on from the Guiding Principles, various Action Projects are proposed, which need to be implemented in the short term because of the urgent reality of the situation in Sulukule. These Action Projects contribute to a Priority Action Program, which serves as the platform for proposing a Sulukule local development plan in the long term.

3. Building Community through Multi-Functional Community Space This project uses the building of a multifunctional community facility as a means for community building. Hence it is working towards two outcomes: ﬁrstly, improved neighbourhood facilities (performance hall, music school, children football club, crèche, etc.) and secondly using the process of building the centre as a means for community development and cultivating solidarity and increasing conﬁdence among the residents.

The pilot action projects deﬁned are: 1. Halt Demolition in Hatice Sultan and Neslisah (Sulukule) This project sets up a plan to stop demolitions and evictions currently threatening the people of Sulukule using legal grounds. The court case will use legal grounds based on UNESCO’s requirement to protect tangible and intangible heritage for the wall area (including

4. Sulukule Business Development Unit The area of Sulukule today is not an inert residential neighbourhood but is rather composed of vibrant streets and economic activities. Based on that, this project aims to strengthen the socio-economic networks which support livelihoods in the area of Sulukule. This is proposed through the set up of the Sulukule Business Unit. This unit

will be responsible for identifying existing businesses, and providing advise on management, ﬁnance and loan access. 5. Housing Improvement in Sulukule To address the poor housing condition, this project puts forward an incremental housing improvement programme, using the people’s commitment to improve their housing. Initiated by a “One Street Pilot Project”, it starts with the assessment on a plot by plot basis of how housing rehabilitation should proceed. A professional advice centre will facilitate the self-help improvements, technical and ﬁnancial support, to achieve the long term objective: decent housing on site for all income levels with secured tenure. 6. A Study for Recycling Opportunities This project aims to promote a healthier and sustainable living environment for Sulukule and beyond, while strengthening the community and creating income-generating activities. With the objective of forming a community-led recycling business, it would improve Sulukule living standards by eliminating the amount of garbage discarded in empty plots and open spaces. Activities include: awareness raising, education on waste management, exploration of materials available on site for recycling. 7. A study for potential uses of Heritage as a Platform for Local Development. With the objective of celebrating cultural diversity in Istanbul, this project proposes to explore strategic options of using heritage as a means for local development in Sulukule. The outcome is a portfolio of alternative ways to provide links between Sulukule and the city as a means to overcome social stigmatization and exclusion.

6. Achieving the objective and moving forward The ‘Placing Sulukule’ project tries to put forward an alternative vision for Sulukule, where physical upgrading and improved living conditions are possible through the involvement of an organised community. The “Visions of Sulukule” discussion panel hosted by the 2010 Istanbul European Capital of Culture Committee on May 17th 2007, created some momentum in the discussions, and has highlighted two opportunities to move forward. Firstly, the urgent need for preparing an alternative local development plan which considers the needs and aspirations of local community members within the planning framework of the Istanbul historic peninsula. Secondly, this can only happen by initiating a multi-stakeholder dialogue engaging all actors to start a negotiation and consensus building process. For the implementation of the latter, a preliminary agreement was made to set up a multi-stakeholder committee, committing to signing an agreement that would halt demolitions until a consensus was reached. The commitment to the development of alternatives in a participatory way, would be the starting point for re-thinking the planning approach to urban transformation, not only for Sulukule, but for Istanbul city

7. Report Outline: Chapter one “Introduction” introduces Sulukule and its development issues, introductory information about the nature of the report and participants and presents the theoretical framework the objectives of this study.

Chapter two highlights issues affecting urban development in Istanbul and Sulukule, portraying the real situation on the ground with the current urban development trends, and describing the municipality’s local development plan. Chapter Three illustrates the methodological framework and the analytical tools used to gather information and finalize the findings. These are; identifying assets; problem tree; identifying stakeholder analysis; mapping; meetings, workshops; and secondary resources. In Chapter Four, highlights the key findings and provides summary statements that helped to define the guidelines for the Local Development Plan and to justify the Priority Actions Projects. Chapter Five “Towards LDP” outlines the proposals that serve as a platform towards a Local Development Plan for Sulukule, including the Guiding Principles and action projects. The Conclusion highlights the need for a multi-stakeholder committee implemented by Fatih Municipality.

The Issue... whats the problem? Sulukule (the Water Tower) is an old settlement within the area of Istanbul’s historic peninsula -adjacent to the western part of the theodesian wall- which has historically been continually occupied by the Romani people for over a thousand years. Sulukule was famous for its entertainment houses, where the Romani community performed music and dance to the visitors from in and outside Istanbul. The entertainment houses were the main income generating activity for the Romani. The closure of these entertainment houses precipitated serious socio- economic decline, simultaneously with other socio economic factors that affect the urban living spaces inside the historic centre due to the migration to the suburbs and outskirts of the city. Besides that, the deterioration of the built environment became major problem because of the neglect and the absence of rehabilitation proposals in this area of the historic peninsula to the extent that a development project had to be proposed.

regarding the problems due to the new development such as relocation and access to new housing scheme. However the local community members do not share the same view as ﬁrstly the issue of un-affordability of the new development scheme dictate that many families will loose their current place of living, consequently the opportunity to live and stay in Sulukule under the current development plans, and secondly the project has not considered the speciﬁc nature of Romani lifestyle. This context has provoked the search for alternative development strategies that can mediate the different needs and aspirations starting from neighbourhood to the city and national levels and thus this is the basis for this project.

Sulukule now faces the risk of loosing its cultural heritage and the built environment that has produced this heritage under the current version of the develop proposal by Fatih Municipality. The development plan proposes the demolition of the existing buildings and neighbourhood urban fabric to build a new one ( doesn’t sound right to me, maybe replace with... in order to redevelop the area). The municipality ofﬁcials promoted the inclusion of social concerns

About the report... This report is a product of our fieldtrip. The project started on April 23rd to April 27rd, 2007 during which time preliminary research was performed in London. The project then included a trip to Istanbul which took place from April 29th to May 19th, 2007. The research was conducted by Building and Urban Design Development (BUDD) Masters students in the Department Planning Unit (DPU), University College London. The report will consist of the following chapters: Chapter Two will set the scene and the context of the issues from national scale through to city scale (Istanbul) and eventually neighbourhood scale (Sulukule). Chapter Three will outline our methodology, framework and tools used during the analysis stage of our fieldwork. Chapter Four will describe the findings obtained during the analysis of our fieldwork. Chapter Five will outline the process of moving towards a local development plan. This includes the guidelines for the LDP and the priority action projects.

About us :Participants

Master of Building and Urban Design and Development, Development Planning Unit, University College London Members of Faculty Nationality Cassidy Johnson Canada Michael Saﬁer United Kingdom Yves Cabannes France Sara Feys Belgium Students Ioannis Avgenikou Renata Camargo Lantana Elhassan Tonito Fernandes Iyad Issa Meghna Patel Natalia Villamizar Suzaini Zaid Mi Zhang

Greece Brazil Nigeria South Africa Palestine USA Colombia Malaysia China

Theoretical Framework The theoretical framework which was used to develop the methodology and proposals were based on themes outlined in detail below. These themes were based on readings and observations made before and during the ﬁeldtrip. Social Cohesion vis a vis Diversity A- Identity: Usually people identify themselves to a particular nation. But for Romani people, many times they are denied citizenship or identity for their background despite of their longstanding attachment to the place, or sometimes they must deny their Romani background to deter discrimination. B- Culturre Diversity : With the homogenisation and capitalisation of today’s culture in this global city, there lays a ﬁne balance to ensure that the tradition and heritage of culturally diverse communities can be well conserved and socially integrated within the city context. On the city level, the uniqueness of a culturally rich and diverse community seems not to be coherently included in the whole society. for example the stegmatisation towards Romani community in general, and for the cultural wealth of Romani in sulukule illustrate that the social cohesion of the city has not accommodated its maximum cultural diversity.

pressure for other aspects of large scale development projects) and the needs of local communities to survive and sustain the livelihood way of life to generate income that is crucial part of the city economy as well. Regarding Planning Process within the context of Istanbul and the limited experience in participatory approach; it’s hard for municipalities to forecast the local needs through the bureaucratic systems and ofﬁcial planning procedure. Thus the tension between local needs and aspirations and the municiplaites planning strategies could occur because of the gap of local community’s representation in the planning process which is limited to informing about the development after articulating the projects. This gap of communication could jeopardize the national goals of delivering social agenda through development projects. The Fatih Municipality declared in many occasions the commitment of including social agenda in the development of the area, but the absence of the proper mechanism to assure that, and the question of local representative in the planning process made it hard to achieve. As an illustration: the issue of not recognizing the un-affordability of local community members to access the new development houses scheme (as many residence stated) made it hard to for social agenda to be applied.

Internal Production vis a vis External Consumption Those who consume the idea of culture in terms of music and dance appreciate this culture. However, there is a lack of interest in understanding where and how this culture is created. Therefore, to many, the demolition of Sulukule is trivial.

Moreover the solution proposals for relocating tenants and people who can’t afford the new scheme didn’t take into account (besides the provision of housing) the importance of living within community for low income city inhabitants, where people within this community articulate safe network together to face the vulnerability.

Local community needs Vis a Vis global city development needs…. the question of representation in planning process

In addition, the proposal was unsuccessful in recognizing the importance of the strategic location of the neighborhood to the community Identity, besides the importance of this location as an asset to access city’s economy and generate income.

In global cities such as Istanbul, the challenge to ﬁnd the balance between global city demands (for transport infrastructure, housing provision for middle class and upper-class city’s inhabitant, besides

Objectives The objective of the project is to provide ways in which different stakeholders may ﬁnd a common ground for the development of Sulukule through a participatory approach. We intend to achieve this by: • proposing guidelines contributing to an alternative local development plan • proposing a series of pilot projects • building capacity for different stakeholders involved including the people of Sulukule, NGOs, and the Municipality of Fatih

16 16

Turkey....the State The republic of Turkey, as it’s ofﬁcially known, was established in 1923 under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, following the fall of the Ottoman Empire within the aftermath of World War 1. Turkey has overseen the birth of major civilization of the old world, such as the Byzantine and Ottoman empires. The location of Turkey is unique and transcontinental which borders between Europe and Asia, thus making it a Euroasian country. The European side is called Thrace and the Asian part is called Anatolia. The country borders eight other countries, namely Bulgaria, Greece, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq and Syria. Turkey’s shores are connected through the Mediterranean Sea, the Aegean Sea, the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara. The population of Turkey is 99% Muslim, with a secular and democratic government. The social state is committed to the nationalism value of Ataturk, who is regarded as the father and founder of the republic. Turkey has a population of 67.8 million (2000), and the capital is Ankara. .

Above : The map of Turkey Source International studio (Website) Left : The ﬂag of Turkey Source wikipedia (Website)

Istanbul ....The City Past and Present Istanbul is the largest and most urbanized city of Turkey. Istanbul’s heritage predates from old civilizations of Ionian, Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman. At present, the estimated population is over 10 million, by which half the population is under the age of 35 years, and projected to grow to 12 million by 2010. 75% of the population are Turkish and other communities that inhabit the city are Kurdish, Armenian, Jewish and Greek. Also similar as Turkey’s main religion, 99% of the population are Muslim.

at 500,000 per year. The traditional Ottoman buildings were made of ornate wood and through the last decades new structures like highrise ofﬁces were built around the northern areas of the European Side. The migration from rural to urban has reshaped the city form, where the residential neighbourhoods were transformed physically to accommodate the growing industries. Istanbul also experience international migration during the industrialization period, in which the period changed the demographics of residential areas of the city; where poor migrant workers inhabited the city near the industrial areas that was located in the city centre and the outskirts of the city. The wealthier residents moved out from city centres into certain suburban areas, and this led to the deterioration of neighbourhoods and sprung up illegal housing called gecekondus within the outskirts of the cities. The degree and rate of migration also caused overloading utilities and infrastructure usage, which still remains as one of the challenges facing Istanbul. This situation is a great disadvantage for the poorer population of the city who suffers the most from lack of services. Further more, Istanbul faces the challenge of keeping the buildings in the city safe from the risk of earthquakes and accordance with seismic building regulations. Estimated 80% of buildings in the city are not up to established earthquake safety codes.

Map of Istanbul shows the location of Fatih Districs Source : Google earth

Istanbul is a city of immigrants where more than 60% of its population were born outside of Istanbul, and the city has grown faster through migration than by natural growth. The rate of rural-urban migration is

Geography and Land use The location of Istanbul makes it the only metropolis in the world that extends both on the European and Asian continents. 5712 km² of land area in Istanbul is dispersed on residential, industrial, agricultural and forest areas, commercial, recreational, institutional and military. The built up areas of the city mainly are of residential

and commercial use (21%), and within the residential lands, about 60% of it is unplanned, irregular housing and squatter settlements. Most of the residential areas are along the coastal areas, along the Marmara and Bosphorus Sea, and the gecekondus on the fringes of the city. The development trends followed the original settlement blueprint that expands along the Marmara and Bosphours coasts that spreads outward from these core areas. Commercial and manufacturing industries represent 5% and 7% of land area, respectively. The general topography of the city is hilly and with steep slopes. The historical district (historical peninsula), which is on the European side covers about 23 km² of land that forms a rough triangle that bounded by the Golden Horn on the north, the Marmara Sea of the South and the ancient defence walls on the western side. The impressive defence walls of old Constantinople is at roughly 20 metres high and 5 metres thick, and is divided into 3 typology; the city walls, the sea walls and the Byzantine walls. The “Historic Areas of Istanbul” were included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1985. (See Map of the Historical Peninsula of Istanbul) Economical Relation with Turkey Istanbul contributes 40% of Turkey’s budget and produces 40% of Turkey’s total industries. 58% of the city’s industrial land and 57% of the agricultural related activities are located on the European side of the city. Istanbul contributes 40% of the country’s tax based income and 40% of the country’s GNP. The manufacturing industry is a major factor in the basis of the economy base of Istanbul. The

Map showing the world heritage sites inside the historic peninsula

service industry in Istanbul has also grown with the decentralization of the manufacturing industry.

Administrative State and City The Greater Municipality of Istanbul; with a Greater Municipality Mayor, who is elected by the general public; is composed of 27 smaller municipalities (boroughs) that is responsible for implementation of master plans and overseeing the implementation of borough plans. However, the Ministry of Pubic Works are in charge of public buildings and settlement, which they have the right to intervene in the implementation of municipality’s development plan. Conversely, the State Planning Organization within the central government is responsible for the economic development plans, as well as the planning of regional economies. Each borough has a centrally elected governor (kaymakam) and an elected mayor, which run parallel chains of command. This dual (central and local) administrative system was adopted to counterbalance both the central and local powers, but also become factor for potential conﬂict by overlapping

Law 5366, the urban conservation Law 5266, and the ‘Press Compulsory Purchase’; however these laws were unavailable for English translation. The new urban renewal Law 5366 was established as a national regulation to generate new development on historical areas and other underdeveloped areas categorized as not suitable for residential. However, the conservation Law 5266 that instils preservation and conservation of historical sites and monuments contradict the urban renewal Law 5366 which enables authority to propose new developments on historical areas. This contradiction has generated a loophole in the legislative system, which is used to justify evictions and demolition within the historical areas of the city. The Press Compulsory Purchase law is used by authorities to purchase properties in which they categorize for public interest development.

responsibilities. Neighbourhood The last administrative level is in neighbourhood (mahalle) level, which is run by a muhtar, someone from the local neighbourhood. The muhtar functions as a registration ofﬁcer that deals with local issues and to convey the opinions and wishes of local people onto the government. Urban Development Laws There are new laws that have been recently introduced that affect urban development of Istanbul. These laws are: the urban renewal

End Notes: Source. this chapter about Istanbul contains ideas adabted from International Studio, Columbia University European Roma Information Ofﬁce Wikipedia Fatih Municipality

Sulukule ....the neighborhood Sulukule is unique in the city of Istanbul as a permanent settlement which has been continuously occupied by the Romani for over a thousand years. The map below shows the location of Sulukule on the Golden Horn Peninsula, on the European (Western) side of Istanbul. The area referred to as Sulukule by locals is not deﬁned as such on any ofﬁcial documents, however the area where the Romani reside is popularly known as Sulukule. The area referred to as Sulukule now is a small part of the Neslisah mahalle (neighbourhood) shown in the map.

