Proposals for Regional Administrative Structure and Planning in Turkey

Abstract

On a global scale, the region which not only defines economic but also social unity has been brought once again to the agenda in a manner unlike those of the past, both as a result of globalization and localization tendencies, and with arguments towards formulating a more democratic administrative structure. Conversely, although regional planning and administrative pursuits and debates have ensued in Turkey since its foundation, regional plans have never been effectively administered, a regional administrative structure requiring continuity has not been established and problems requiring solutions at the regional level have increasingly continued their presence. In this study, proposals have been developed for regional planning and regional administration in Turkey, taking into consideration not only global tendencies but also the country's related experiences along with the current circumstances, and spatial unities that would form a basis for these have been defined.

Notes

There are great similarities between this regionalization and the classification related with Turkey's geographical regions regarding the relationship with the coast, climate and vegetation cover which was initially specified at the first Geography Congress organized in Ankara on 6–21 June 1941, and still used in elementary and secondary school text books today.

Provincial borders, which have a significant place in Turkey's administrative system, have been considered determinant in terms of regional borders.

In the period when region plans fell into disfavour, the concept that “As it is possible for developed regions to have underdeveloped districts, it is also possible that underdeveloped regions may harbour developed districts” was brought to the agenda. Setting off from this concept, the objective was to provide support to these districts designated at the province level with various incentives and tax reductions. Subsequently, the application has continued parallel to the regional plans. Although the number of provinces within this context has either increased or decreased from time to time, it is obvious that these provinces generally accumulated in the same regions.

With this decree, Turkey has been divided into eight governorate regions with Erzurum, Diyarbakır, Adana, Kayseri, Ankara, Konya, İstanbul and İzmir as centres.

This classification has been gazetted with the Council of Ministers Ruling of Law No: 2002/4729 dated 22 September 2002 Official Gazette No: 24884.

1. Ministry of Development and Housing—State Planning Organization Planning Region Proposal

2. Arif Payaslıoğlu Planning Regions Proposal (Payaslioglu, 1966)

3. Population Centre's Staging Study

4. NUTs II

5. First 20 provinces according to development ranking

6. According to learnability, etc (Celebi & Saral, 2002).

7. Ministry of Forestry Research Regional Directorships

8. Public Waterworks Administration Regional Directorships

9 Mineral Research and Exploration Institute Regional Directorships

10. Province Bank Regional Directorships

11. State Meteorology Affairs Regional Directorships

12. Regional Directorships of State Institute of Statistics

13. Regional Directorships of Highways

14. General Directorate of Land Registry Regional Directorships

15. General Directorate of Rural Services Regional Directorships

16. State Supply Office Regional Directorships

17. Ministry of Labour and Social Security Regional Directorships

18. General Directorate of Revenues Regional Directorships

19. General Directorate of Land Transportation Regional Directorships

20. Telecommunication Regional Directorships

21. General Directorate of Foundations Regional Directorships

22. First Administrators Congress Proposed General Inspectorship Regions

23. Regional Governorate Proposal (1983)

24. Akbank Regional Directorships

25. Garanti Bankası Regional Directorships

26. İşbankası Regional Directorships

27. Telsim Regional Directorships

28. Türksel Regional Directorships

29. Garanti Sigorta Regional Directorships

30. Güven Sigorta

31. Başak Sigorta

32. Yurtiçi Kargo Regional Directorships

33. Eti Regional Directorships

34. Betek Boya ve Kimya Sanayi

35. Marshall Boya Regional Directorships

36. Alfapen Plastik Regional Directorships

37. Tire-Kutsan A.Ş. Regional Directorships

38. Toprak Tüketim Mallarını Pazarlama A.Ş.

39. Tekfen Pazarlama Regional Directorships

40. GİPAŞ Regional Directorships

41. Toros Gübre Regional Directorships