Vernacular Politics: The Gecekondu as an Institutional Apparatus in Istanbul -Lara Yegenoglu

Vernacular Politics The Gecekondu as an Institutional Apparatus in Istanbul Lara Yegenoglu

Diploma Thesis AA School of Architecture Supervisor: Mark Campbell Unit Masters: Pier Vittorio Aureli, Maria ShĂŠhĂŠrazade Giudici

Contents Introduction A Self-Built Housing Model I. II. III.

The Genesis of a New Populace From Antisocial Policies to Self-Organisation The Uprooted and the Creation of a 'Second Heimat'

Urbanising the (In)Formal I. II. III.

The Social Evolution of the Gecekondu The Economic Evolution of the Gecekondu The Political Evolution of the Gecekondu

Framing the Affiliated I. II. III.

'Apartmentalisation' and the Rural Decay Constructing the Individual Mobilising the Ordinary

From Construction to Destruction I. II.

Towards a Neoliberal Housing Market Urban Transformation and the Earthquake Policy

Conclusion

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Lara Yegenoglu

Vernacular Politics The Gecekondu as an Institutional Apparatus in Istanbul

During times of agricultural automation under the Turkish Republic, Istanbul has been steered by constant population movements, which resulted in the creation of a rural migratory populace in search of national identity and belongingness. This inflow of uprooted peasants together with the shortage of low-cost housing brought about a new housing typology. Known as the gecekondu, it characterises informal settlements that have been built over night along the urban peripheries. Just as religious affiliation allowed the uprooted migrants to establish a sense of belongingness and habitualness – for the rural population being a Muslim meant to be part of a community – the self-built nature of the gecekondu settlements enabled them to create their own physical environment, their second Heimat.

Following a process of political and economic interdependence the gecekondu typology evolved into a legalised, entrepreneurial housing model for the working class. It is this process of formalisation and fragmented transformation of the gecekondu into apartmentalised neighbourhoods that resulted in the loss of communality and hence in the increasing need for affiliation elsewhere. This search for belongingness has strategically been answered by the government through the propagation of traditional Islamic community values as well as of common roots and rural origins shared by the ruling power and the gecekondu people. Hence these neighbourhoods became important political mobilisation sites and since the 1990s can be associated with Islam-oriented parties.

Examining the current condition of gecekondu areas in Istanbul it can be argued that their typological transformation from the self-built dwelling to the multi-storey apartment block (Fig. 1-3) should be perceived as a state-led institution whose purpose foremost was the establishment of a new devoting social class rather than the development of the housing model itself. This becomes clear when looking at the vast urban transformation that Istanbul is

Vernacular Politics

Opposite page: 1. A gecekondu in Okmeydani, Istanbul, today.

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facing throughout the last decade as part of the construction of a neoliberal housing market. This has been mainly realised through the enactment of Law no.6306 for the ‘Regeneration of Areas under Disaster Risk’. The majority of areas targeted under this act consist of former gecekondu settlements, which developed into adequate municipalities hosting more than half of the city’s population and whose multi-storey apartment buildings account for 65 per cent of all housing stock today.

A Self-Built Housing Model I. The Genesis of a new Populace Origins of rural migration

2. According to Karpat the only foreign immigrants were 154,000 Turkish people expelled from Bulgaria in 1951 and 1952, and a number who came from Greece, Romania, and Yugoslavia afterward. Kemal H. Karpat, The Gecekondu: Rural Migration and Urbanization (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 62.

Being an imperial capital for over 1500 years of its history including the Eastern Roman, the Byzantine, the Latin, and the Ottoman Empire, Istanbul has always been a city fostering a versatile populace while giving rise to constant social mobility. Since the inception of the Ottoman State and its successor, the Turkish Republic, the transcontinental city has been subject to intensive ruralurban migration movements. This social mobility from the country side to the urban regions already existed within the Muslim city, which enabled the cultural integration of villages through a centralised political administration. Large religious establishments created the framework for these movements, which had been facilitated by the vaqf system, representing ‘pious foundations performing social services, usually in the city, based on revenue derived largely from agriculture.’1 Whereas until World War II population movements had mainly been influenced by political and cultural factors, thus consisting to a large extend of foreign immigrants, after 1940 they were motivated by socio-economic forces causing internal migration.2 The deterioration of rural areas due to deficient investment as well as the ruling elite’s improvement process of several towns as ‘models of progress and modernity’, which resulted in severe taxation of the peasants, acted as initial catalysts for these movements.3 Thereupon the term ‘gurbetcilik’ was born, which literally means ‘living in outland’, and describes a form of seasonal migration. It became a permanent way of life in which men would leave their village every year for several months, seeking for work in larger towns or cities that reached as far as Istanbul.