Sulukule formerly included the land south of this neighbourhood, but the municipality’s decision to construct the Vatan Caddesi resulted in the movement of residents to the present location, with others leaving for Karagumurk (a settlement in the same district near Balat and Fener) and other places. Because of the notoriety attached to ‘Sulukule’ (poor housing conditions, crime and prostitution) now, most residents would rather claim that they are either from Hatice Sultan or Neslisah. The Municipality published the population of the community at 3,500, with about 571 households, of these 1,200 are purported to be Romani (Sorce: Municplaity, 2007, see meeting section).

Sulukule

Source: Joint ICOMOS/UNESCO Mission Report, World Heritage Committee, 2006.

Map of Neslisah Mehallah and Sulukule Neighbourhood Source: Fatih Municipality

PEOPLE Sulukule has a strong Romani presence, but there are non-Romani people who also work and live there. The Romani are widely acknowledged as proficient musicians and dancers. The classical music of the Ottoman court was greatly influenced by the Romani, they also formed the core of the Ottoman military band and up until the founding of the modern Republic of Turkey were among the top musicians of the country. Romani wedding music has influenced music from Bulgaria to Egypt and to the western hemisphere. Romani children usually learn how to play a number of musical instrument at home. Today many Romani musicians still play in nightclubs around Istanbul, and they are recognised as significant players on the musical scene. Many internationally recognised belly dancers have also come from Sulukule. The scene below is from a street festival in Sulukule.

ECONOMY Sulukule is renown for the musical ability of the Romani there, at one time 35 entertainment houses were run there. The clientele of these houses were the elite citizens of Istanbul and tourists. In the 1950’s residents organised themselves and applied to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism to be put on the City of Istanbul’s ofﬁcial tourism map as an entertainment hub. The shutting down of the entertainment houses which were hugely successful enterprises for the community in 1992 precipitated serious economic decline, as there were a lot of industries which provided support services for the entertainment houses. The Romani have extensive social networks, and receive economic support from it in the form of discounts on goods and services and credit on purchases. It is harder for them to receive this kind of support in settlements that do not have Romani community, as they are generally not trusted in the society at large. This trend has been noted in other areas where Romani communities have dispersed from over time such as in the Fener and Balat areas.

Scene of a street festival in Sulukule.

POLITICS Relations between the Municipality of Fatih and the Sulukule Community are strained. The ﬂow of information between them even concerning the development proposal is unsatisfactory as many community members are unaware of recent developments, and the options they have. The relationship between the community and the Muhtar (the neighbourhood representative to the municipality) is also quite weak.

BUILT ENVIRONMENT 40 years ago all the houses in Sulukule were demolished, and most of the community has since been rebuilt following the resettlement from the road expropriation and the earthquake. All the buildings apart from the Neslisah mosque and a few other ‘conserved’ buildings were rebuilt after 1960. There are about 600 houses in Sulukule now. Many of the buildings in Sulukule are rundown and are in an advanced state of deterioration. In addition, electrical and water services to parts of the community have been discontinued (services to the area were discontinued because residents’ did not keep up with payments) though waste disposal services are still run by the municipality. During a forum organised by the Istanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture Committee community members stated that they were not permitted to repair or renovate their homes because the area was regarded as a conservation area. URBAN DEVELOPMENT PROPOSAL FOR SULUKULE BY FATIH MUNICIPALITY As a result of the new legislation on urban development in Turkey (and especially in Istanbul), which were developed in response to threats from earthquakes, there have been a number of new urban development initiatives in the cities. A number of these projects dictate the complete demolition of the existing settlements, such as that of Zeytinburu. The Hacihusrev, Gaziosmanpasa, Kagithane and Kucukbakkalkoy communities are some other settlements where demolitions and evictions have occurred as a result of the new wave of urban

conservation and transformation programs being carried out in Turkey. Sulukule and Balat are the priority areas in the ﬁrst phase of Fatih Municipality’s development programs. Lately the municipality of Fatih has also begun the demolition of several houses in Sulukule. One of the houses levelled by the municipality is shown below.

Picture shows the occured demolition in Sulukule (the southern part of Sulukule adjacent to Kalebeyu Caddesi

THE PROPOSAL The aims of the project are to: • Preserve the historical and cultural area • Prepare the area to be part of the 2010 Cultural Center • Make the area ‘liveable’ The area earmarked for development (shown on the left) is 18,000sq. m, covers all of Sulukule, and will provide 480 housing units on completion. The houses in the development are to be designed in the Ottoman villa style. Facilities included in the proposal include a hotel, office buildings, apartment blocks and a Romani cultural centre. The municipality aims to address the economic needs of the Romani community in this proposal by giving them first choice on shops which will be constructed, the remainder of which will be auctioned off to other people. In addition to this hand-made Romani crafts will be sold on the ground floor of the hotel. Cultural courses

Prices for the houses in the new development have already been set and are shown below. Area(m2) Cost (YTL)

60m2 75,000

75m2 95,000

95m2 110,000

110m2 125,000

Table showing sizes of new housing units and prices

Map 1 . The site Plan for the Municipality Proposal

will be given in the Romani centre for the Romani people. Cart horses will also be integrated into the development for tourists.

The municipality proposes to pay 500 Turkish lira per square meter to each property owner who sells off land to it. With regard to remaining in the neighbourhood residents’ options are: • to remain in the neighbourhood , if they are able to afford the purchase of the new units, or can pay the difference over a 15 year period • accept allocations on a TOKI (Turkey’s national mass housing scheme) estate with 15 years to pay back the loans. It also proposes that residents who have to be temporarily relocated while the area is being redeveloped will be provided with temporary accommodation and compensation of 300 Turkish Lira/month. Property owners were approached individually at ﬁrst and then in small groups regarding the sale of their properties. The municipality claimed on the 7th of May that: • 102 house owners had agreed to give up their property in Sulukule now and to purchase units in the proposed development, • 43 are on hold pending clariﬁcation of ownership, • 10 however have sold their properties and received the payment for them.

From the municipality’s ﬁgures, 432 families in Sulukule are tenants who can be relocated and will have access to accommodation on a TOKI estate, and the option of paying back the loans used in acquiring the housing units over a 15 year period. 65% of the property values in Sulukule are valued at around 75,000 Turkish Lira. From the Municipality’s calculations however only 300 Romani will remain in the area. Presently residents prefer to sell to private developers because they offer more for the properties; however the NGOs working in the area claim that these properties are in turn sold to the Municipality at inﬂated prices. RESIDENTS FEARS A lot of residents oppose this proposal because: • the new units are too expensive for them to afford •

• • •

the number of units allocated to present residents are insufﬁcient (the Municipality is offering 70 housing units to residents of Sulukule, its own ﬁgures indicate that there are 432 families currently in Sulukule) the lack of affordable housing around the central area in Istanbul the distance from the centre of Istanbul to the houses offered by TOKI in Gaziosmanpasa the lack of recognition for the multiple household occupancy in Sulukule.

Methodological Framework The framework was used to structure the project from its inception, the process and to reach the outcomes. The framework (See Fig 1) illustrates that the project is an action planning process which engages different stakeholders in the process (involving Sulukule local community members, NGOs and the Municipality) and aims to meet their needs. From the rapid assessment of the whole context of Istanbul, Fatih Municipality and Sulukule, several general themes , namely social cohesion vis-a-vis diversity, internal production vis-a-vis external consumption, and local community needs Vis-a-Vis global city development needs…. The question of representation in planning process (See Chapter 1: Theoretical Framework), have been clariﬁed, which are contradictory but very crucial in dealing with the multi-dimensional issues in Sulukule. Beginning with the themes and centring on them, the objective of the project was determined, which is to ﬁnd a common ground through, on one hand alternative development plan for living spaces for Romani Culture, and one the other building capacity by sharing learning.

which help make progress in understanding the interests of different actors, analyzing the problem more in-depth, and sharing our work with others from local level to global level. Several key findings (See Chapter 4) come from the analysis by using these tools, which are also the bases and justifications for progressing towards Local Development Plan (See Chapter 5), including eight guiding principles and seven pilot action project. By implementing of these pilot actions addressing various guidelines, the project will finally propose one of the possible scenarios towards the image of Sulukule in 5 years time as an outcome and towards participatory approach as an end. On the whole, this is a “learning by doing” process shared and engaged with all the partners mentioned above, which is to facilitate an opportunity to open a discussion on local development planning alternatives through a multi-actor participatory process, which is new to the area as well as the city.

In order to achieve the objectives, a series of tools (See Chapter 3) have been employed, including assets identiﬁcation, problem tree, stakeholder analysis, mapping, keeping a web blog, meetings and interviews, interim presentation at ITU, “Planning for Real” based workshops, and ﬁnally Istanbul 2010 meeting. These are ways of gathering information from the place and people (both those living and working inside Sulukule and other participants outside Sulukule),

1- Social Cohesion vis a vis Diversity A- Identity B- Culture 2-Internal Production vis a vis External Consumption 3-Local community needs Vis a Vis global city development needs

Theoretical Framework

Common Ground OBJECTIVE

TOOLS

Assets

Alternative Development Plan

Building Capacity

Living spaces for Romani Cultural Heritage

Learning by doing / sharing learning

Stakeholder Analysis

Problem Tree Meetings & interviews

Interim Presentation

OUTCOMES

“Planning for Real” based Workshops

Web Blog

Istanbul 2010 Meeting

Observations

FINDINGS

TOWARDS A PROPOSAL

Mapping

Towards Local Development Plan 7 Action Projects

8 Guidelines

Towards the Image of Sulukule in 5 years

Towards Participatory Approach

Open a discussion on local development planning alternatives through a multi-actor participatory process

Figure 1: Methodology Framework

Analysis Tools There were several tools used for this project. The most dominant are the following: identifying assets, problem tree, identifying stakeholders, mapping, meetings, workshops, and secondary resources. The tools were used directly or indirectly to meet the project objectives- both prior and during the fieldtrip. For example, tools to identify assets and research using secondary sources were used prior to the field trip. These provided a background understanding of the current situation we would encounter in Istanbul, Fatih Municipality and Sulukule. The workshops, interviews, meetings and mapping conducted in the field enabled a better understanding of the most dominant issues of the area. These tools helped later to define findings, which will be elaborated upon in the next chapter. The following will illustrate the methods and tools used.

Identifying Assets Objective -To gain a realistic understanding of what shapes people’s livelihoods. -To identify the promising opportunities open to people.

Description

In preparation to understanding the context we would encounter on the fieldtrip, secondary sources1 and discussions led us to identify five key assets or resources2: Human, Social, Physical, Natural, and Financial. We categorized them at three different scales. Sulukule, Fatih Municipality and Istanbul. The following were identified: See Figure

1. Sulukule’s assets  Human Capital: Commercial and Business skills; Music and Dance skills; Handicraft and metalwork skills  Social Capital: Romani Culture and History; Strong sense of Community  Physical Capital: Land Title in Central City (value) Houses (place to live) Animals (economic activity)  Financial Capital: Almost non-existent due to the closure of the entertainment houses 2. Fatih Municipality’s assets  Human Capital: University.  Social Capital: Diverse Groups; World Cultural Heritage; Historical Buildings  

Physical Capital: Financial Capital:

3. Istanbul’s assets 

Human Capital:



Social Capital:



Physical Capital:



Financial Capital:



Natural Capital:

Vacant Land by Wall Trade, Commerce Multi-national, educated work force Intellectual thinkers Mixture of Asian, European and Middle Eastern society World Heritage sites Historical buildings Multi-culture Tourism capital Financial and Industrial capital Geographical strategic location

Conclusion Although based on assumptions, this tool enabled us to have a better understanding of the context and gave us a basis to ask the right questions when on the ground. For example, though it was believed that there was a strong sense of community in Sulukule, we were not sure of their organizational capacity. We also discovered that

though there was there was little ﬁnancial capital generated since the closing of the entertainment houses, there existed quite a variety of socio-economic activity in the area. This will be elaborated upon in the next chapter.

Figure 2: Identifying assets for Istanbul , Fatih and Sulukule

Problem Tree

Objective Problem tree (See Fig 3) is a tool to identify problems and their effects and causes. Since the issue in Sulukule is a multi-dimensional problem, it is better to be analysed firstly in different dimensions economic, social, cultural, political and spatial, and then in an interdimensional way in order to draw their roots. Description Firstly, several problems of Sulukule area are identified in different dimensions, as the trunk of the tree; then they have different effects in different dimensions respectively, as the leaves of the tree. It is worth noting that the problems themselves and their effects are interlinking and interrelated as causality one another in this interweaving problem tree. Problems and Effects In economic dimension, the deprivation of income generation in previously flourishing entertainment houses has a fairly severe consequence on people’s employment status and financial resources, leaving them economically vulnerable and unaffordable for housing improvement and new houses. People have to work in poorer condition, or in the area where they are less skilful, or even in illegal sectors, or else lose their ways of livelihood. In social aspect, people in Sulukule, largely in low education level, are socially isolated from the rest of the city with limited interaction with other groups. Despite of over 1000-year inhabitation there, now they are faced with eviction from their settlement, which aggravates

their vulnerability. In terms of culture, although they own their unique cultural wealth, they bear a negative perception and constant stigma from other people. Lack of self-confidence and esteem, and lack of interaction with other communities, which are interrelated to each other, can be both cause and result mutually of this negative influence. In political realm, there is extremely limited participation in planning process, which blocks off the communication between community and authorities greatly. People are constantly threatened of eviction by powerful authorities without legal recognition. Although they have some negative reaction to authorities, however, they are unaware of their rights and powerless to organise themselves internally. Finally, Sulukule people are spatially isolated from the city and evicted from their settlement. Additionally, their living condition is in low quality, lacking basic infrastructure and services. Causes or Roots To draw the roots of these problems, there is threefold cause which is of most importance. Internally, there are some difficulties in the division in the Romani community. On one hand, the Romani people are proud of their distinctive cultural uniqueness and are productive of intangible cultural works, which they are willing to conserve and display to others; but on the other hand, they are less willing to join the mainstream, some of who are even strongly against the outsiders. Due to the exclusion from the major society, there is dilemma for Romani people between their citizenship of Istanbul and Romani identity. Additionally, although they are to some extent isolated from

ECONOMIC

E F F E C T S

CULTURAL

SOCIAL

Poverty

Vulnerable New houses unaffordable

POLITICAL Vulnerable

Stigma

Stealing & prostitution

Negative reaction to authorities

Lack of interaction with other communities

Vulnerable

Lack of knowledge on rights

Lack of defiance

Illegal working & poor conditions

SPATIAL

Powerless

P R O B L E M S

Limited income generation

Eviction from settlement

Lack of employment opportunities and financial resources Closure of entertainment houses

Social isolation Lack of education

Negative perception s

Limited communication with authorities

Lack of selfconfidence and esteem

No participation in planning process Threat of eviction from powerful authorities Lack of legal recognition

C A U S E S

Difficulties in the division in Romani community

Social discrimination and marginalisation

Destruction of built environment Eviction from settlement Lack of basic infrastructure and services Isolation from the city

Structure and operation of government, policy and administration

Figure 3: The Structure of the Problem Tree

other communities, the Romani people live in harmony with the non-Romani people in Sulukule. These immanent difﬁculties in the division in the community make them less conﬁdent in integrating themselves and their culture into the whole city context. Externally, longstanding social discrimination and marginalisation push Sulukule and its people at a situation which is not only spatially isolated from the rest of the city but also socially segregated with negative perception from other people. They are left particularly vulnerable and powerless only to be faced with deprivation of the place to which they have over 1000-year attachment, and consequently ways of income generation and intangible cultural wealth. Furthermore, the structure and operation of government, policy and administration, which are highly centralised with extremely limited participatory experience, account for these problems. People are continuously being displaced from their settlement by demolition,

signiﬁcance is the threefold cause, stemming from the internal difﬁculties in the division of the community, external discrimination and marginalisation from the society, and non-participatory relationship between the authority and the community.

compulsory purchase and market-driven eviction with less knowledge on their rights and fewer outlets to voice their aspirations. There is a lack of dialogue between the community and the municipality and evident discrepancy between the idea of authorities and the immediate needs of local community. The targeted group is just informed rather than being involved, which results in a negative relationship between the municipality and the community. Conclusion On completion of the problem tree, we can see clearly the causality from the roots to problems themselves and then to the effects they have, and their interrelations between each other. Of the most

Identifying Stakeholders Objective -To identify stakeholders in a Sulukule’s Development Planning -To identify their relationships to each other.

