Differentiated Urban Citizenship and Housing Rights: Analysing the Social Impacts of Urban Redevelopment in Globalizing Istanbul

Abstract

There is growing interest in the transformation of urban citizenship and the changing right to the city of the urban poor under neoliberal restructuring of cities in the Global South. This article examines a ‘squatter settlement transformation project’ in Istanbul that is intended to contribute towards the transformation of Istanbul into a global city. The transformation projects are based on private homeownership, incorporate the urban poor into a new ‘property regime’ and allocate them differentiated access to housing in the city. Using qualitative data, this article traces the unequal outcomes of the project for its displaced residents and demonstrates the emergence of ‘differentiated urban citizenship’. This emergent urban citizenship regime in Turkish cities organizes the distribution of substantive housing rights based on social inequalities among the urban poor, and thus consolidates and perpetuates these inequalities in society.

Notes

1. All the names used in the article are pseudonyms. The names of officials are kept anonymous.

2. Hereafter, it will be referred to as the ‘transformation projects’ or simply ‘projects’.

3. Following UN-Habitat, I define squatters as those people ‘who have illegally occupied an area of land and built their houses upon it, usually through self-help processes’ (2003, 82). As will be explained later, squatter neighbourhoods also often have tenants and title deed holders residing.

4. Ayazma was one of the two neighbourhoods that were subject to transformation and were part of the broader ‘Ayazma-Tepeustu Squatter Settlement Transformation Project’. In this article, I focus only on Ayazma and designate the project as the ‘Ayazma project’.

5. Hereafter, it will be referred to as the ‘Administration’.

6. The TL–$ exchange rate was taken on 21 August 2010.

7. A cautionary note regarding my sample of residents of Bezirganbahce should be made here. I have been unable to trace those resettled residents who left Bezirganbahce and tenants that moved out of Ayazma before I began my fieldwork in 2009. The narratives of those residents are incorporated on the basis of the recollections of those residents whom I interviewed.

8. In Turkey, squatting on privately owned land is rare, primarily due to the legacy of the Ottoman property system. However, squatter neighbourhoods often have privately owned parcels of land. In most cases, these parcels are owned by those who also reside in these neighbourhoods. In this article, I define these people as ‘deed holders’. Title deeds to land might have been granted through clientelistic politics or, in some cases, purchased through a legal transaction.

9. Between January, 2003 and December, 2009, 424,659 dwellings were built under the authority of the Administration, 48,979 of which were to rehouse squatters in the projects.

10. From http://www.toplumunsehircilikhareketi.org/images/stories/imece/IstanbulRaporu.pdf. Accessed April 28, 2009.

11. Admittedly because this discourse hinges on national citizenship, it excludes non-citizens living in urban areas.

12. From www.toki.gov.tr. Accessed September 10, 2010.

13. According to Mitchell and Staeheli property regime denotes ‘a relatively settled, fairly consistent, set of practices, ideologies, and social relations’ (2006, 151).

14. This threat was realized in September 2009, when one resident lost his life in the flood.

15. Turkey made unsuccessful bids to host the 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympic Games.

16. Tenants were initially promised resettlement but it has never been realized. For details, see Lovering and Turkmen (2011).

17. The size of instalments varied in relation to the apartment's floor level and views. The instalments would be increased twice a year reflecting the rate of inflation as measured by the lowest increase in producer price index, consumer price index or civil servant salaries (Kucukcekmece Municipality 2008).

18. They could either move to Bezirganbahce apartments or remain in Ayazma but accommodated in newly built apartments. The apartments offered in Ayazma were more ‘luxurious’ and spacious (138 m²), reflecting the stratification among residents. Each of these apartments was priced at 225,000 liras (US$148,446). During my fieldwork in 2009, approximately 400 out of 1065 deed holders had participated in the project, half of whom had chosen to move to Bezirganbahce. Since each deed holder was negotiating individually with the officials the process was slow.

19. Following confiscation, the Administration would refund the residents with the total sum of the monthly instalments they had paid, excluding their wreckage payments.

20. According to the municipality survey, as of 2009, 967 out of 1365 households were still living in Bezirganbahce (Turgut and Ceylan 2010, 165).

21. From http://www.toki.gov.tr/english/milestones.asp. Accessed June 16, 2013. The Administration received international awards and endorsements in 2007, 2008 and 2009. In 2007, it received an award for the Best International Real Estate Project at the Barcelona Meeting Point Conference. The website notes that ‘this award was presented in recognition of its entrepreneurial experience and its success in improving economic and social conditions of Turkish citizens.’ In 2008, the Administration was awarded the International Award for Entrepreneurship in Real Estate and Housing Development sponsored by Expo Italia Real Estate. The same year, Erzincan-Carsi Quarter transformation project was selected as a ‘Good Practice’ in the Dubai International Award for Best Practices of UN-Habitat. In 2009, North Ankara Entrance transformation project was selected as one of the ‘good practices’ by the UN-Habitat Business Awards, ‘deemed to have made outstanding contributions to improving the quality of life in their cities and communities’. Finally, in 2009 the head of the Administration, Erdogan Bayraktar, was awarded ‘the International Award for Entrepreneurship in Real Estate and Housing Development sponsored by Expo Italia Real Estate of 2009, for his personal contribution to the social housing implementations in his country.’