3. Eventually the peasants turned against the ruling Republican party and – benefiting from direct suffrage, opposition parties, and free elections – voted it out of power in 1950. Kemal H. Karpat, The Gecekondu: Rural Migration and Urbanization (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 56.

With the implementation of the Marshall Plan in 1947, which introduced the automation of agricultural technologies, another ‘push’ factor was soon to follow, accelerating the inflow of peasants into the country’s metropolises and thus partly ending the former ‘gurbetcilik.’ This massive mechanisation procedure under the Democrat party of Adnan Menderes was heavily supported by the United States and effected the unemployment of about one million

Agricultural automation and the Marshall Plan

1. Kemal H. Karpat, The Gecekondu: Rural Migration and Urbanization (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 31.

2. The Gecekondu: single-family dwelling and multi-strorey apartment block in Okmeydani, 2014.

3. The gecekondu and its 'apartmentalised' successors.

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farmers.4 Following a process of costing, expanded capacity and productive efficiency, which evolved through the assimilation of the agricultural industry towards the national economy, marginal farms had been eradicated. Attracted by labour and wealth, thousands of superfluous workers moved to larger cities, such as Istanbul, with the intention of establishing a new auspicious life while leaving their village as well as their kinsmen behind. The rapid adaptation of this process of technological improvements on economic political grounds not only put economic, but foremost psychological pressure on the peasants and hence increased rural migration, which hit its peak during the 1950s.

A large number of the unemployed farmers hailed from villages in the east and north-eastern parts of Turkey, oftentimes situated within mountainous, secluded regions and moved to cities in the West, which were subject to industrialisation and on the rise to urbanisation. Thus, for the majority of these peasants, the Black Sea region represented their place of origin whereas the Marmara and the west-central regions reflected their destination areas (Fig. 4). Istanbul soon turned into the host city for about eleven per cent of the rural migrants (Fig. 5). The cities’ immense job opportunities, which emerged within the new industrial zones along the Golden Horn, became the major pull factor enabling the newcomers to establish a more secured and promising future.5

Peasant movements from East to West

II. From Anti-Social Policies to Self-Organisation

4. Ibid.

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4. Major origin areas of rural migrants in Istanbul, 1940-1970.

5. Dogan Kuban, Istanbul: An Urban History (Istanbul: Is Bankasi Kültür Yayinlar, 2010), 524.

5. Migrants arriving at Haydarpasa Station, in Gurbet Kuslari

6. D. W. Drakakis and W. B. Fisher, “Housing in Ankara,” Ekistics, 42 (1979): 92.

The positive prospects of the migrating populace was soon to come to an end as they were confronted with the city’s inexistent social policies, namely the lack of cheap housing, which had not been solved through any welfare programme by the state or the private sector. Together with the lack of social concern and planning experience these circumstances led to a process of selfaccommodation and mutual help resulting in the emergence of a new housing typology, that is to say the gecekondu. Literally translating as ‘built at night’ it characterises uncontrolled settlements that have been constructed within one night along the urban peripheries (Fig. 6-7). Throughout its early stages and with its portrayal and recognition as a new urban phenomena, the gecekondu was legally defined as ‘building on land to which the occupant had no legal title’ and ‘erecting structures that did not conform existing minimal building codes and were substandard in quality.’6 However it is important to stress that these settlements did not resemble what one would call a ‘slum’ or ‘shanty town’ as they were not irregular shelters built solely with discarded material, but in fact represented physical repetitions of the peasants’ rural dwellings.

As there was no affordable urban land the migrants had no choice but to turn empty land, which was primarily owned by the state, into gecekondu territories.

Although the newcomers occupied public land, mainly agricultural fields, Vernacular Politics

Cause

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without legal right to ‘squat’, they experienced populist leniency as this selforganised nature of the gecekondu settlement allowed for investment priorities in defence and industrialisation. Furthermore the newcomers provided cheap labour force needed at times of rapid industrialisation and were expected to become important consumers of the developing local market. These reasons had a significant impact on the toleration of the gecekondu construction by political authorities, however, due to the lack of title deeds the dwellings remained unauthorised. As the flow of migrants continued and the state did not possess the right means to invest in reproduction for this rapidly growing working class, the construction of gecekondus proceeded.