Description

Identifying key stakeholders is crucial in understanding the urban development process. It enables one to determine their interests, conflicts, relations between each other as well as determining the appropriate forms necessary for stakeholder participation. Prior to the fieldtrip, we had identified the main stakeholders usually present in the urban context. See Figure It was during the fieldtrip through the use of numerous methods and tools, we realized the complexity of their relations. As our work progressed, we were able see how the actors connected and did not connect in a realistic way. See Figure These actors will be mentioned later in this report. Listed below are the actors identified.

- Civil Society • Sulukule Residents • Accessible Life Association • Human Settlements Association • Sulukule Romany Culture Solidarity and Development • Other NGOs - Government • Turkey National Government • Greater Municipality of Istanbul • Fatih Municipality • Istanbul Metropolitan Planning Unit • TOKI • Ministry of Culture and Tourism - Academics • The Technical University of Istanbul (ITU) • University College London- Development Planning Unit • Minister of Culture and Tourism • Other Universities - Market • Private Developers. - International Agencies - Romani - UNESCO - EU - ICOMOS (Turkey)

Conclusion

Figure 4: Typical Urban Stakeholders Diagram

Although this gave us a realistic understanding of the current situation, this method was a work in progress and remains to be so. One such area, the market, was never fully understood. Although it was known that private developers were involved in Sulukule’s planning, it was difﬁcult to understand the scope of their role.

Romany Rights Assoc.

Master plan for the city of Istanbul

ICOMOS

management plan for historic penninsula

other in’l org

INT’L AGENCIES

Istanbul Metropolitan Planning Unit

Greater Municipality of Istanbul

UNESCO

Turkey Nat’l Government

Neslisah

'City Walls': Unesco World Heritage Istanbul European Cultural Capital ECOC 2010

TOKI

Fatih Municipality

Hatice Sultan

STATE CNHCH

UCL/DPU

ACADEMIC Ministry of Culture and Tourism

OTHER UNIVERSITIES

Romany Communities Monitoring Network

ITU

HSA

PEOPLE OF SULUKULE DEVELOPERS

SRCSDA STAT

Publicity and dissemination of lessons

ALA

CIVIL SOCIETY

MARKET OTHER NGOS ?

Figure 5: Stakeholders Diagram in Sulukuleh Development

MAPPING OBJECTIVES

The aim of the mapping exercise was to gather information from the ﬁeld to give us a better understanding of both the built environment of the Sulukule area, and community’s way of living.

DESCRIPTION

We defined a group of five people with focus in two main categories; the first subgroup was in charge of the mapping of the neighbourhood which included land uses, conditions of building, street activities, and so on. The second subgroup had to map the Theodosian wall, which goes along the Sulukule border (Sulukule Caddesi). On the fieldwork, the two subgroups worked together in one big group, though each group was responsible for its designated category. This was an important decision that gave the whole group the opportunity to understand the physical element of the place, and also to experience the living conditions of the area. The first task was to identify the boundaries of where to carry out the mapping exercise. It was also essential for our project to define the area that UNESCO categorized as part of the World Heritage Site and the area defined by Fatih Municipality in the Development Plan. Additional to those boundaries, we also needed to clarify the area and the boundary of the Romani community in Sulukule. To identify the boundary of the Romani community in Sulukule, the group asked different members of the community to draw on the map what they believed represented the limit of their neighbourhood. The result of this informal exercise was verified through direct observation by the group.

Map 2; The boundaries of Romani community of Sulukule, Fatih Municipality Development Plan, UNESCO World Heritage Site

Sulukule Area

The group analysed Sulukule area in four different aspects: the open spaces, buildings, land uses, circulation and street patterns; and in parallel analysing the patterns of use and activities. Open spaces To deﬁne open space in the context of Sulukule, it was necessary to highlight the difference between open space from typical urban open spaces, such as parks and squares. The group had identiﬁed three types of open spaces: A) Empty spaces are intensively used by the community for several activities. Within the area, there are three large empty spaces: 1. The biggest one of them (refer picture below) is located outside of the Sulukule boundary and it was previously used as the main space for market and trade. Even though currently it is not being used with the same intensity, the community still use it for recreational activities. 2. The second empty space is the most important open space for community socialization and it is centrally located - next

Picture shows the largest open space in the area of study

to the teahouse on the main street (Sarmasik Caddesi). This space was used quite intensively for various performances and different activities promoted by the 40 Days and 40 Nights Festival 3. The last one is a linear empty space along the wall (details further explained in the wall mapping section). B) Open space that surrounds the mosque and that actually has more similarities to the traditional squares around religious buildings. It is a semi-public space that only serves the community during religious activities. C) Back yards. Even though they are considered more as private spaces, the residents still use them for other social and daily activities. One of these spaces was used during the model workshop the group made with children of the community (refer picture below)

Picture showsvof one of the backyards located in lafum Gardens, where the workshop for the model making took place.

As a final conclusion of this analysis the group identified that, especially the first type of open spaces presented above has the potential for implementing a more community multi use space to support both community daily life and Romani cultural expressions.

Buildings - Housing

The group identiﬁed the physical condition of buildings, number of demolished and empty buildings, and level of building stories. The more derelict buildings are located along the wall; meanwhile the core area presents the buildings in better condition.

Pictures show two different buildings, both of them located at Sarmasik Caddesi (near the core area)

The demolished buildings are concentrated on the south part along the wall. These plots still present building’s remains and are being used for disposal of household waste. The group also observed the existence of a large number of empty buildings due to the selling of the properties in the area. During this exercise, we were showed by one of the residents a big area where almost all of the houses had been sold. The information he passed us is represented on the map, however we were not able to conﬁrm that (refer footnote map 4).

Map 3: The types of open spaces in the study area

The pictures above starting from left to right clockwise illustrate respectively: a site of demolished houses on the corner of Kaleboyu Caddesi with Cinarli Bostan Sokak (along the wall); derelict houses at Cami Cikmazi Sokak

These are picture on example of the interior of a house.

Map 4: Empty plots, demolished buidling and physical condition of buildings

Land Uses In Sulukule there are a large number of commercial establishments and small local services addressing community needs, such as small grocery stores, repair shops, bakeries, fast food stores, car repair shop, etc. A lot of the commercial establishments are mixed use with residential.

The pictures above show from left to right: a marble worker at Sulukule Caddesi; a commercial establishment at Sarmasik Sokak; and the café also located at Sarmasik Sokak with access to the main empty space of Sulukule.

These observations led us to the conclusion that housing improvement and commercial organisation are fundamental topics of consideration in the development of proposals. In addition, this analysis showed us the need to develop social services and facilities in the area.

Map 5:Land Uses

Streets and circulation patterns With relations to the circulation patterns we recognized four main arteries : Sulukule Cadessi, Neyzenter Sokak, Cinari Bostan Sokak continues as Dumlupinar Sokak, and Sarmasik Sokak. There are no proper sidewalks and no proper parking spaces; people and cars share the streets, which sometimes can be a great risk for accidents. The second analysis on the same topic is related to activities used on the streets. Some of the streets in Sulukule have a more private characteristic, and excluded from outsider. Therefore, we only mapped the streets with easy access. Another characteristic of the streets in Sulukule was that the local residents use the streets as an extension of their houses. Other activities on the streets, were carpet washing, hanging laundry outdoors, as an area for women to socialize, children playing, people collecting different sort of things with a kart, etc. To better distinguish the different street usage, we separated them in ﬁve categories: 1. Streets with car parking: As mentioned previously, there are no proper parking spaces and sidewalks, what results in cars being parked almost at the entrance door of the houses (refer picture below).

Map 6: Main Streets and circulation

2. ‘Main’ street: It is one of the four main arteries of the circulation pattern identiﬁed and the one that presents the larger number of non-residential activities. Some of the cafes and bars have tables outdoors along the street.

4. Private streets: They are residential streets without public space that reinforces the privacy of these areas. Women and children still use the space intensively although the activities are kept isolated from outsiders. The physical environment and landscape are better kept, including the buildings.

3. Local street: Less commercial activities and mainly residential. Women observe the street movements from their windows. All the daily life activities take place in these streets, such as women walking the children to and back from school, men walking with boys towards the mosque in praying times, men working on the street with horse karts, women washing carpets, etc (refer picture below)

5. Street along the wall: It works as an edge, ﬁrst because it is along the wall, which already is a boundary itself. Furthermore the busy trafﬁc condition along this street emphasizes and limits the link between the Sulukule and the surrounding area.

THE WALL

The main interest behind this mapping exercise was to understand briefly the history of this heritage element, and to discover the different activities along the land along the Theodesian Wall. Furthermore, it was used to gather more detail information about the wall and its condition, uses, and relation of space with the community in Sulukule. Two different approaches were taken for this exercise, first, a general mapping of the whole wall which goes along Fatih Municipality border from the Golden Horn to the Mediterranean Sea. And second a detailed mapping of the section of the Theodesian Wall along the Sulukule boundaries. The Theodesian Wall was built in the 5th Century as a way to protect the city against enemy attacks. This particular wall typology is well known because it defines two lines of defence as a way to improve the protection. Three different sections were identified along the Theodesian Wall; the first section is located in the north of the Fatih Municipality and corresponds with the Mahallesi of Balat, Egrikapi and Edirnekapi, between the Golden Horn and Fevzi Pasa Cadessi. The second section corresponds with the part of the wall and green land which goes along Topkapi – Edirnekapi Cadessi from Fevzi Pasa Cadessi to the Vatan Cadessi. And the last section identified goes from Vatan Cadessi to the Marmara Sea. (Refer Map 8)

Map 7: Streets activities

In the ﬁrst section we identiﬁed large areas in which the wall has been reconstructed instead of conserved. Also this area presents a lot of activities along the wall such as open spaces, small plazas with temporal bakeries and cafés, benches and furniture; and also different activities inside the wall such as carpentries, small shops and some time shelters.

Pictures: Section 1: Collage of pictures showing physical characteristics and activities

The second section of the wall presents mixed conditions, sometimes reconstructed, sometimes relict more than conserved. This section goes along a Topkapi – Edirnekapi Cadessi highway what makes difﬁcult to the physical approach to the area and also makes difﬁcult to identify activities, however, we could identify different cemeteries along this section.

Pictures: Section 2: Collage of pictures showing physical characteristics and activities

The last section identiﬁed was one of the most interesting ones for the group because of the uses we found, particularly those related to urban agriculture which are located towards the south section of the Theodesian Walls between the two defensive lines.

Map 8 : The three identiﬁed sections of the Theodesian Wall

Pictures: Section 3: Panoramic picture showing physical characteristics and activities

The second part of the mapping exercise developed along the wall was specifically related to the section that goes along Sulukule area in the boundaries of Hatice Sultan and Neslisah Mahalles. This section of the wall presents also three different parts, along parts identified there are different elements that has an important role as a points of reference for both community members and outsiders, and also that define different characteristics for each part. (Refer to map 9) 1. Linear Park: A well designed linear park along the wall 2. Pathway: A well constructed pathway along the linear park 3. Edge Tower: This part of the wall seems to be renovated and modified. The tower is also adjacent to the main road. 4. Gate: An arch opening that seems to be renovated or reconstructed (upper part) 5. Former Bridge: A small bridge structure. 6. Gate: An arch opening to Sulukule. There is different layers of arch on the opening 7. Shelter: The wall has seemed to be converted into a shelter or informal dwelling. Additional temporary materials built onto the wall to construct the shelter. 8. Highway: A pedestrian walkway just alongside the highway, which borders the linear park and the highway. The first part goes from Fevzi Pasa Cadessi to vehicular entrance to Sulukule area from Topkapi – Edirnekapi Cadessi, this is a linear park which although is not being used intensely it is possible to see people sitting and walking there. The wall in this area presents also a lot of reconstructed parts such as the edge tower which layers of different stones are visible. The activities in the land along the wall are related to recreation but also it is possible to see some shelters and places for maintain horses both inside and next to the wall. The second part goes along the boundary identified as a Romani

Sketch for the wall and surounding environment near Sulukule

settlement in Sulukule area, this section of the wall does not present visible reconstructed works. The land around the wall in this area is more than an open green area; it’s used as a space for recreation, for horses’ maintenance and other daily life activities. The last part of this section goes from Sulukule to Vatan Cadessi and presents visibly reconstructed parts, the land along the wall is also an open green area, and even though this part has similarities with the two previous ones there is not one precise character for this part. This mapping exercise showed us the potential this area has for being used as an open space to develop both recreational and income generation activities for community members. 2.3. CONCLUSION • The main conclusion is that Sulukule presents a unique way of life and use of the spaces both public and private, which has to be preserved and take into account whenever a new development for the area is being introduced.

Map 9 Mapping of the Main charactarestics for the Theodesian wall Along Sulukule area

• It is clear that the existing infrastructure needs to be improved, especially regarding the safety of the community with relations to trafﬁc and sanitation. • The analysis of the use of the open and public spaces shows that the community uses it in different activities related to cultural expression, recreation and daily life activities. • The whole group validated the boundaries that were given to us by some community members because through the mapping exercise and observation, we could distinguish the area that they deﬁned as Romani and non Romani. The main differences were related to the use of the street as a communal space and way the people interact with each other.

Meetings

discussed in the meeting are provided in the table of meetings, found in the appendix B as well.

Objective Meetings were conducted with different actors which were involved in issues concerning Sulukule. The objective of the meetings was to not only understand the role of some of the actors but also to understand the context of the situation from the different view points of the actors. Below is a list of the actors which BUDD met during the project: • • • • •

Sulukule Residents Sulukule Roma Culture Development Association Sulukule Business Owners Muhtar of Neslisah Accessible Life Association

and Solidarity

• Human Settlements Association • Fatih Municipality • Istanbul Metropolitan Planning Unit • Istanbul Technical University • Chamber of Architects • Lawyers • And others For a detailed table of meetings refer to appendix B

Description The meetings were held in various forms. These included informal conversations, semi-structured interviews, panel discussions, presentations followed by discussions and so forth. The topics

Picture shows the discussion after the interim Presenation at ITU

Conclusions The meetings provided BUDD with information on many topics. For example the meeting at Fatih municipality provided BUDD with a better understanding of the municipal project for Sulukule. The meetings with Sulukule residents, Sulukule Roma Culture Development and Solidarity Association and the local NGO’s provided BUDD with a better understanding of the unsuitability of the municipal proposal for Sulukule. More detailed information from the meetings will be provided when this information is used in subsequent chapters.

Community Workshops Objective In any local development plan the needs and aspirations of the local community need to be ﬁrmly present. This can be successfully done by having the community participate in the development of the plan. However the municipality’s strategy was to speak to community members individually (divide and conquer). BUDD’s strategy involved speaking to the community (children, women and men) in order to understand the community. To do this, BUDD used two tools which were: • Planning for Real • Mobile workshops Above: Picture shows discussion with members of the local community which held in local café after the interim Presentation at ITU Below Picture shows discussion with the chief consultant of fatih municipality Mustafah cifci, the meeting was held in Fatih Municipality Ofﬁce.

