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Squatting and Urban Modernity in Turkey
Morack, Ellinor (2017): „Squatting and Urban Modernity in Turkey“. 1. Aufl. London: Routledge.
Faculty/Professorship:
Author:
Title of the compilation:
Public Goods versus Economic Interests : Global Perspectives on the History of Squatting
Publisher Information:
Year of publication:
2017
Pages:
Edition:
1
ISBN:
978-1-138-11897-3
Series:
Language:
English
Abstract:
Gecekondu are informal settlements that have been at the heart of the rapid urbanisation of modern Turkey, especially in Istanbul and Izmir. Gecekondu squatting started in the 1940s as a need-oriented practice of poor rural migrants who needed cheap accomodation in Turkey's growing cities. Over time, gecekondu neighborhoods were legalized, and their dwellers became part of the urban middle class by erecting apartment buildings on their plots. In the 1980s, it became common to buy, and later to steal, privately owned agricultural land in order to construct apartment buildings on it. Appropriation was no longer geared towards need, but towards profit.
Appropriation of state-owned (agricultural) land was already a common practice in Ottoman times, and so was rural work migration to major cities, such as Istanbul and Izmir. In the aftermath of the Armenian Genocide and the Population Exchange with Greece, private property of Armenians and Greeks was appropriated and squatted by Muslims. This article argues that these historical precedents informed the way in which gecekondu dwellers legitimated their need-oriented appropriation of state land. With the arrival of neoliberalism, however, appropriation of state property no longer served to alleviate poverty, but became big business. Today, it is major real estate firms and the state-owned public housing authority (TOKI) that privatize state land in order to build gated communities for the upper middle class.
Appropriation of state-owned (agricultural) land was already a common practice in Ottoman times, and so was rural work migration to major cities, such as Istanbul and Izmir. In the aftermath of the Armenian Genocide and the Population Exchange with Greece, private property of Armenians and Greeks was appropriated and squatted by Muslims. This article argues that these historical precedents informed the way in which gecekondu dwellers legitimated their need-oriented appropriation of state land. With the arrival of neoliberalism, however, appropriation of state property no longer served to alleviate poverty, but became big business. Today, it is major real estate firms and the state-owned public housing authority (TOKI) that privatize state land in order to build gated communities for the upper middle class.
Keywords: ; ; ; ;
Gecekondu
informal settlement
rapid urbanisation
Turkey
privatisation
Peer Reviewed:
Yes:
International Distribution:
Yes:
Type:
Contribution to an Articlecollection
published:
October 17, 2016
Permalink
https://fis.uni-bamberg.de/handle/uniba/41059