Throughout this process neither development schemes nor legislative powers have been able to prevent the expansion of the unauthorised settlements that go hand in hand with population growth. Therefore an opposed plan was pursued aiming for the immediate improvement of gecekondu areas through several legalisation processes of the self-built dwellings that cover fifteen different laws, enacted by the Turkish Parliament between 1948 and 1988.7 With the state-led contributions towards the gecekondus’ development the number of dwellings increased from 8,238 in 1950 to 100,000 in 1964.8 Since the men were the first to migrate from the rural areas to the cities, the settlements featured a predominantly male population within their early years of existence. Although many women were eager to settle in the city as soon as possible, as they were suppressed by the authority structures and the burden of a life shared with the in-laws found within the traditional village culture, they had to remain in the rural areas until their dwelling in the new urban environment had been secured.

Tolerance

Legalisation

III. The Uprooted and the Creation of a ‘Second Heimat’

7. The first legislation with this objective was, interestingly, synchronous with the Mar shall Plan.

Murat C. Yalcintan and Adem E. Erbas, “Impact of ‘Gecekondu’ on the Electoral Geography of Istanbul,” International Labour and Working-Class History, 64 (2003): 96.

6. Kurucesme Mahalle in Istanbul, by Nevnihal Erdogan.

7. A gecekondu neighbourhood in Ulus, Ankara

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8. Dogan Kuban, Istanbul: An Urban History (Istanbul: Is Bankasi Kültür Yayinlar, 2010), 524.

9. Tansi Senyapili, “On Physical Aspects of Squatters in Turkey,” O.D.T.Ü. Mimarlik Fakültesi Dergisi, 7 (1986): 143.

The uncontrolled, steady flow of peasants resulted in the emergence of an uprooted populace in search of national identity and belongingness. The city, although promising a better life, depicted a completely unknown territory with an alien form of life – the urban life. This can be related back to the fact that ‘national transportation and communication networks had not sufficiently developed to reflect urban life, opportunities and conditions to rural areas.’9 On this account family and kinship ties, a shared language and culture, similar origins, strong communal bonds and religious values became important remedies for the newcomers’ uprooting and allowed them to establish a sense of belongingness.

However, religious affiliation here is not to be understood as the performance of Islamic rituals but much more represents a broader social identification within a ‘Gemeinschaft’, as for the rural population being a Muslim foremost means to belong to a community.

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Belongingness

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Just as religion and piety allowed the peasants to establish a sense of habitualness, the self-built nature of the gecekondu dwellings allowed them to create their own physical environment, their second ‘Heimat’. The gecekondu is developed through a spontaneous building process and is formed according to the available resources of each individual user. Its flexible character as well as its initial construction through personal labour results in minimal investment and adapts to the economic conditions of the marginal class. Although the ways in which the settlements are built may appear like an accidental conglomeration of buildings, they take on planned and organised patterns, influenced by building knowledge, social cohesion as well as entrepreneurship.

8. Typical floor plan of the gecekondu dwellings built between 1940 and 1950.

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10. Karpat compares the gecekondu to squatter housing and notes “A few years ago, I visited in Cairo the so-called Nasser City built by the government for squatter residents… The buildings were and decaying, reminding me of some of the worst tenement house in industrial cities.

These had become slums because community spirit and solidarity had seemingly disappeared. Kemal H. Karpat, The Gecekondu: Rural Migration and Urbanization (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 247.

11. Ibid, 86.

The ownership of property lead to a relative material betterment of the newcomers, yet, what strengthened the affirmative portrayal of the gecekondu settlements even more was the establishment of a sense of community and belongingness. Emerging through the act of territorial occupation, this community occurrence laid the foundations for solidarity and social bonding among the gecekondu communality. The collective process of land appropriation and the general establishment of the settlement then ‘creates certain powerful bonds of solidarity in the community, because, if maintained, it assures the participants ownership of a house and because it is a positive act of self-affiliation in a new environment.’10 Small, experienced groups of settled migrants form the driving organisational forces for the land invasions. Generally bonded through kinship ties, the leading group of occupants entices relatives and friends from their villages to participate in these acts in order to gain manpower. One could say that the organisational framework of migration, the gecekondu construction and job seeking are very much dependent on ‘akrabalik’, meaning blood relationship, and ‘hemserilik’, describing the common village or town origins.

For the migrants as well as for their rural relatives, the ‘hemseris’, kinship and communal relationships ‘provide the only basis for mutual help and solidarity until these are superseded by or fused into other relations and identities of urban and national origin.’11 What emerges is the reestablishment of rural communities within the urban environment, where traditional village cultures and ethnic values are preserved in order to guarantee for a psychological protection to escape alienation.