Description

Planning for Real Planning for Real uses simple models as a focus for people to put forward and prioritise ideas on how their area can be improved. It is a highly visible, hands-on community development and empowerment tool, which people of all abilities and backgrounds ﬁnd easy and enjoyable to engage in.3 The idea with using this tool was to gain an understanding of the needs and aspirations of the community by having them point out what they want and where. The use of this tool was used a capacity building exercise for the NGO’s. The children in the community assisted BUDD in making the model of the area and in the process we generated some publicity (Along with a couple of posters) with their involvement.

The workshops itself took place in Sukru’s Teahouse (which was the base of Association). It was here that several members of the community came together and were asked to tell us more about the area. The format of the workshop was as followed: The community members present would be asked to identify where they lived in the area. This was followed by asking the community members to locate important skills, activities and buildings. The objective of these two activities was to have the community members familiarise themselves with the model. The next activity was asking the community to place suggestion cards on the model (a particular suggestion would be placed in a speciﬁc suggestion). The workshop would conclude with the prioritising activity in order to understand what suggestions were the most important to the community.

Left: Workshop poster Below: Model Making Workshop

However the workshop did not go according to plan. Once the workshop commenced the community members present immediately started giving suggestions and locating skills, activities and important buildings. Unfortunately the prioritising activity did not take place as people were participating intermittently.

Conclusion Many suggestions provided by the community members present had a common theme which was the children. This related to playgrounds, crèches, day care centres etc. Most suggestion were also placed in the open spaces of land which are in the area.

Mobile workshop In order to include the perceptions of the people for the way they prefer to live we carried out the second workshop. Given the fact that a lot of people and especially women did not participate in our meetings, there was a need to ﬁnd out a way to approach them and collect their opinions.

Objective The main objective, thus, was to explore these people’s perceptions about living in an apartment or in a traditional ottoman house, about the street life as well as about the historic wall along the area. At the same time, the record of their experiences of the current living conditions was also an important input for our analysis. Top: Community member participating in Planning for real workshop Below: The Model used in the planning for real workshop

Description In order to achieve our objectives, we prepared three boards of appropriately selected pictures according to the following themes: A. HOUSING B. STREET C. THE WALL A picture with an apartment building was contrasted with a picture of a traditional two-storey ottoman house, a common quiet street in Fener with a liveable, full of people street in Sulukule and ﬁnally two pictures of the wall, with and without activities along by. For each of the themes, the three main questions we addressed to the people and facilitate the dialogue were: 1. what do you like in the picture? 2. what do you dislike in the picture? 3. what would you like to change?

Walking around the area with the pictures boards and approaching people was not easy at the beginning. However, once a person accepted to speak to as, other people passing the road, stopped and expressed interest for the discussion, facilitating the consecutiveness of our work.

Conclusion Because of the limited time, the workshop was conducted only once and it lasted about three hours. During that time, we collected the perceptions of about 25 people, including women, children and men with a speciﬁc emphasis on women. We found that 2-3 families live often together in a house that have strong relations each other. There are two ﬂoors in the house which usually consists of a kitchen, one room and one bathroom. Contrary to a traditional house, a typical apartment consists of a kitchen, two rooms, a living-room and a bathroom. What was important was that, even the people who moved in an apartment expected to buy and live in a traditional house with their family in the future. People said that they feel safe living together because they help each other. All prefer to live in a liveable street where they can interact and communicate with the others, but with no overcrowding conditions. Children also like to live in a traditional house and interact with their neighbours and they asked for more spaces for play.

Mobile workshop’s activities

In relation to the wall, people believe that it can play an important role for their area and they would like to be exploited by them for daily activity.

Secondary Sources Objective As part of our preparation in London before departing to Istanbul, we consulted reading material on a range of topics (See Appendix C). This provided us with an, albeit, limited understanding of issues concerning gypsies, the Romani, planning in Turkey, Istanbul and other Turkish cities.

Description Preparation There were two reading list provided. The ﬁrst reading list was on general topics concerning the Romani in Europe and then particularly the Romani in Turkey. The second reading list was divided in thematic group, as presented below: • Land and Environment • Socio-Economic

to develop them further. This will be elaborated upon further in the report. The Constitution of the Republic of Turkey The European Convention of Human Rights Declaration on the Rights of Persons belonging to National or Ethnic, Religions and Linguistic Minorities (UN General Assembly European Social Charter The Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage of Join ICOMOS/UNESCO World Heritage Committee

Conclusion The secondary sources provided factual information on range of topics especially when formulating the priority action projects (this relates to laws).

• Culture and Housing • Governance and Planning Reading material on possible proposals and other tools and mechanisms were consulted as well • Evictions • Slum Upgrading and Land Sharing • Urban Agriculture • Livelihoods Approach •

Multi-Stakeholder Processes

Sources for Proposals In preparing the Action Pilot Projects some members read documents

End notes: 1 See appendix C 3 http://www.communityplanning.net/methods/method100.htm

Findings ... This chapter addresses a summary of the aspects found as crucial statements that helped define the guidelines for the Local Development Plan. Some serve as part of the justification for the Priority Actions Projects that will be presented in the next chapter. These findings are based on both the analysis of the current situation and the conclusions derived from different methods and tools we used.

1. Information Gap • There is a lack of information regarding the following subjects: number of families living in each house, an understanding of the household structure, the status of ownership and tenants, and a socio-economic survey for local community. This information is crucial for the planning process. • There are many absentee landlords in this area. This makes it difﬁcult to understand the nature of the community’s rights.

The lack of information can be overcome through carrying out a self assessment exercise executed by the community itself. 2. Social Stigma • Romani population have always been stigmatised since they are generally seen to not behave in accordance with mainstream principles and values. They are perceived as thieves, prostitutes, undereducated, deceitful.

Quotation from Romani Children

• They are still stigmatised and discriminated because of issues related to crime, informal activities. • They are considered poor not because of their income, but because of the way they live, expending most of their times in the streets, sharing the same house between different families, etc. (Erkut, Sociologist, ITU Lecture, May 7th 2007) • In the legal context of Turkey, minorities are used to being oppressed and are the most vulnerable groups when facing a gentriﬁcation process because they are not considered as equals. (Professor Alpar Uhlu, ITU Lecture, May 7th 2007) • The chief consultant to the Fatih Municipality Mayor does not recognise entertainment culture as part of Romani culture. He

argues that the entertainment is corrupted way of Romani culture and the municipality does not want to promote such activities. (Mustafa Cifci, Chief Consultant to Mayor of Fatih Municipality meeting, May 7th 2007) • The collective perception in Istanbul about Sulukule is that since a Romani community lives there, one must be careful at all times when visiting. For example, during the entire ﬁeldtrip, taxi drivers insisted on the need to be careful upon arrival in Sulukule. They said “you have to take care of our bags, your wallets and your selves”. As students visiting Sulukule often, none of our belongings were stolen during the span of the ﬁeldtrip. • This stigma carries through other Romani groups in Turkey as well and more precisely in Istanbul. For example, in the area of Fener and Balat where Romani population live on one particular street, when some students went there for research, they were always warned about going there or getting too close.

3. History • The Romani community has a long history in the same area; they have been living in the areas along the Theodosian walls for more than 1000 years. • Even though the Romani community of Sulukule is considered the oldest in the world, they are still seen as nomads albeit they have lived in this area before the Turkish population. • Different Romani communities in Turkey and particularly in Istanbul are facing threats of eviction. Although there is a general

move towards gentriﬁcation there is a tendency to target (gentrify) Romani communities ﬁrst.

Even though there is pressure in the area of study for redevelopment, promotion of Romani culture is necessary to consider as a way of exercising their rights so they may continue living where they have been for a long time. 4. Cultural wealth • Sulukule’s cultural skills serve as a way to generate income throughout the year. Many earn their livelihoods from performing music and dance. • On Music: “My family has lived here for 50 years. We emigrated from Greece. Music has been in our family since the Byzantine times. I play drums, tambourine, bender, tabla, ghatan, kanjira, and dholak. I learned how to play on my own since the age of ﬁve. I learned by watching and trying. I learned the Indian instruments by watching the Hare Krishnas in Taksim”- Mehmet • Before 1992, the Romani population of Sulukule used to have 32 entertainment houses and each one provided approximately 30 jobs for Romani musicians, dancers and other trades. (Tradition of Music and Entertainment in Sulukule, Today Again? Panel Discussion- May 3rd, 2007) • The Romani community of Sulukule wanted to have entertainment houses again fulﬁlling all the legal requirements including the payment of taxes. They are now asking for 11 houses and believe

5. Community organisation • There a is lack of community organization • The current Sulukule Roma Culture Development and Solidarity Association do not seem to be representative of the community for the municipality level. It is possible to believe that there is a

Quotation from Romani Musician lives in Sulukule

Picture Shows the demolished houses in Sulukule

they can generate the necessary income to live in better conditions. (Tradition of Music and Entertainment in Sulukule, Today Again? Panel Discussion-May 3rd, 2007)

lack of representation at community level as well since there were a short number of participants present in meetings, workshops, and discussions.

• There are possibilities to relate cultural skills to income generation. Not only through entertainment houses, but also through music recording, distribution and performance.

• There is a general lack of conﬁdence at community level and the residents feel powerless to interact with the authorities about their future in the area.

It is possible that this income can be used to develop a social enterprise to promote the development of more cultural skills.

• Although NGO’s actively support Sulukule’s stance, there is still a need to involve the community in all arenas of debate so they may

voice their own situation. • Even though the community is not well organised, there is a strong sense of community in the way that they trust each other and care for one another, but at the same time they are afraid of being stigmatised and therefore many times deny their identity. • They cannot live apart from one another because their survival depends on their relationships. They have built trust with one another. “Because they are with their people, the owners of the shops sell those with no money goods without immediate payment” (Meeting in Sulukule, April 30, 2007) • If the Fatih Municipality proposal is implemented, the existing sense of community in the area is at risk of being dissolved. The residents simply cannot afford the housing in the conditions that the Municipality is offering. (Meeting with NGO’s, May 2, 2007).

For an alternate plan to be developed using the participatory approach, mobilisation and the organisation of the community is needed. 6. Livelihoods • Sulukule is not only residential, but a space that supports livelihoods, there are a variety of business activities which serve as a way for income generation for local communities. The streets are lined with mini markets, cafes, real estate ofﬁces, washed carpets and vendors. Along the wall are car repair shops, tomb stone engravers, and even a sheep butcher. Although the new proposal

does offer some business opportunities for existing activities, it does not consider all of them. These economic activities should be recognized, maintained and strengthened. New ones ought to be promoted. • Recycling is known to serve as a means for income generation in Romani culture though not necessarily in this area. Recycling could be used as an opportunity to improve the existing infrastructure. • Residents, non residents, Romani, non Romani, business owners and employees are all actively generating incomes in this area. • Different tools used, such as mapping exercises and informal interviews showed to the group the existing mixed uses in the area, where particularly housing and commercial activities are interrelated not only in the same area but also in the building. • Programs aside from residential and commercial uses can be seen in the area. There are mosques and some educational facilities such as the school for mentally and physically challenged children. • The area identiﬁed as the Romani community of Sulukule presents an intense use of outdoor living space; people are using the streets frequently. Streets are much more than space for circulation. They are spaces to share and live with a community.

7. Housing • There are poor and overcrowded housing conditions in this area. • The average household in Turkey is 3. In Romani areas, it is 6. This fact is an expression of poverty and bad housing conditions. (Erkut, Sociologist, ITU Lecture, May 7th 2007)

• This cohabitation between Romani and Non-Romani people is visible not only in the living spaces at neighbourhood level but also in the commercial activities.

• Each family has more than two children

• Both Romani and Non-Romani are living and working together peacefully in Sulukule

• “I live with my family and my aunt’s family in the same house, we share the kitchen, the living room, and each family has a room” (Young Sulukule Resident)

• “I’ve been living in Sulukule my whole life (something like 50 years) and we have never had problems with Romani community, they are our neighbours and we can share spaces and live in peace”

• Member of community state that if they have the opportunity and the resources, they will improve their houses, but until now the municipality has not allowed them to take any steps towards housing improvement because they are located in a conservation site. (Istanbul 2010, Visions of Sulukule, May 17, 2007)

• “I’m not Romani but I’ve been living here for long time in a good relationship, what the municipality is doing right now is not right”

Incremental housing improvement rather than demolition will encourage the existing community to stay in place. 8. Cohabitation “Cohabitation is an emotional and physical intimate relationship which includes a common living place and which exists without the beneﬁt of legal or religious sanction.” (Wikipedia)

• Even though there is evidence about the historic and current cohabitation between Romani and Non-Romani, particularly in Sulukule area, there is still the idea Romani people are isolated from the rest of the city and from the rest of the inhabitants. This idea was expressed during the meeting at Fatih Municipality Ofﬁce where the Chief Consultant to the Mayor of Fatih Municipality stated that one of the advantages of the Municipality Plan was that it offered integration to this particular community to the city. Unfortunately, this community cannot afford to live in this new proposal.

It is should be noted that people of all types should continue living where they have since they do so peacefully Romani and Non Romani.

9. Heritage Site • Although most of Sulukule is located within the UNESCO World Heritage Site boundaries, the Municipality has not included this within the proposed Development Plan. • The UNESCO World Heritage Site deﬁnition considers cultural heritage as both tangible and intangible heritage. The physical, cultural and social issues are not being articulated within the current proposal for Sulukule’s development. The wall is a symbolic representation for the location of the Romani Community.

Above : Tangible heritage components in Sulukule • The site deﬁnition by UNESCO states that this area should Below: Intangible heritage components in Sulukule be preserved not only for its physical characteristics but its anthropological ones as well.

anthropological ones as well. • Currently there is a tension between conservation (5226) and renovation (5366) laws, which from UNESCO’s point of view are promoting a contradictory message in regarding the management

of the future of the heritage sites in Istanbul. “In the view of the mission, Law 5226 on the Conservation of Cultural and Natural Heritage has the potential to considerably improve the management of the site, as long as a new, integrated, management structure is established within the framework of a comprehensive World Heritage Management Plan. In contrast, the means by which Law 5366 on the Renovation and Utilisation of Deteriorated Cultural Properties is to be implemented gives rise to considerable concern., … The State Party, in forthcoming Progress Reports, will need to demonstrate that this law is being implemented in a manner that positively supports the conservation of historic areas rather than being used as a tool for development.” (UNESCO Report 2006, pp.6-7) • The current plans developed by the Istanbul Metropolitan Planning Unit (1:5000 and 1:1000) has not considered the boundaries established by UNESCO when the Theodesian Walls were included as part of the World Heritage Site List. ”… Unfortunately the Ministry of Culture does not appear to have shared information on the nominated boundaries with the municipalities, who remained in ignorance of what precise areas constituted the World Heritage Site until 2003. The boundaries of the protected areas shown on the 1:5000 Urban Conservation Plan and the 1:1000 Implementation Plan were therefore prepared without reference to the nominated boundaries and do not correspond to the nominated zones, which include areas under both ﬁrst and second degree protection…. Moreover, the nominated area beyond the Land Walls is not yet included within any of the new protected zones (see p. 12). This situation should be regularised and the ﬁrst-degree protected

areas should be extended to cover the whole of the World Heritage core areas, since these have been recognised as of outstanding universal value. (UNESCO Report 2006, pp.10). • Some of the recent established projects in Sulukule and the surrounding area ( such as the sport centre) did not give sufﬁcient attention for the historic context in the design solutions, thus jeopardising the authenticity of the archaeological site especially the historic aqueducts. (Istanbul 2010, Visions of Sulukule, May 17, 2007)

The area around the wall has potential to be used as a space for income generation and celebration of cultural wealth for the Sulukule community. 10. Open Spaces • The largest open spaces identified in the areas are not used to its capacity; there is little clarification about their ownership and the responsibility in their management. (Meeting with Muhtar of Neslisah, May 14, 2007) • Included in this category the land along the Theodesian Walls lacks clarity in defining its management and ownership, particularly in the area next to Sulukule. (Meeting with Muhtar of Neslisah, May 14, 2007) • During the workshops conducted in Sulukule most suggestions were located in the open spaces.

