Abstract
This paper presents the political, socio-economic, spatial and demographic aspects for the changing administrative status of districts/counties in Turkey in the last two decades (1990s and 2000s) with respect to urbanization and development levels. There has been a rapid increase in the number of provinces in Turkey recently. Fourteen districts/counties have been announced as new provinces in years between 1989 and 1999. There were attempts and applications for the other 129 districts, till the present day to become a “province”. In fact, attempts and requests to become a province for districts create pressures on policy makers, central government bureaucrats and members of the Parliament and prevent adequate formulation of urbanization and administrative subdivision. In this study, it is aimed to take a picture of the urbanization levels of districts by using the multivariate statistical analysis and to develop some proposals for the applications of changing the administrative status of settlements as well.
Notes
In Turkish administrative system, the settlements are classified as provinces, districts, bucaks and villages hierarchically. Province centers are also the districts within the provinces.
Keban Regional Plan (in the 1st Development Plan period), Zonguldak Province Plan, East Marmara, Çukurova, Antalya Regional Plans (in the 2nd Development Plan period), Çukurova Urban Development Project, South-East Anatolia Project (in the 5th Development Plan period).
Zonguldak-Bartın-Karabük Regional Development Project, Yeşilırmak Regional Development Project, East Black Sea Region Development project, East Anatolia Project (in the 7th Development Plan period), Level 2 Regional Development programs (in the 8th and 9th Development Plan periods).
According to 2006's unit prices, the cost of constituting a province is US$ 48,432,163 and constituting a district is US$ 12,053,050 (General Directorate of Provinces Administration, Citation2005).