Urbanising the (In)Formal I. The Social Evolution of the Gecekondu The evolution of the gecekondu does not only rest upon the development of physical phenomena, but becomes a spatial reflection of the settlements’ socioVernacular Politics

Habitualness

Communality

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economic modes of living, which is heavily influenced by the dwellers’ position within the urban economy, partly distinguished through their type of labour.

At times of its genesis the gecekondu typified individual dwellings consisting of one singular room, which were constructed and furnished overnight in order to benefit from the penal law No.5431 that had been enacted by the former ruling power, the Republican Peoples Party (Fig. 8). These legal provisions prohibited the ‘destruction of inhabited homes without due processes’.12 Once the construction of the houses was completed demolition could only be achieved through the initiation of legal procedures. The dwellings would only face immediate demolition if they were caught during the process of erection. Therefore the occupants would imitate the gecekondus perception as an inhabited space by simply placing essential domestic objects such as a bed and a stove accomplished with the framed picture of Atatürk. The government’s attempt to solve the issue of gecekondu housing and to prevent the construction of new ones did not resolve in an adequate implementation of these laws and therefore lead to an even vaster proliferation of those settlements. In response, the Turkish authorities accepted the gecekondus as a new housing model for the urban poor.

Recognition: 1st Phase, 1945–1950

Throughout the period from 1945 until 1950 the migrating peasants consisted mainly of men as their families remained in the villages. The economy was not well established enough in order to guarantee jobs to all the newcomers and the majority of migrants was only able to find employment in marginal, temporary jobs. These included placements in coffeehouses and stations, or employment as janitors and construction workers, leading to the fact that their resources were rather limited. Both, the economic conditions and the legislations concerning the demolition of buildings resulted in the typology’s minimal formation with average measurements between 25 to 35 square meters and ceiling heights of 2.20 to 2.50 meters.13 Furthermore, due to the continuous uncertainty of their survival, the gecekondus did not feature a kitchen; bathrooms were only externally installed and to be shared by several households. Although the house itself was small, due to limited funds, the size of the individual plots was rather generous as it was relatively easy to occupy large areas at the beginning (Fig. 8).

Thus the area ratio measured a building base of 30 to 35 percent.

12. Ibid, 92.

9. Typical floor plans of the gecekondus built between 1950-1960.

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13. Tansi Senyapili, “On Physical Aspects of Squatters in Turkey,” O.D.T.Ü. Mimarlik Fakültesi Dergisi, 7 (1986): 146.

The second stage of the gecekondus social evolution addresses its growth. Whereas its construction is enabled through physical action, its further enlargement is based on social phenomena related to socio-political circumstances. In other words, the growth of the gecekondu was the outcome of a broader process of interdependence of the migrants and the state authorities.

Under the Democrat Party, which came to power in the 1950s within a newly constituted multiparty political system, the voting potential of the gecekondu inhabitants, who by that time counted a large number of people, had been Vernacular Politics

Interdependence: 2nd Phase, 1950-1960

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recognised and triggered through populist policies. The promise for the distribution of title deeds to the land on which the buildings were erected and the provision of infrastructure and services, such as water supply, electricity, and transportation, allowed the ruling party to gain the gecekondus political support.14 In addition to offering his vote the gecekondu dweller was expected to pay local taxes in order to guarantee the registration of the invaded land.15 Although the inhabitants were able to meet these requirements, they feared that their material betterment could result in the rejection of title allocation and the enforcement of moving elsewhere. This threat relates back to the ‘traditional Islamic understanding of charity and mutual help, whereby the rich have a moral duty to assists the unprivileged in whatever way possible.’16

14. These promises were especially announced by the leaders of political parties prior to elections. Tahire Erman, “The Politics of Squatter (Gecekondu) Studies in Turkey: The Changing Representations of Rural Migrants in the Academic Discourse,” Urban Studies, 38 (2001): 985.

15. Bayram Uzun et al., “Legalizing and upgrading illegal settlements in Turkey,” Habitat International, 34 (2010): 205.

16. Kemal H. Karpat, The Gecekondu: Rural Migration and Urbanization (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 105.