There is a potential for integrating these large open spaces: the one located in the Northern part, the one next to the Tea House, and the green area along the wall, into an alternative proposal for Sulukule.

Map 10 the location of the open spaces adjacent to the wall

11. Lack of communication • The lack of communication between the Fatih Municipality and the Community is particularly problematic. The community does not have access to the information regarding the Municipality Development Plan and also to the implications this plan will produce at the community level. • The lack of communication along with the lack of knowledge about what are the different proposals currently developed in the area of Sulukule have produced bring feeling of uncertainty about the Future between community members.

is not made for us. Why don’t they build for poor people? We do not even know where the relocation place is located. It is so far, people have not even been able to see it” Mehmet Bickic • “I don’t want to go to other place because here I can play my music at whatever time in my house, in the café, in the street, and nobody will ask me to be quiet”

The perspective of the local community must be represented in the local municipality plan

• Rent in Sulukule ranges from 50 – 200 Turkish Lira. We however learned from discussions that up to 4 families can stay together in one apartment, with up to 6 people sleeping in one room., paying as little as 15 Turkish Lira per month. Some houses are also owned communally, however residents allege that the municipality only recognises single family occupancy in the settlement and compensation offer. This is compounded by the fact that many residents do not have proof such as ofﬁcial documentation or bills to prove their residence in Sulukule. Consequently, the municipality’s population ﬁgures may not be truly representative of the community. • Most residents of Sulukule will not be able to afford houses or to re-establish their commercial activities in the proposed new development: “I have owned this business for 30 years. I have no where else to go. I am 62 years old and cannot just open a new place. The renewal project is inappropriate since the area is too small. I would never be able to afford a house here. The project

Quotation for local business owner in Sulukule

12. Participatory approach • There does not exist a participatory approach in the development of the current plan proposal for the area • The Municipality approaching community members individually is contradictory to a participatory approach. • The Community is not being considered as a whole but as individuals. • If the municipality proposed a similar plan before 1992, they would have been able to pay for the new houses. (Istanbul 2010, Visions of Sulukule, May 17, 2007)

project, 10 houses were bought, 102 were negotiated, 43 are in process of negotiation, 480 new houses will be constructed, It is estimated that 300 Romani people will remain in the area. (it is necessary to check this info)

A participatory process for development in Sulukule is necessary to give local community the opportunity to represent them selves in formulation and deliver of solutions in development plans for their area.

• The new proposal is not considering the community needs and aspirations; this design is proposing a new hotel, a office building, and a new residential area that will be built after demolishing the whole area. Also, there are some parts of the plan that are not conserving the original pattern streets. • In Sulukule, there are 571 houses and the municipality plan is proposing the construction of 480. More over, municipality measures are not taking into account the diversity of household structures existent in the area. According to the fieldwork, it is normal that each house accommodates more than one family. – • To fill the difference between the number of existing houses and the proposed ones, the municipality is offering to provide these houses outside the area through TOKI. • Municipality Plan basic data: Area: 18,000 m2, Romani Population: 1200 (out of 3500), total of 586 houses in the area, 97 plots and 155 houses within the area of the first stage of the municipality

Deﬁning LDP Area Context and assumptions: First step to create platform for local development plan was to formulate guiding principles for Local Development Plan. These guiding principles will serve as the framework for any proposals for actions in the short term that could help to establish the platform for proposing Local Development Plan in the long term.

of society speciﬁcally the local community to access the new development. 4-The use of development as vehicle to activate local and national assets to improve local communities’ living standards Vis a Vis Conventional approach that depends only external forces such Market dynamics to provide development.

The guidelines formulating process was based on the following assumptions that will be used to fill the gap between any proposals for desired development and the reality on the ground . Moreover promotes the human development besides the physical development based on the U.N 21 Agenda for sustainable development 1-Developmental Approach has to acknowledge the economic and social factors that influence shaping cities planning process, where the “Local Development Plan Area” is part of larger image that influence the local development but not take over the whole process. Thus the mission is to search for the balance between local needs and city level dynamics. 2-The acknowledgment of the complexity of development proposals in the context of cites that has to go beyond the provision of housing. 3-Development that reflects the heterogeneity and the stratification of society in global cities such as Istanbul, beyond providing housing for certain class in society. This implies the development has to seek the affordability of different layers

The Local Development Plan Area: The selected area for the Local Development Plan was chosen based initially on the area proposed by the municipality development plan, nevertheless based on the analysis and the mapping exercise and reading the context on the ground, modiﬁcation for this selected area was proposed as follows (See Map 10): 1-Excluding the area A , which was included by the municipality development plan, since the site visits showed that this area has different character and architectural style compairing to the other areas that have been included, besides its part of the service area to the south where the function of the premises is industrial and services rather than residential.(See picture below)

D C C A

Picture Shows part of Area A ( adjacent to the new sport center)

2- Including the area B, this area has the same urban fabric character with the adjacent area inside the Municipality Development plan area. Consequently it can be included together as one urban unit.

Map11 shows the selected area for LDP in relation to Sulukule Neighbourhood, Hatice Sultan and Nesllesha Mahallas, Municipality Development Plan, World Heritage site

3- Including the Area C, this area is part of the world heritage site and it has continuity with the adjacent area inside the Municipality Development plan area. Consequently it has to be included together ,as one urban unit, with the world heritage site inside the Local Development Plan area. This helps to implement cultural heritage policy on both in the same level through the same development project. Otherwise the area will suffer deterioration because it will not be included in the current development which will affect the unity of the heritage site. 4- Including the area D, which resemble the historic wall area and the open spaces outside. Including this area will help integrating the development plan with the cultural heritage agenda, which include more opportunity for income generation and inclusion in city level projects by coordinating with state parties that responsible for protecting cultural heritage. Moreover offering to increase the open spaces percentage in the “Local Development Plan Area” which can be used as recreational spaces for local residence. (see picture)

Picture Shows area D ( tha open green space to the left side of the wall)

Guiding Principles for LDP 1. Maintaining people in place Any proposals or actions of developemnt in LDP area (such as housing, economic activities, physical improvement for the built environment regarding conserving the cultural heritage site or provide infrastructure) has to consider the right of the local community to continue living in the same place where they have been living for long time. this consideration has to covers both; owners and tenants. Thus the new development has to seek maintain them in the same place as their “right to the city”. Thus any attempt for evection have to be avoided because of the negative impact on local communities, since the relocation break the social and economical ties, besides the loss of strategic location within the city which considered as one of community assets 2. Strengthening capacity of community organization. Strengthening the capacity of community organization is important as predominant factor for local planning development. This organized community will help the local community to present their needs and aspirations in a collective and organized way. This will contribute to bridge the gap between the development proposals and real needs for local communities. This can guarantee that the development plan could promote sustainable development. 3. Engaging people in local development plans using a participatory process. Local community has to be engaged in the planning process through participatory approach that can explore local needs and aspiration

directly. This will help to reach more precise deﬁnition for problems and opportunities for solutions. Moreover built trust relationship between local community and local authorities such as municipalities. This guiding principle stemmed from the fact that local communities have the right participate in decision making process in issues that can affect their life directly, this promote democratic decision making process where all stakeholders participate in shaping the future of their area. 4. Establishing social and cultural links at the community and city level The development has to promote social and cultural links between the local community and city. This will highlight the importance of the acknowledgment of the diversity within metropolitan city sphere in Istanbul. This local community unique culture has to be seen as a factor that enriches the city culture within the social cohesion. 5. Encouraging economic activities that sustain livelihoods

• First the type of housing solution has to consider the level of income for the local communities. This require detailed knowledge about the socio-economic situation such as the level of income for household in the area, besides the knowledge about the land and housing markets in the area and the percentage of tenants to owners. • Second, the housing solution has to take into consideration the way of living for the local community in two aspects: First, the way the local community use the urban spaces: such as the way the neighbourhood structure where housing units related to the streets and other urban space. As well, the use of theses streets as public spaces and social spaces. Second, the way of using the spaces inside the house and how the incremental development could organized and the way to adapt new development scheme that could built and upgrade what exists. 7. Transforming unique world heritages into opportunities for

It is important to highlight the role of the local economic activities, such as the small commercial enterprises in local income generation. Moreover it’s important to include these activates in the future development plans or actions by maintaining the existing ones that serve the needs of the local community, and help the neighbourhood to act as sufﬁcient unit where people are not obliged to travel long distance to work or get their basic needs. 6. Adaptable and affordable housing solutions on site for all residents The development proposals of housing solution must seek the affordability of the local community to access the new development housing scheme. This needs two considerations:

local development, for example: the wall, Romani heritage, and the cohabitation of different cultures. The location of the “Local Development Plan Area” inside the historic peninsula can be considered as strategic, where this site is part of the world heritage site. This opportunity gives the potential for transforming part of the derelict site along the historic wall to a place to celebrate the intangible heritage for the local community ,besides the examine for use the site for activities (based on the cultural skills of local communities) that can generate income for the local communities. This mixture of wealth has to be utilized (tangible and intangible) together for better future for the area.

8. Promoting environmentally sustainable activities The development activities have to address the environmental impacts of these activities, therefore the proposals has to promote environmental activates that can seek the adaptation of the UN Habitat 21 Agenda in Faith Municipality which is implemented in other districts of Istanbul.

Priority Action Program Priority Action Program Boundary: As mentioned before; the guiding principles is valid for the whole Local Development Plan area. Nevertheless due to the fact of limit resources (Information, knowledge and political situation), the Priorty Action Program has been designed to include pilot action projects in limited action area. thus first step was to define the boundary for the Priority Action Program area then to define these projects and their components.

Map 12 shows the selected area for Priority Action Plan in relation to LDP area, Hatice Sultan and Nesllesha Mahallas and World Heritage Site

Priority Action Program: Based on the ﬁndings that have been presented in the previous chapter about the current built environment, social and economic conditions, the importance of proposing immediate actions in a limited area has emerged. This can be related fundamentally by the lack of information to conduct comprehensive Local Development Plan for the area as whole immediately that can result ignoring valuable potentials such as local economic activities and heritage values. Moreover the need for immediate actions to respond to the urgent problems such as deterioration of the built environment. The need for pilot actions can be justiﬁed as measurement for the realistic responds for local community and the neighbourhood social and economic dynamics for incremental changes that can be offered by this actions.

Action Project A

Action Project B

Action Project C

Priority Action Program (PAP)

Local Development Plan (LDP) Figure 6 : The Relationship between Action project , PAP and LDP

The incremental methodology has been applied to seek solutions for the development of the area. Thus the plan has to be realistic in proposing short term immediate actions besides helping to achieve long term objectives. This methodology can be illustrated as follows: immediate Pilot Actions or projects, These action projects have to articulate Priority Action Program by achieving the short term objective directly. Moreover contribute to the establish platform for Local Development Plan by long term objective ( Refer Figure 6). Next paragraphs will be used to illustrate each on of these components. Local Development Plan which refers to the comprehensive strategy for area’s development. Usually it includes the main strategies and the Guiding Principles in which development direction has been deﬁned. Moreover, LDP has to take into consideration all local area dynamics such as social, economical, cultural poletical and spatial aspects of the urban space. Nevertheless, the fact of limited recourses for immediate comprehensive implementation could lead to prioritise implementation through diffrent stages and programs. Priority Action Program: which is basically the prioritise program for the needs of the area based on the strategic vision and guiding principle of the Local Development Plan, and according to the reality of limited resources to implement LDP once. the PAP can serve as framework to include action projects that can implement separately to address different short term problems or needs but at the same time functions within the guideline of the Local development plan as

These actions projects have been selected and prioritised based on the diagnosis and analysis that showed the urgent necessity for these actions to serve as platform for future Local Development Plan.

Long Term Objective (LDP)

Short Term Objective (PAP)

Input

Activities

Outcome

Figure 7 :The Structure of the ction project and the link to PAP and LDP

the long term objective. (Refer Figure 7) Action Projects usually refers to relatively small scale projects with specific scope, easily and fast initiated, relatively small budget, relatively short time to implement and reach the direct outcome. These type of projects target specific problem such as lack of information of improve housing conditions , preliminary studies , etc. In the context of Sulukule, the actions projects was formulated related to chosen topics based on the observations and findings that was catigorized as follows: 1Housing 2Land Management 3Social Enterprise and local economic activities. 4The tangible heritage site (the wall) 5Open Spaces 6Community Organization 7Threats of Eviction

Each action project follow the typical project structure : Input … Activities …. Outcome. These action projects have to contribute priority action program by achieving the short term objective directly (at the end of the poject life cycle). Moreover contribute to the Local development plan by long term objective. (Refer Figure 7)

Pilot Action Projects: The pilot action projects deﬁned are : 1. Halt Demolition in Hatice Sultan and Neslisah 2. Neslisah Land Development Association 3. Building Community through Multi-Functional Organized Community 4. Sulukule Business Development Unit 5. Housing Improvement in Sulukule 6. A Study for Recycling Opportunities 7. Astudy for potential uses of Heritage as a Platform for Local Development .

Action projects, Guide Principle Matrix: The matrix is used as tool to measure to which extend each projects contribute to achievement of the guiding principle of the Local development plan. Moreover this matrix used as mapping tool to measure the coherence of the 7 action projects to cover the maximum degree of the Guiding Principle as Priority Action Program. This argument is illustrated in the following matrix

G U I D E L I N E S

improving local community living standards

PROJECTS

impede Halt demolition in hatice sultan & neslisah neslisah sultan land development association building community

establishing strengthening encouraging adaptable transforming promoting maintaining engaging enviromentally an unique social and capacity of economical and the people in people in sustainable cultural links community activities that affordable world place local heritages into activities housing development at local level organisation sustains livelihoods solutions on opportunities plans using and at city level site and for for local participatory all residents development process

PILOT

ACTION

sulukule business development unit housing improvement in sulukule study for recycling opportunities study of heritage as a platform for local development Figure 8: Matrix of Guiding Principle Vs. Action

Action Projects 74

Action Project 1 :

the forced evictions violate various International Laws, Charter, and Covenant (refer appendix E), as listed:

HALLT DEMOLITION IN HATICE SULTAN AND NESLISAH

The Constitution of the Republic of Turkey Article 14 (Prohibition of Abuse of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms) Article 19 (Personal Inviolability, Material and Spiritual Entity of the Individual) Article 20 (Privacy of Individual Life) Article 21 (Inviolability of Domicile) Article 63 (Conservation of Historical, Cultural and Natural Wealth)

1. Current situation and justiﬁcation of Project (why?) The community in this area is under threat of eviction following the Fatih Municipality Local Development Plan, which is scheduled for July 2007. The Roma community, which inhabits the Hatice Sultanah and Nelisah, is a minority group in Turkey are being isolated and pushed aside by authorities, in terms of city development and planning. The area of Hatice Sultan and Neslisah falls under coverage and boundary of UNESCO’s World Heritage Site, which protects the historical city walls. Some of the properties is this area has been sold to the Municipality under the strategic ‘Press Compulsory Purchase’ order, which is supported under the new Urban Renewal Law 5366. The Urban Renewal Law 5366 supports new development contradicts the World Heritage Sites protection coverage, which entitles protection of the site, including the Wall and it’s the cultural heritage.

