Terricide: Poisoning the Lungs of Istanbul

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to explore the significance of the interaction between urban space and non-urban space. Urban transformation, mega projects and their effects on urban space under the epoch of neoliberal practices have been on the agenda of social sciences for some time; nonetheless a holistic approach which comprises both urban space and non-urban space, and relation between the two is still missing in many pieces of urban studies. Thus, article will underline the importance of the interaction between urban and non-urban areas in the discussion of “right to the city”. Istanbul, transformation of the city and impact of this transformation will get special emphasis. The first part of the article will lay theoretical foundations by concentrating on Lefebvre’s formulations on space. Then the article turns its attention to literature of urban studies to show how non-urban space has been neglected. Using the terminology of Lefebvre, concepts of “implosion” and “explosion” will also be discussed to shed a light on extended urbanization of Istanbul. The second part of the article will concentrate on the how mechanisms of implosion and explosion work for Istanbul. Here in this part, Northern Forests of Istanbul and mega projects will get special attention to discuss the relation between urbanization and ecological destruction. The final part of the article will revisit the concept of right to the city, underlining the urgent need to have an ecological glance in the urban studies to fully understand the impact of urbanization in the twenty-first century.

Keywords:

• Istanbul
• mega projects
• urbanization
• social movements
• right to the city

Notes

1. Northern Forests Defense is a grassroots organization founded in the period of Gezi uprisings. Main objective of the organization is to stop mega projects that are threatening the ecosystem of Northern Forests of İstanbul and environment of the city.

2. Bent Flyvbjerg (2005) uses the term Machiavellian to explain the discourse used by supporters of mega project constructions. According to Flyvbjerg, Underestimated costs, overestimated revenues, undervalued environmental impacts, overvalued economic development effects bring Project approval for mega projects.

3. Today’s main airport of Istanbul, Atatürk Airport is around 1.100 hectares while famous Atlanta Airport is 1625 hectares.

4. To see part of the interview with the shepherd Aydın, see Kuzey Ormanları Savunması (2015a).

5. Kanal Istanbul is the name of the project which is designed to build an artificial sea-level waterway on the European side of Turkey, connecting the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara, and hence to the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas.

6. Though this cannot be generalized to other writings of Amin. For instance in “Cities: Reimagining the Urban”; Ash Amin and Nigel Thrift (2002) notes that “The city is everywhere and in everything. If the urbanized world now is a chain of metropolitan areas connected by paces / corridors of communication (airports and airways, stations and railways, parking lots and motorways, teleports and information highways), then what is not urban? Is it the town, the village, the countryside? Maybe, but only to a limited degree. The footprints of the city are all over these places, in the form of city commuters, tourists, teleworking, the media, and the urbanization of lifestyles. The traditional divide between the city and countryside has been perforated” (1).

7. Term “gecekondu” literally means “built in over night”. Although in the literature of urban studies concepts like slums or shanty towns have been widely used to explain gecekondu settlements in Turkey, here Turkish term is deliberatively used. Unlike squatter settlements like South-east Asian ones, many gecekondu settlements in Turkey have access to basic services such as electricity and water, have their primary schools in the neighborhoods, shops and open public spaces. Instead of dilapidated housing structures, many gecekondus have their own gardens and in many gecekondu neighborhoods apartment blocks can be realized. One of the main reason of this is directly related with populist governmental policies of Turkey regarding gecekondu settlements. Specifically with the beginning of import-substition model in Turkey in 1960s, Turkish governments which could not provide basic housing services, implicitly condone gecekondu settlements. Characteristics of gecekondus have changed with the beginning of export-oriented model in 1980s and new laws opened a way for transformation of many basic gecekondu settlements into apartment blocks. Today, many gecekondu settlements have their pre-title deeds. Another reason of the usage of Turkish term is directly related with power relations in urban space. Erman (2001) in her article shed a light on how gecekondu dwellers have been excluded from the urban sphere by the urban dwellers. New comers from rural areas who settled in gecekondu neighborhoods form the “others” in urban spaces. This trend have been widely used by government elites especially starting from the neoliberalization of Turkish economy and once again reached its highpeak in the era of Justice and Development Party in order to justify urban renewal projects that are targeting gecekondu neighborhoods. These neighborhoods have been shown as the breeding ground for illegal organizations. In fact, in the period of JDP for the first time construction of gecekondu settlements is put under Criminal Law. In this respect criminalization of gecekondu areas have been used by JDP to legitimize “cleansing” the city. Because main characteristics of “shanty town” concept (i.e. dilapitated structure) is also used by government elites to degrade the characteristics of gecekondu settlements, the term should be carefuly used and overgeneralizations should be avoided. For an example of criminalization of gecekondu neighborhoods see Dogan (2005). For more information regarding urban renewal projects and their impact on gecekondu neighborhoods in Istanbul see: Advisory Group on Forced Evictions (2009).

8. These developments also motivate great land speculations on the region. Furthermore, many different plans regarding a new city on the northern side of Istanbul has been prepared so far. A good example is the plan of Europe’s leading architecture office, Vizzion Europe’s (dis)utopic Project called as “Istanbul Seaside”. In the Project page it is declared that: “The Istanbul seaside Project is a new city encompassing all the typical urban functions such as Housing and retail developments, Office buildings, hotels, sports and education facilities, cultural and administrative centres, hospitals and wellness services and a large congress centre” (Vizzion Europe 2015).