Citizenship, minorities and the struggle for a right to the city in Istanbul

Abstract

Globalization is generating new forms of citizenship that often go beyond the institutional perception of social identity. These new forms of citizenship are developed in a scalable way to a greater extent than rights and obligations, and are entirely managed by the citizens themselves. To demonstrate empirical support for this issue, the case of minority communities in Turkey constitutes one of the most relevant examples, since citizenship in this country has long been associated with an idea of political loyalty and total allegiance to the nation-state. The main purpose of this article is to show how urban space and urban protest allow minorities to find alternative forms of expression for their collective identity, and to create a new understanding of citizenship beyond the classical definition, being based instead on institutional representation. The aim of this research is to examine the process of urban transformation in Istanbul, how this phenomenon shapes the structure of cities and how it gives rise to social resistance and protest, especially in neighborhoods housing minority communities. In this context, the article focuses on planning movements in Turkey through a comparative study of two urban planning projects and the citizens' protests against them.

Keywords::

• citizenship
• minorities
• right to the city
• Turkey
• protest
• urban space

Acknowledgments

The research leading to these results was funded by the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) under grant agreement no. 253607. The names of all individuals interviewed and mentioned by the author in this article have been changed in order to respect anonymity and avoid risking the interviewees' safety.

Notes

^1. Previously a nonprofit-making public institution for social housing, TOKI today has permission to undertake ‘for-profit’ housing projects on state land, either through its subsidiary firms or through public–private partnerships, all to raise funds for the construction of public housing. Moreover, the new laws like Law No. 4966 (2003), Law No. 5162 (2004), Law No. 5582 (2007) and Law No. 5793 (2008) gave public institutions wider powers for carrying out such projects, including urgent expropriation, thus weakening the concerned inhabitants' capacity for resistance and negotiation.

^2. In 1995, during a demonstration in 1 Mayis to protest against police repression in another neighborhood, which is also Alevi, five demonstrators were killed by the police.

^3. See the website of the Municipality of Ümraniye, available from: http://www.umraniye.bel.tr/bpi.asp?caid = 238&cid = 287 [Accessed 8 May 2012].

^4. This degradation is largely related to the behavior of the local and national public agencies. The municipality has never provided the necessary public services in the district under the pretext of its supposed criminality; they did not regularize the professional activities of the Roma, which would have enabled them to raise their living standards and repair their houses. Also, by classifying this neighborhood as part of the historical peninsula of Istanbul, they prevented any construction or improvement schemes unless residents had authorization from the official Council of the ones and historic buildings.

^5. This speech was given by the Director of TOKI during a conference co-organized by the municipality of Istanbul and Urban Land Institute on ‘Urban Renewal Projects and Real-Estate Investments’. For further information, see ‘Kentsel dönüsümü tamamlayamazsak terörü de bitiremeyiz’ (We cannot finish with terrorism if we cannot finish the urban transformation), 13 November 2007. Available from: http:// www.mimdap.org/w/?p = 2114 [Accessed 2 February 2009].

^6. If mistrust with regard to the communist ideology and to the extreme left in general began with the Cold War, it has a historicity that is specifically related to the student movement of the 1970s. The rise of these socialist and the entry of the socialist deputies at the Parliament led to armed confrontations with extreme right-wing groups known as ‘Grey Wolves’. The Turkish army intervened twice, in 1971 and 1980, to establish order, and after the military coup d'état of 1980 all extreme left and the communist groups were prohibited.

^7. In 2009, General Directorate of Security published a list of districts in which the so-called illegal terrorist groups and organizations were operating. 1 Mayis figures among them. Please see ‘Işte Istanbulùn terör haritası’ (Voici la carte de terrorisme d'Istanbul), Aksiyon, 8 January 2008. Available from: http://www.tumgazeteler.com/?a = 2470395 [Accessed 8 February 2009].

^8. According to Sükrü Aslan, in the confrontation with the police to prevent the destruction of the neighborhood, nine people lost their lives in 1977 and a further five in 1995.