European Convention on Human Rights Article 8 (Right to Respect for Private and Family Life) Article 13 (Right to Effective Remedy) Article 14 (Prohibition of Discrimination) Declaration on the Rights of Persons belonging to National or Ethnic, Religions and Linguistic Minorities (UN General Assembly) Article 1 (Protection from State) Article 4 (Exercise of Human Rights without Discrimination) Article 5 (Obligation of State to International Treaties and Agreements) European Social Charter Article 4 (The Right to a Fair Remuneration) Article 16 (The Right of the Family to Social, Legal and Economical Protection) Article 31 (Housing) The Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage of Join ICOMOS/UNESCO World Heritage Committee Article 1 (Cultural Heritage) Article 4 (Duties of State Party) Article 5 (Measures of Protection, Conservation and Presentation) Article 6 (Sovereignty of the States)

Demolition of buildings and homes in these two neighbourhoods threaten to disrupt the Romani community’s culture and lifestyle and

2. Objectives SHORT TERM

• • •

To address the eviction threat faced by the Community To halt the demolition and eviction plans of Fatih Municipality in July 2007 To generate numerical data of the population affected by the municipality’s development plan.

LONG TERM

•

To open up discussion for a possible ‘Unmolested Occupancy Law’ in Turkey to formalize and legalize the occupiers who may be squatting in building or on property that they do now own.

3. Expected results at the end of the Project To halt the demolition and evictions plan from the municipality. 4. Description of the action and of its main components. 1. Formulating a Claim Claim of statement that the Community wishes to bring forward to the Court, in defence of their Rights and against the threat of evictions 2. Gathering Data to support the Claim Self assessment exercise (refer appendix D) - numerical data on the Community : population density, household structure, etc Gathering ofﬁcial documents - Fatih Municipality Local Development Plan - The Constitution of the Republic of Turkey

Other related Law, Charter, Covenant that is in reply for the community’s defense Gathering Testimonies - Testimonies of community member that has sold their house to the Fatih Municipality under the pressure of the ‘Press Compulsory Purchase’ - Testimonies from local community member on the demolition that has taken place. - Testimony from families that have been evicted. - Pictures of the demolished houses. Gathering Reports and Studies - Compiling reports and studies that has been done in support for the claim 3. Formulating an Afﬁdavit Formatting all the relevant data and document gathered into an Afﬁdavit -

Find relevant court cases in support of the Afﬁdavit

4. Presenting the Affidavit to Court Taking and filing the Affidavit to Court * Affidavit = A written declaration made under oath before a notary public or other authorized officer.

ACTION

Formulating a Claim

Gathering Data to Support the Claim Self assessment Testimonies Ofﬁcial documents Pictures of demolished houses

EXPECTED IMPLEMENTING DURATION INSTITUTION

NOW 1 month

MAIN PARTNERS

Sulukule Romani Accessible Life Culture and Assc. (ALA) Development Human Settlement Solidarity Assc. (HSA) Association (SRCDSA)

2-4 months SRCDSA

ALA & HSA Chamber of Architect Legal Advisor

6. Implementing institution (Who?) • Community Organization : Sulukule Romani Culture and Development Solidarity Association (SRCDSA) • Legal Advisor (to be determined by SRCDSA) 7. Main partners (Describe their roles) • Local NGOs : Accessible Life Association (ALA) and Human Settlement Association (HSA) • Chamber of Architect - to support the community organization in gathering information and supporting data to formulate the court case 8. Provisional budget and origin of resources (ﬁnancing)

Formulating an 2 months Afﬁdavit Precedent court cases as supporting data

Legal Advisor

Presenting the Afﬁdavit to Court

SRCDSA

1 week

Chamber of Architects SRCDSA ALA & HSA Legal Advisor Chamber of Architects ALA & HSA

5. Expected duration of the Project • Formulating and presenting the case (afﬁdavit) to court : 4-6 months • Court trial : Can range between 12 – 24 months

Components 1. Formulating and presenting the case

Estimated budget in € 1,000

2. Court Trial and Legal Fees

9,000

ESTIMATED TOTAL

10,000

Origin of resources

Funding from collective organizations involved + World Heritage Fund

9. Coherence with the Local Development Plan The project meets few of the guidelines proposed in the local development plan, either directly or indirectly. The direct and main guideline this project affects; maintaining the

people in place; and adaptable and affordable housing solutions on site for all residents. How? • Through the court case that ﬁghts for the people’s housing rights to stay where they are now Other indirect implications of this project, in terms of; engaging people in local development plans using participatory approach; establishing social and cultural links at local and city levels; strengthening capacity of community organization; and transforming unique world heritages into opportunities for local development. How? • The local community organization (SRCDSA) association working together with NGOs will strengthen their capacity and to put forward their needs and rights into development plans of the area. • Through the court case that will force a larger recognition of •

Sulukule in legal terms and links at local and city levels. By using the world heritage site that protects the wall area along Sulukule as legal grounds to stop the evictions and demolitions.

10. Spatial Implications There are no new direct spatial implications from this project; however it deems the spatial context to be maintained as to where and how it is now.

long term objective •To open up discussion for a possible ‘Unmolested Occupancy Law’ in Turkey to formalize and legalize informal settlements •To promote ‘renters rights’ and property improvement valuation by renters.

short term objective •To address the eviction threat faced by the Community •To halt the demolition and eviction plans of Fatih Municipality in July 2007 •To generate numerical data of the population affected by the municipality’s development plan.

activities Formulating a Claim

Month 1

Gathering Data to Support the Claim -Self assessment -Testimonies -Official documents -Pictures of demolish houses

Month 2

input Constitution of the Republic of Turkey European Convention on Human Rights Declaration of the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religions and Linguistic Minorities European Social Charter The Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage of Joint ICOMOS/UNESCO World Heritage Committee

output Court case against demolition and eviction in Hatice Sultan and Neslisah

Formulating an Affidavit -Precedent court cases as supporting data

Presenting the Affidavit to Court

Month 6

Month 9 Figure showing Impede Demolition in Hatice Sultan and Neslisah Framework

Court Trial

Month 11

Figure 9: Halt Demolishion in Hatice Sultan and Neslisah Framework

Action Project 2 : NESLISAH LAND DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION 1. CURRENT SITUATION & JUSTIFICATIONS The dangers posed to buildings around the country from earthquakes and the needs to change squatter settlements have been at the fore of discussions on urban transformation in Turkey (Akin & Demircioglu, 2005). In response to these concerns and other socio-economic trends new laws regulating urban renewal or transformation such as the Laws 5366 and 5266. The Development Law 5366 (2005) for example regulates the reuse and development of historical areas. • The Municipality of Fatih’s redevelopment proposal for the Hatice Sultan and Neslisah neighbourhoods requires the demolition of majority of the houses there, and fresh construction of new neighbourhoods. (Refer to Chapter 2, Site plan of Fatih Municipality’s proposal). The residents of Sulukule were informed of the impending redevelopment by the mass media (Seufert, 2006). The plans had already been developed before community members were made aware of the options the municipality proposed for purchase of housing units in the new scheme and relocation. • Community members were not involved in the development of the Municipality’s proposal. •

Community members were met and negotiated with individually by the municipality in the process of acquiring the land for the new development. This way many

community members were left unaware of events and terms of engagement and negotiation in the process. Legislation supporting greater participation of the civil society in Turkey already exists in the Local Agenda 21 which aims for “the participation of all sectors of the society in the government and decision making processes and enabling their saying (sic) in the local investments, the strengthening of local governance” (Local Agenda 21, Turkey, 2003). This has however not been implemented by Fatih Municipality, and the local communities of Sulukule do not have the capacity to negotiate with the Municipality or explore alternative options with other actors presently. They are uncoordinated and the ﬂow of information between the municipality and community members is unsatisfactory. • In order to facilitate sustainable development approach which will integrate the needs of local communities within plans by local authorities and the private sector, it is necessary for communities to take advantage of these laws which are developed to facilitate their involvement. To develop a strong and effective community lobby it is essential to build a broad-based organisation by encouraging the participation of a wide range of community members (men, women, Romani, non-Romani, renters and property owners). There is a real need to organise community members for involvement in the development process and to build their capacity so that they are able to act unitarily, for optimal involvement in the physical development of the area.

2. OBJECTIVES: •

Long-term: Engage people in local development plans of their area. • Short-term: Strengthen capacity and mobilise community organisation by building a broad-based community organisation and providing leadership training for the purpose of :- negotiating with local government on land and property development issues - engaging in property and land project management - accessing funding for physical development from urban poor upgrading finance facilitating institutions. This initiative will begin in the Neslisah neighbourhood which is in the first phase of the development scheme proposed by the Fatih Municipality. Expansion to include other areas should be considered after the establishment of this body. 3. EXPECTED RESULTS at the End of the PROJECT: Neslisah Sultan Land Development Association A legal entity (in accordance with Law 4963 of the Turkish Civil Code) and solidarity association made up diverse members (owners, renters, Roma and non-Roma), of the Neslisah District community which represents their interests, capable of negotiating and partnering with local authorities and in urban development projects and accessing financial and technical aid from local and international partners.

4. DESCRIPTION of the ACTION and its main COMPONENTS: • Familiarisation workshops organised by implementing institutions with residents • Informatory workshops familiarising residents with possible courses of action. • Identiﬁcation of social groups within the community • Identifying leaders • Holding of capacity building workshops with selected community members • Preparation of Association Bye-laws (in accordance with Article 58) • Presentation of Declaration of Incorporation and other registration documents to administrative authority (approval or recommendations to be made within 60 days). • Convening of ﬁrst General Meeting. 5. EXPECTED DURATION of the PROJECT: This project is billed to be implemented within a 6 month period. The table below contains a schedule of activities and time-spans.

Action Project 2 :

Ac tivity

T ime

Month 1

Month 2

Month 3

Month 4

Month 5

Month 6

F amiliaris ation W orks hops

Informatory W orks hops

Identific ation of s oc ial groups

Identific ation of leaders

C apac ity-building works hops

E lec tions

P reparation of as s oc iation bye-laws

S ubmis s ion and approval of regis tration doc uments C onvention of firs t general meeting.

Figure 10 : Neslisah Land Development Association Project Time Chart 82

6. IMPLEMENTING INSTITUTIONS: The execution of this project will be carried out against the backdrop of months of interaction with the Sulukule Community by some of the implementing institutions. • Sulukule Romani Culture and Development Solidarity Association (a local Romani NGO based in Sulukule). • Accessible Life Association and • Human Settlements Association Two Turkish NGOs based in Istanbul who have been working in Sulukule, building relationships with the community members.

7. MAIN PARTNERS: • European Roma Rights Centre • STGM (Civil Society Development Centre) Provide campaign supports such as "technical inputs such as provision of PR experts during the planning and implementation of campaigns, creation of networks in context of campaigns. • Helsinki Citizenship Assembly Participates in “Institutional building for Romani organisational development training; in particular developing skills and capacity to run civil organisations and manage projects. • Other Roma Turkish Solidarity Groups e.g. (Edirne Roma ) • INTRAC (International NGO Training and Research Centre) This body engages: (i)”directly with ROMA NGOs and their constituencies in the design of contextually relevant monitoring and evaluation systems

(ii) at intermediary level in the training of Roma managers and trainers" (INTRAC, 2007). 8. PROVISIONAL BUDGET and FINANCING The 3 implementing institutions will manage ﬁnancing from the partner institutions organising workshops and raise funds from members. The budget chart below shows the main expenses involved in executing the project.

Components of Budgeting 1. Allowances for implementers and facilitators of workshops. 2. Legal fees for preparation of documents. Budget Components

9. COHERENCE with the LOCAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN The implementation of the guidelines for the local development plan calls for a concerted action by stakeholders within the community and their partners outside it. However without an umbrella organisation representing the interests of residents it will be difﬁcult to present their position and marshal their potential in exploring alternative options. This project complements 5 of the 9 guidelines of the local development plan: • Engaging people in local development plans using participatory processes.

• Establishing social and cultural links at local and city levels. • Strengthening capacity of community organisation. The land development association once formed will facilitate participation of community members, and their interaction with other actors participating in development both at city level and beyond. • Provision of adaptable and affordable housing solutions on site for all residents. • Transforming unique world heritages into opportunities for local development. • With community members involved in the development process (and at earlier stages), more proposals which take their needs and requirements into consideration will be proposed both in housing and other urban development programs as demonstrated in the Harran Project (Yigiter & Yirmibesoglu, 2003). 10. SPATIAL IMPLICATIONS One of the aims of this project is to strengthen community members’ ability to impact on the physical development of their community. The chart shown overleaf shows the process and steps involved in achieving this.

•L ac k of c ommunity involvement in development of Munic ipality’s propos al •Dis organis ed c ommunity res is tanc e to Munic ipality’s propos al •E xis ting L egal bac king for c ommunity partic ipation in c ommunity development

•E ngagement of loc al people in development plans for the area.

L ong-term Objec tive

•B uilding a broad-bas ed c ommunity organis ation •P artic ipate in phys ic al development.

•F inanc e •E xternal T ec hnic al S upport •Internal C ommunity P artic ipation

•Identific ation of ‘leaders ’ •Identific ation of s oc ial groups

J us tific ation

S hort-term Objec tives

•F amiliaris ation W orks hops •Informatory W orks hops

•C apac ity-B uilding W orks hops

•As s oc iation E lec tions

Nes lis ah L and Development As s oc iation

Output

Input

•P reparation of As s oc iation B ye-L aws •P reparation of Inc orporation Dec laration •S ubmis s ion of R egis tration Doc uments •C onvening of firs t G eneral Meeting

Ac tivities Figure 11 :Neslisah Land Development Association

Action Project 3 : Building Community through a Multifunctional Community Facility 1. Current situation and justiﬁcation of project

There seems to be solidarity between the Romani and non-Romani residents, however this fragmented i.e. even though there is solidarity some community members are still selling their homes which is fragmenting solidarity “... I was born here. I grew up here with the Roma and we have always lived peacefully...” –

Current Situation The municipality says that Sulukule Roma Culture Development and Solidarity association is not representative. However one of the factors of the lack of representation is due to the lack of conﬁdence of the community to organise and mobilise themselves. “... People here are not educated and because of this they feel don’t have the capacity to stand up against the municipality for Sulukule... So they don’t want to be part of the association” - Sulukule Resident

“... I’m not Romani but because of this project I started to feel part of a community as we are being targeted by the municipality project. It’s not targeting Romani or Non Romani but at poor people...” – Sulukule Resident There is no neutral community facility for community meetings or other community activities. This is too affecting the engagement of the community in the issues concerning the development of the area. Justiﬁcation

Community expressed the need for the community to mobilise themselves and join the community organisation in order to make it more effective.

In order to be an equal partner in the dialogue on the issues concerning their future, the community needs to be mobilising themselves and get organised.

“... A good organisation can make the people in the area aware of their rights on many things...” – Sulukule Resident

Some of the issues discussed above have been obstacle in the mobilisation of the community

The 40 Days 40 Nights Sulukule program has attempted to raise awareness of the culture of the area to the rest of Istanbul and to open up the community to the rest of the city.

A multipurpose community facility can be used as a catalyst for bringing the community together by hosting a variety of activities which appeal to the different community members.

2. Objectives Long term objective: Getting the community organised and mobilised in order to get more people involved in the development of the area.

Day care Centre/Crèche: This function would be a way of bringing women together using the common ground between them, the children. This function could also make it easier for women to work and provide an income for their household.

3. Expected results at the end of the Project

Football pitch: This function is using football as a catalyst for generating solidarity. Firstly having a local place for the local team to play can give them a stronger identity as a community team. This means that the local team can invite teams from other parts of Istanbul to here, which can be used a way of promoting inclusion with the rest of the city.

• •

Stronger and mobilised community. A multipurpose community facility which can serve as a neutral space to host workshops, community meetings and other community activities.

Stage or open air concert layout: This would allow the facility to be used a concert venues

4. Description of the action and of its main components.

Components • Initial location (abandoned house) to launch the community centre for meetings and additional functions of a crèche/day care centre for children. (This activity can be linked with the housing improvement project) • Planning this centre with the community through: planning for real based workshop in order to understand what will be the other functions of this community centre • Participatory design workshop with community in order to ﬁnd suitable layouts and locations of this centre. • Have the community build the centre together (This activity can be linked with housing improvement centre.)

Short term objective: Creating smaller initiatives to cultivate solidarity in community and increase the conﬁdence of the community.

Multipurpose Community Facility This action is attempting bring people together by creating a physical space with many functions and which does not belong to any person but the community as a whole. This neutral space must be multi functional as the objective is to bring different groups from the community (men, women, and children) together in order to have representative and organised community at meetings and participatory workshops. The functions of the facility Community meeting point: This facility would be a neutral meeting point where community meetings and workshops could take place.

The other pilot actions project can have a space for their function in this facility.

5. Expected duration of the Project Multipurpose Community Facility 3-6 months for rehabilitating an older building for the function of a

community centre where community meetings and workshops could be held and the additional function of a daycare centre or crèche. 12 -24 months for new centre (this includes financing, planning and design workshops and construction) 6. Implementing institution Local NGO’s in partnership with other Turkish NGO’s. The NGO’s have an important role to play as they already played a crucial part in generating community engage in the 40 Days and 40 Nights festival. The community centre would also be beneficial to the NGO as they would have a neutral place to hold meetings and workshops. 7. Main partners • People of Sulukule – Men, Women, Children • NGO’s currently working in the area • International funding organisations and NGO’s linked to sport and development (Right to Play, Street Football World and others) • International funding organisations and NGO’s linked to children and development 8. Provisional budget and origin of resources (financing) Components 1. Rehabilitation of abandoned building 2. Artificial Football pitch 3. Playground facilities 4. Construction of centre 5. Crèche and daycare facilities 6. Music Stage ESTIMATED TOTAL

Origin of resources Various Funding organisations Sport and development NGO’s Children Related NGO’s

Music and development NGO’s

9. Coherence with the Local Development Plan The project tries to directly address the guiding principle of strengthening capacity of community organization. • Firstly a community centre will give community members a neutral area to share ideas and discuss issues. It will also provide a place where a future more representative organisation can base itself in. • Secondly by cultivating solidarity, in which a good community organisation can ﬂourish, through supporting a common cause like a football team. • Thirdly a football team will produce natural leaders which can play an important role in organising community The project directly attempts to address the guiding principle of encouraging economic activities that sustain livelihoods. • The daycare centre/crèche will provide some form livelihood to who runs this facility The project indirectly attempts to address the principle of engaging people in local development plans using participatory process. How? • This is where a community centre is important as it will be a neutral place for meetings and workshops with different community groups to take place. This would allow more people to participate 10. Spatial implications. This could be a multi functional facility or community centre which can be initially be in one of the abandoned entertainment houses and once funds are obtained the permanent facility could be built. The location for the facility could be in the open space next to the teahouse as some community members expressed this during the Planning for Real workshop, but the location should be decided by the community in a separate workshop mentioned in part 4 of the project. Below is a conceptual drawing of what this facility could look like.

Conceptual sketches for the community center 89

Action Project 4 : Pilot Action Project Sulukule Business Development Unit 1. Current situation and justiﬁcation of Project The area of Sulukule today is not an inert residential neighbourhood. It is rather composed of vibrant street and economic activities. This may indicate that the community relies on strong socio-economic connections to support its livelihood. Sulukule was once a place where one went to experience Romani music and dancing. These entertainment halls were internationally known as a destination. As mentioned in Chapter 2, at one time Sulukule owned more than 30 such halls consisting of over 900 employees. Since then, the halls have been gradually closed by ofﬁcials. The reasons for this are not clearly known even today. It may be that illicit acts were conducted in these halls or simply the Romani are facing the usual acts of discrimination- ethnic cleansing. It could be a certain political party does not want such halls to exist in Istanbul. Moreover, it can be inferred that this can be done by simply denying them ways to support their income generation-an indirect form of eviction. Since the closing of the halls, the area has faced slow degradation. Today there are many economic activities which are sporadic and diverse. one of the economic activities “ Carpet washing “

The streets are lined with: • Mini-Markets • Cafes • Real estate ofﬁces • Washed carpets • Vendors line the streets Along the wall are: • Car repair shops • Tomb stone engravers • Sheep butcher And many more… Some business owners live in the area while others do not. Animals can be seen on the streets- horses carrying supplies as well pigeons, roosters, and dogs being trained for resale. In recent years many of the textile factories have been relocated which was a source of income for women living in the area. Many well established musicians living in the area perform either outside Sulukule or travel internationally. “Sometimes I do not go home for one month because I am travelling with other musicians. My family is safe in Sulukule because they are with my people.”-Tamer Yolal, Musician, Romani Resident

one of the economic activities “ Tomb Carving “

Although Fatih Municipality proposes to provide low cost housing and relocation, as well as some assistance for businesses, it is

not considering the range of activities that exist. It is imperative to address the complexity of today’s historical and cultural context that exists in this business setting. Though these businesses may not be part of Romani culture, they may become another part of the disappearing Romani history in Sulukule. If eradicated or displaced, the number of people affected will be much greater. Poverty will increase, not necessarily in the area of Sulukule since they will be forced out, but in the area of relocation. Since the existing businesses and jobs are at risk if the new proposal is implemented, they need to strengthen- in some cases they simply need to be informed of the proposal itself. Currently there is an information gap of the existing situation including the needs and aspirations of the business owners. This includes: • Romani/Non-Romani • Resident/Non-Resident • Businesses Owners/Employees • Formal/Informal Activities • Part-Time/Full-Time Employment There needs to be an understanding of the scale of the socioeconomic activities, who and how they are affected and how they may be alleviated and maintained.

2. Objectives Short term Objective: To strengthen the socio-economic network of the area (Hatice Sultan and Neslisah neighbourhoods) Long term Objective: To help develop an established business association. This business association would have the capacity to negotiate effectively with the municipality.

3. Expected results at the end of the Project • Closing the Information Gap There should be an understanding of all socio-economic activities taking place in the area and how they may be maintained and strengthened and networked. • Raising Awareness There should be awareness amongst members regarding how the municipality plan may affect their livelihoods.

4. Description of the action and of its main components. Inputs 1. A business advisor will be hired to identify the activities mentioned above. This person will be available to provide ﬁnancial advice to community members. 2. Sulukule Business Development Unit- A space provided in temporary Community Center.

Activities 1. Identify existing business, permanent and non-permanent; strengths and weaknesses. Since there is a lack of information on the existing situation there needs to be an understanding of the scale of the situation. 2. Identify the existing programmes which support small medium enterprises ﬁnances and development (Government, Non Governmental Organizations, and Banks). There are many programmes that do exist but there is a lack of knowledge about them. 3. Inform all artisans and small scale enterprises the risk they are facing. Many do not know about the proposal and need to understand what may happen. Moreover, they should be aware of their rights to remain-awareness. 4. Identify their future progress. The businesses should be improving or maintained. If not, advice and support will be provided if needed. The advisor will have to carefully monitor this initially. ¬5. Organize entrepreneurs to form a loose association where they can discuss their needs and aspirations. Workshops can be conducted which may help prioritize and identify their problems. These can be facilitated by local NGOs and the business advisor. 6. The business advisor will provide a bridge between requests of business needs and existing programmes. This will help locals to beneﬁt from programmes they have rights to use.

Outputs 1. Sulukule Business Development Unit This unit will help facilitate the activities below to meet the objectives. It will be a small scale operation with one business advisor hired to fullfill the identifying and advising of socio-economic activities in the area. Future Scenario One possible future scenario could be that the musicians in Sulukule are able to establish an association with a common goal. With the support of NGO’s, International Agencies, Government, and Banks they may find a way to establish a development company which promotes their cultural heritage (a social enterprise). In turn, a portion of their profits may be used to create a music/dance/art school. (See Figure 12 next page)

5. Expected duration of the Project 1. (0-6 months) • Identify all businesses in the area of action • Inform all artisans and small scaled enterprises the risk they are facing 2. (6-12 months) • identify future progress, organize entrepreneurs to form a loose organization

6. Implementing institution • Accessible Life Association • Sulukule Romani Culture and Development Association

��

Figure 12 : Sulukule Business Development Unit Framework

7. Main partners • Accessbile Life Association to work closely with the forming • Sulukule Romani Culture and Development Association. These two organizations will be responsible for coordinating and monitoring the objectives of this programme along with an independently hired full time consultant/business advisor. • Fatih Municipality (Sector may provide ﬁnancial support) • Development Planning Unit to provide consultancy.

10. Spatial implications. • The activities will address the Hatice Sultan and Neslisah neighbourhoods. • The business unit will be based in the temporary community space proposed in the Action Pilot Project: Building Community through Multi-functional Organized Community. • Addressing the socio economic issues aims to promote a mixed use scheme as a positive way to develop the future of this area

8. Provisional budget and origin of resources (ﬁnancing) Initially to be funded by NGO’s

9. Coherence with the Local Development Plan Guidelines addressed: • Maintaining the people in place • Encouraging economical activities which sustain livelihoods. Will acknowledge that mixed use living is essential in sustaining livelihoods. • Strengthening the capacity of community organization An understanding of the needs and aspirations of business owners will bring forth common goals within a l o o s e organisation

Action Project 5 : HOUSING IMPROVEMENT IN SULUKULE 1. Current situation and justiﬁcation of Project (why?) Eviction threats People have strong attachment to the place, but they are threatened by eviction not only from current plan proposed by the municipality, which is to displace them from their settlement, but also constantly from powerful authorities. Furthermore, there is limited participatory experience in the planning history of the city, so there is limited opportunity of communicating with municipality for community to voice their needs or get involved in planning process.

2. Objectives SHORT TERM • Housing solutions on a plot-by-plot on site working with both owners and renters; o Upgrading and rehabilitation o Incremental building • Maintaining people in the place; • Creating a Professional Advice Centre. LONG TERM • Improvement of living condition of Sulukule community by decent housing for all income levels with secured tenure.

Poor quality of living space Most of the housing condition is quite poor, overcrowded. Usually, one house unit is share by more than two families, Seismically unsafe building structure Some houses are not structurally safe for earthquake. According to current plan, almost the whole area will be demolished because of seismically unsafe building structure, which will eventually lead to eviction of residents and loss of rich cultural heritage attaching to the place. However, the fact is that only part of the houses in Sulukule is not safe. In order to avoid unnecessary demolition and eviction and maintain people and culture in place, risk assessment and selection for improvement or demolition among the houses should be employed house by house, rather than demolishing the whole area.

Situation

- Eviction threats - Poor quality of living space - Seismically unsafe building structure

Objective (LT)

- Improvement of living condition of Sulukule community by decent housing for all income levels with secured tenure

Objective (ST)

- Housing solutions plot by plot - Maintaining people in the place - Creating a Professional Advice Centre

Inputs

Actions

Legal support

- Case addressing eviction - Local land development association - Roles of owners and renters

Financial support

- Social enterprises - Collaborative assistance - Microfinance - External support from international organisations, national and local NGOs

Technical support

- Professional advice centre - Possible materials from recycling - Bulk purchase of building materials

Outputs

One Street Pilot Housing Project

Main Actors

- Inhabitants - Local NGOs

Main Partners

- Fatih Municipality - Professionals and students - International organisations - Developers

Physical Assessment

- Risk assessment on vulnerability to earthquake house by house Possible intervention

- Self-rehabilitation + Incremental Improvement - Conservation + Upgrading - Regeneration in-situ - New Development on empty plot - Relocation + Compensation

- Improved housing condition with 4 renovated buildings, 2 new house and 1 renewed roof in Kuru Cinar Street in 1 year

Housing Improvement in Sulukule

- Overall improvement of living condition in Sulukule in 5 years

Professional Advice Centre

- A centre with various specialised professional advice and training sectors for community development

Figure HousingImprovement Improvement in Fig 1213: :Housing in Sulukule SulukuleFramework Framework

3. Expected results at the end of the project • Through the “One Street Pilot Housing Project”, the housing condition of Kuru Cinar Street will be improved with four renovated buildings, two new house and one renewed open space for music on the top of the building; • By monitoring, assessing and learning from the pilot housing project, it is expected that housing improvement can be scaled up in the following years covering the whole Sulukule area to achieve overall improvement of living condition in the community; • A centre with various specialised professional advice and training sectors will be built for community development. 4. Description of the action and of its main components • Legal support - The case addressing eviction can draw the attention

•

on housing right both of owners and of renters (See Project: Impede Demolition in Hatice Sultan and Neslisah); Land development association which is supposed to be established can help the resident secure their title (See Project: Neslisah Land Development Association); Deﬁning the roles of owners and renter, and valuing the contribution done by renters.

Financial support - Microﬁnance for housing Tiny loans and ﬁnancial services can help micro-

entrepreneurs, where people can get jobs, reap their rewards of their own labour, and help poor household get sustainable access to microfinance services to get adequate housing; E.g. Homeless International “provides small-scale grants in the form of capital to help partners establish and develop revolving loan funds to finance such smallscale slum development project”. - Collaborative assistance Mutual financial assistance from relatives, neighbours and acquaintance based on trust within the community can be another major financial resource. - Social enterprises People getting employed in local small-medium businesses have their economic capacity enhanced so that they can afford the costs of housing improvement or

new housing with increased income; E.g. community band, live exhibition, performance hall, and temple market, etc. Support from international organisations, national and local NGOs. Currently, there is little ﬁnancial resource for housing from national and local NGOs. But it is possible that they turn to international foundations and organisations for fundingas ﬁnancial backup; E.g. Local NGOs: Accessible Life Association, Human Settlement Association, Sulukule Romani Culture Solidarity and Development Association, etc;

International Organisations: UNESCO, EU, Romani Rights Association, Homeless International, etc. •

the interventions needed as follows, the cost of each of them as well as the time needed should also be counted by the Team.

Technical support - Professional advice centre Several professionals or professors with a group of architecture students can be available two days per week to give local people housing advice and training so that they can carry on self-rehabilitation and incremental improvement, particularly earthquake safety; The costs of establishing the centre and inviting professionals are expected covered by NGOs who may also apply for international foundations. - Possible materials for housing can be picked out from recycling to lower the costs. - Bulk purchase of building materials can be also used to lower the costs.

• Physical intervention Initially, a guide to action has been prepared for the Team that includes the stages to be followed for housing improvement (See Fig 13). In a ﬁrst stage, a risk assessment should be carried out by the team of professionals to explore the possibility of the building conservation. If a building is going to be conserved a number of issues should be considered including infrastructure, structure, elevation and windows to be improved. Deﬁning

Figure : Guide HousingImprovement Improvement in pilotAction action Project Fig 13 :14Guide forforHousing Pilot Project

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Physical assessment Risk assessment on vulnerability to earthquake should be carried on beforehand house by house. Possible interventions - Self-rehabilitation + Incremental Improvement By accessing to ﬁnancial and technical supports, people may be able to take on self-help process and improve their houses incrementally; Particularly, the contribution made by renters to improve housing condition should be valued. - Conservation + Upgrading Considering people’s preference to house rather than apartment, miserable consequence of relocation, and traditional built pattern but poor condition, the basic principle is to conserve the existing houses in Sulukule rather than demolishing and relocating, and to upgrade the condition according to assessment on earthquake safety. - Regeneration in-situ When the house is not structurally safe, in-situ rebuilding or regeneration is employed, which should be accompanied by provision of temporary settlement for residents nearby. - New Development on empty plot When empty plot is accessible, new houses can be developed, which should preserve low rise character of this area; the new development can be singlefamily house and multi-family sharing house. - Relocation + Compensation

Only when necessary (e.g. when there is no more plot for overcrowded household or in case the contract with the municipality is irretrievable), we turn to relocation, in which adequate compensation should be provided. • One Street Pilot Housing Project A pilot housing project on Kuru Cinar Street (See Fig 14), which is linking one of the gates of the wall to the centre of Sulukule where the Mosque and the Café locate, will be firstly carried out through one or combination of several above physical interventions as the first phase of housing improvement. The One Street Pilot Housing Project employs several of the above interventions, including four renovated buildings, one of which can be used as entertainment house, two new houses, and one renewed open space for music on the top of a building, which will also have a new shop at the ground floor (See Fig 15). On the completion of the One Street Pilot Housing Project, people can monitor and assess both strengths and weaknesses of the interventions and learn from it. It is expected that housing improvement can be scaled up in the subsequent four years covering the whole Sulukule area to achieve overall improvement of living condition in the community.

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Map 13 : Location on one street Pilot Housing Project

Fig 14 : Location of One Street Pilot Housing Project

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Figure 15 : Kuru Street Pilot Project

Fig 15 : Kuru Cinar Street Pilot Project

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Expected duration of the project • One Street pilot Housing Project: 1 year (See Fig 16) - Formulating the housing improvement plan: 1 month - Surveying housing condition plot by plot: 1 month - Physical condition - Ownership - Place for Professional Advice Centre - Negotiating with inhabitants: 2 months - Owners - Renters - Searching for ﬁnancial and technical supports: 3 months - Implementing the plan: 5 months - Risk assessment and physical interventions - Building Professional Advice Centre •

Housing Improvement in Sulukule: 5 years

Implementing institution • Inhabitants of Sulukule: self-help housing improvement; • Local NGOs, e.g. Accessible Life Association, Human Settlement Association, Sulukule Romani Culture Solidarity and Development Association, and proposed land development association, etc: getting local people engaged and organised in terms of land title and housing improvement practice.

7. Main partners • Fatih Municipality: one of the main partners who can

• • •

provide resourceful funds and expertise, and hopefully can help manage the implementation, but who needs to be negotiated; Professionals, e.g. professors and students from universities: giving advice and training people on housing; Developers: renovating existing houses and developing new houses; International organisations: o Providing ﬁnancial resource: e.g. EU, Homeless International, etc; o Providing expertise: e.g. UNESCO, Romani Rights Association, etc. Actions

Expected Duration

Implementing Institutions

Formulating housing improvement plan

Now 1 month

Local NGOs

Surveying housing condition Physical condition Ownership Place for Professional Advice Centre Negotiating with inhabitants Owners Renters

1 month

Local NGOs

2 months

Local NGOs

Searching for ﬁnancial and technical supports

3 months

Local NGOs

Implementing the plan Risk Assessment and Physical interventions Building Professional Advice Centre

5 months

Inhabitants; Local NGOs

Main Partners

Fatih Municipality; Professionals Inhabitants; Fatih Municipality; Professionals Inhabitants; Fatih Municipality: Professionals Fatih Municipality; Professionals; International organisations; Developers Fatih Municipality; Professionals; Developers

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8. Provisional budget and origin of resources Component Building materials Improvement of existing houses Development of new houses Invitation of professionals TOTAL

Estimated budget

Origin of resources Social enterprises Microﬁnance International foundations Collaborative assistance within the community

9. Coherence with Local Development Plan • Providing access to financial resources and technical supports Through the financial support that has been described above (see 4.2) and the social enterprise proposed, people gain more access to financial resources that is also an objective of the Local Development Plan. • mproving living condition though affordable and adaptable housing The provision of mass social housing from the government (TOKI) has been proved unaffordable solution for most of the people as well as out of their traditional way of living. The training of people on building houses through the professionals support will decrease significantly the cost of new houses and simultaneously will build human assets for the community.

• Enabling local people to self-help and engaging them in the process of housing improvement People will be involved in the process of development having an active role. Supporting building capacity involves high level of community engagement with the development process which is crucial for the success of any local development plan. • Addressing the title of land, roles of both owners and renters, and eviction The process of incremental housing upgrading itself can stop eviction and maintain people in the area. Land tenure can be achieved for both owners and renters through community empowerment but not by the hitherto provision of mass housing. 10. Spatial implications Improvement of living condition of Sulukule community by decent housing for all income levels with secured tenure plot by plot. The incremental housing upgrading and building by the people themselves will involve the exploitation of any opportunity of recycling materials as well as people’s building capacity by training and learning from the precedents. This also will contribute to a diverse and ‘less standard’ development which characterises the general physiognomy of the area. As we can see in the section of ‘Kuru Cinar’ street, provided by our project, low buildings have a particular character with differences in the materials used, the openings on the wall, the roofs, the

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colours and the geometry. This elements can be conserved and highlight the character of a unique built environment. A particular guide for action (Fig. 13) has been proposed to be in use by the professional team. This guide indicates the stages which should be followed for the incremental physical improvement. Each building should be appropriately assessed by the team and possible interventions, the cost and a timetable for their finishing should be defined. The team can meet with the people in the area twice per week; in order to train and advice them in undertaking small interventions improving their houses (i.e. replacement of a roof, a window or timber cladding). The choice of ‘Kuru Cinar’ (See Fig 14 and 15) as the first street to be improved was not also without meaning. It is located in the heart of Sulukule linking one gate of the historic wall with the centre of the area including the Mosque. Its building are also in very poor conditions compared to those of the other streets. We assume that an improvement of ‘kuru Cinar’ buildings will comprise a real paradigm for the people on how their area can be upgraded. Most of the people pass through this street everyday so they will have the opportunity to observe and learn about how the process is being conducted. In the section we propose, the low height of the buildings is maintained and some new stories for new houses are provided without disordering the general physiognomy of the street. An entertainment house can be provided in the building facing the wall occupying only the ground floor. Finally, the use of terraces for meeting and playing music is also proposed.

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Action Project 6 : A Study for Recycling Opportunities in Sulukule: The creation of Sulukule Recycling Centre and Sulukule Living Centre 1.Current Situation and Justiﬁcation

• Infrastructure problems Sulukule community has a limited access to basic infrastructure. After the Municipality of Fatih district closed down the entertainment houses run by the Romani community, it became even more difﬁcult to keep the existent infrastructure in limits of health and safety conditions given the strained ﬁnances. The population continued to grow - more houses and more rooms were needed but access to proper water, sanitation and electricity would not always be guaranteed.

Bins for the garbage collection provided by Fatih Municipality

Even though Fatih Municipality frequently collects the garbage produced in Sulukule, a large amount of waste is discarded in empty plots, open spaces, especially along the wall and in plots of demolished houses, which creates an even more insalubrious site for people to live in. Children are directly put at risk of diseases due to the contamination of the air and soil since gases are generated by this kind of waste disposal. • Improving infrastructure, providing a new economic activity and time strengthen the community capacity A study for recycling opportunities would not only help to create a healthier and sustainable environment for livelihood but also to strengthen the community organisation capacity. A well-planned waste management program will open possibilities for new economic activity. The fact that it will be planned and put into practice by the local community is likely to help increase the community’s sense of power and self-esteem. • Exploring existent recycling materials collection Through interviews with members of the community and through visits to the site, it is evident that: a) Residents collect recyclable materials to sell to third parties to earn extra money. The collectors are usually children under parents’ order and the materials are afterwards sold to another collector that often goes to Sulukule for collection and purchase of them. The collected items are usually aluminium cans and plastic bottles. b) One of the residents collects old instruments and furniture in the neighbourhood for reuse. c) A non-resident has been collecting material in the area and some other areas in Istanbul for six years. He sells plastic bottles, cans,

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paper and cardboards to another collector who then sells a larger amount directly to the recycling companies. The prices per kilogram of each material before they are sold to the companies are as follow: aluminium cans= 2YTL; paper= 0,80YTL; plastic= 1,25 YTL outside collector working in Sulukule.

crushed and reused as aggregate for road base, for an example. Also, textiles can be reused for the items of new products and can be quite simple to be handled as well. (3)

Construction and demolition debris and mixed garbage discarded in empty open spaces in Sulukule

• Exploring available recyclable materials in site Another reason why Sulukule could start recycling is that the area has plenty of materials that could be reused for the community’s beneﬁt. One example is the organic waste that can be easily transformation into compost (1). One more example of material that could be reused is the demolition and construction debris (2). Wood waste can be used as boiler fuel and some other structural pieces can be reused in small house repairs. Other materials such as concrete can be

• Community-led Recycling Programs There are several examples of community-led programs. Some of these programs were started by a single resident and spread out through the community, whereby the community nowadays present a proﬁtable and solid recycling business. The community of Sukunan, in Indonesia, developed a very successful business that was started by one member who visited a house at ACICIS (Australian Consortium for In-Country Indonesian Studies) and observed how the household was separated for recycling (4). Back in Sukunan, he applied what he learned starting from the separation of paper, plastic and kitchen refuse and by making compost out of his household organic waste.

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• Taking advantage of Governmental policies and programs related to recycling as well as institutions interested in community development and environment preservation The Turkish Government has been encouraging environmentally sustainable practices, especially with the creation of policies relating to energy. The European Union developed a strategy for Turkey that emphasizes the adoption of legislations and measures towards a program for environmental protection. The aim is to bring Turkey to a level closer to that prevailing in the European Union. Some of the topics mentioned by the EU were air quality, waste management, water quality, nature protection, industrial pollution risks, chemical product, etc. In its latest report dated November 2006, ‘ the Commission notes that (except for some progress on waste management and noise), the overall level of transposition of the environmental acquis remains low. The lack of progress on horizontal legislation is of increasing concern, in particular on transboundary issues and on public consultation’ (5). In this context, it is likely that the Municipality will grant Sulukule the right to manage its recycling program. Still in the contex of Turkish Environmental programes and institutions, ÇEKÜL – The Foundation for the Promotion and Protection of the Environment and Cultural Heritage can give a great support during the formation of Sulukule’s program since it conducts educational, community organizing, and promotional activities for environmental and cultural protection. (6)

2.Objectives

boy among debris and garbage in Sulukule

• Short-term: creation of a recycling group – Sulukule Recycling Centre, that will study the opportunities for a recycling business as a way of organizing the community and providing a economically and environmentally sustainable livelihood. • Long-term: creation of Sulukule Living Centre that will speculate the possibility of foundation of a Sulukule eco-friendly label. The activities of this short-term objective are:

3.Expected results at the end of the project • The creation of a proﬁtable waste management program that will beneﬁciate the community • The establishment of Sulukule Living Centre Enterprise • The setting up of a template for community-led recycling activities in Istanbul.

4.Description components

the

actions

and

their

main

The study for recycling opportunities has two stages : • The ﬁrst one consists of the formation of a recycling group that will promote research on the topic, while also collecting and selling materials. The activities taken are as follow:

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1. Recruitment of volunteers to support and coordinate workshops and activities. 2. Workshops and individual approach to educate the population on waste management and to initiate household waste separation. It will be necessary to create posters and to advertise these activities door-to-door and at the commercial premises. 3. Formation of a primary recycling group. The recruitment of volunteers to research on recycling business opportunities in Istanbul and to experiment recycling materials collection in Sulukule and other parts of the city. 4. Establishment of a Sulukule Recycling Group premise in Sulukule 5. Speculate the possibility of the donations of bins for each material that will be collected by the Municipality. Each set of bins should serve each 15 houses 6. Assessment to identify what type of materials is available for recycling in Istanbul. It includes a research about recycling companies and prices to prepare for future approach and negotiation. 7. Sale of recyclable materials to a middle person or directly to a factory, in case of higher value. 8. Study of possible uses of demolition debris 9. Separation of household organic waste to start the compost preparation for agricultural activities. Accessible Life Association, ALA, together with ÇEKÜL will support the community to start the waste management program (while they will be supported by students volunteers to start the process). Both actors will approach the community organization – Sulukule Roma Culture Development and Solidarity Association to formulate a framework

through which the recycling process will become possible. It will be necessary to start it with a direct approach towards the residents to inform them about the workshops – door-to-door if necessary. The workshops are aimed at explaining what recycling means and why it is important; highlighting the benefits the community could receive from it – profits and a cleaner and healthier environment for children. During the education and awareness raising workshops, the NGOs –ALA - and the Sulukule association can start to recruit volunteers for the formation of a recycling group. The recycling group will ideally consist of 10 to 15 people primarily and will be opened for both genders. For the completion of the second phase, it will be necessary to double or triple the number. It is not an easy goal and it requires patient and perseverance from all parts included. However, once the community knows the first results, more people will be interested in participating. The role of the NGOs is very important at this stage because they have to help the community to organise themselves in order to achieve the objective. The Municipality will have to be approached at the start for the requirement of proper bins for the recyclable materials separation. The group will then be divided into smaller groups for the material collection, management and assessment. The collection group should have the most number of people, but once again, it will depend on how many people are involved. However, the primary aim is to have a concrete idea of how much material can be collected and sold and what materials can be reused within Sulukule. The materials collected will be glass, plastic, paper and cardboards, aluminum cans and textile. The management group will be responsible for the

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daily requirements of a recycling center (ensuring that all different materials are separated and that there are no disposable waste mixed together; ensure that the organic waste is well kept and under proper conditions, etc) as well as for the studies and experiments about the transformation of organic waste into compost and the reuse of materials available in the area, such as construction and demolition debris, textiles, etc. Finally, the assessment group will contact recycling companies and factories to learn about prices, transportation and providing future contacts. Since the compost takes 6 to 8 weeks to be ready for use, the community can start with horticultural activities in their backyards and communal open spaces. At first, the amount produced will serve the community only, however with time and more experience, the compost will start to be commercialized. • The second stage depends partially on the first one because it evolves the purchase of expensive machinery for the creation of Sulukule Living Center. However, it is still possible due to the existence of a non-profit organization called Ashoka Fellows (7), which provides financial support for communities’ entrepreneurships, including projects related to the preservation of the environment. This second stage will present the following actions: 1. Staff training on recycling material transformation 2. Extension or establishment of a new premise for Sulukule Living Center 3. Acquiring necessary machinery 4. Development of study about the use of recycled material for housing improvement

5. Sale of transformed material to factories and/or Municipality 6. Speculation of the possibilities for creation of Sulukule ecofriendly products 7. Consolidation of Sulukule Living Center Enterprise These activities are divided in two categories: the first one is related to the transformation of materials for sale, while the second one is related to the production of Sulukule eco-friendly ‘label’. It is expected that after six months of study and experiment (first stage), the group will achieve the essential experience and skills to start this stage of the study, which consists of the acquisition of machinery for transformation of materials. Even though the transformed material has higher value on the market, the study and experiments group will still use part of it. They will identify what sort of eco products can be produced in order to be sold as an opportunity to create a Sulukule Eco label. Examples of possible results could be: notebooks and photo albums using recycled paper; shopping bags using plastic and textiles; pictures frames and musical instruments using different sort of materials, (such as wood, metal and plastic), or regular shopping bags that could support local businesses. This can be resumed in two main actions: the first one is the sale of already transformed materials and the second one consists of the creation of the eco label. As a consequence of the combined actions, Sulukule Living Center Enterprise will be consolidated and Sulukule will become a template for a community-led recycling program and enterprise, resulting in further strengthening of the community organization and a settled income generation.

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Activities

Expected duration

Implementing institution and partners

1- Recruitment of volunteers to support and coordinate workshops and activities

2 weeks (1st month)

ALA + Sulukule Association

2. Education on waste management

2 first months

ALA + ekul

3- Recruitment of the first volunteers for the formation of the recycling group

3 weeks (1st month)

ALA + Sulukule Association + ekul

4- Establishment of a Sulukule Recycling Group premise in Sulukule

1 month (1st month)

ALA + Sulukule Association + ekul

5- Request of bins for each material collected within the Municipality

1 month (1st month)

Sulukule Recycling Group supported by ALA + Cekul

6- Identification of materials available for recycling and of existent recycling companies in Istanbul (prices)

1 month (2nd month)

Sulukule Recycling Group supported by ALA + Cekul

Starting from the 3rd month onwards

Sulukule Recycling Group

7- Sale of recyclable materials to a middle person or directly to a factory 8- Study of possible uses of demolition debris 9- Separation of household organic waste to start the compost 1- Training on transformation of materials

1st – 6th months 2 months (2nd month) 2 months (4th month onwards)

Sulukule Recycling Group supported by ALA + Cekul Sulukule Recycling Group supported by ALA + Cekul ALA + Cekul + Ashoka Fellows

2- Establishment of Sulukule Living Centre (new name, new location)

8 months

Sulukule Recycling Group + Ashoka Fellows

3- Acquisition of machinery

1 month (8th month)