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Following the provision of a secure tenure, the living conditions within the gecekondu settlement improved and reflect in the typology’s development. Once secured by deeds and taxes the buildings were horizontally extended, forming an additive process of grouping cells and in the majority of cases resulted in dwelling formations of two to three rooms. Corridors or circulation spaces had yet not been introduced and therefore the newly added rooms were directly accessed through the existing spaces (Fig. 9). In some cases terraces were added at the front of the house creating a transition space from the exterior to the internal space and almost staging the entrance into the private domain. As this process of extension is distinguished by various conditions including the perimeter of the plot, the topography, neighbour constellations and the building method, it is rather difficult to generalise this typological transformation. Nevertheless, what can be analysed is the correlation of the families’ economic improvement, as a response to their passage from marginal to non-marginal jobs, with the gradual enlargement of the dwelling. It is this potential for improvement that differs the gecekondu from what one might call ‘slum’ or ‘shantytown’ as those settlements are captured in an ongoing cycle of dilapidation. After the housing had been secured, the buildings extended, and a permanent workplace assured, the wife and the children, who had been left behind, arrived in the urban neighbourhoods.

This second wave of migration outpaced the extended family as well as kinship relations, as the older generations remained in the rural villages, and hence gave rise to the nuclear family. Following these changes within the social as well as the economic context, the second gecekondu generation manifests a higher degree of stability and permanence. On this regard the neighbourhoods and the housing layout in particular became more regular as settled dwellers started to define plot boundaries and sold their previously occupied land to the newcomers.

By the 1960s the village culture transformed to a politically fostered culture, resulting in new identity formations, which respond to the new understanding of social and political existence. The catalyst for this cultural change is embodied within the emergence of individual and group awareness of needs. As those needs transformed into demands, which were forwarded through an individual, Vernacular Politics

Opposite page: 10 a. Typical floor plans of the dwellings built between 1960-1980 highlighting the integrated service areas 10 b. Typical floor plans emphasising the separate reception rooms.

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one can observe the transformation of traditional cultural elements into political values of practical and physical relevance. The successful cycle of political bargaining between the ruling party and the gecekondu population had high impacts on the election results with the newcomers shift in votes in favour of the Justice Party. One of the major reasons for the migrants’ politicisation at the time was the party’s ‘means to grant economic advantages such as the title to the house and to improve the quality of life in the gecekondu by installing amenities such as water and electricity in exchange for votes.’17 A spatial reflection of this procedure can be observed through the floor plans, as most dwellings started to have their own internal kitchens and individual bathrooms (Fig. 10 a). Additionally, the general enlargement of the buildings continued until the internal rooms encountered the plot boundaries, leaving little space for gardening.

Integration: 3rd Phase, 1960-1980

The act of interdependence and hence the increasing participation in local politics are direct responses to the struggle for existence as both a communal and an individual entity. On this note, the need to defend the gecekondu settlements leads to the emergence of political action creating strong communal and collective ties throughout the neighbourhoods. The close reading of the plans illustrates the typological adaptation of the emerging communal responsibilities, in which the community becomes part of the private domain, through the introduction of the reception room, that is to say a separate living room, whose mere function is the communal assembly for discussions of internal matters (Fig. 10 b).

17. The concern about material welfare seemed to predominate in the choice of a party in the elections of 1968. The government of Bülent Ecevit – that is, the Republican People’s Party, which accumulated a plurality of votes in the national elections of 1973, thanks to the gecekondu votes. It used similar bribing methods by promising to issue land deeds to all dwellings built until the end of 1973. Kemal H. Karpat, The Gecekondu: Rural Migration and Urbanization (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 65, 220.

18. Tansi Senyapili, “On Physical Aspects of Squatters in Turkey,” O.D.T.Ü. Mimarlik Fakültesi Dergisi, 7 (1986): 152.

Throughout the period from 1960 to 1980 the gecekondu population managed to integrate itself well in the city’s economy. With the men mainly working in construction, salesmen and service jobs as well as with the entry of women and children into the labour market, the families gained access to health and welfare services in the city as most workplaces counting more than five employees were subject to insurance.18 This economic change followed by a more social factor, which encompasses the establishment of new relationships between the gecekondu people and other ‘urbanites’, or what one might call ‘Istanbulites’, lead to the diminishment of kinship obligations and attachments. What remained was the nuclear family as the essence of social life in which the members became more individuated. Following this social change the spatial arrangement of the gecekondu house had been adjusted, resulting in the positioning of the communal room as a space of entrance to the house as well as in the introduction of circulation spaces that started to divide the household into individual rooms (Fig. 11 b). Furthermore a higher level of privacy was introduced within the family home, which becomes evident through the spatial separation of the bedrooms for both parents and married children.19 Following traditional rules, unmarried children were not given their own bedroom and were accommodated in the living room, which turned into a multi-functional space.

19. Ibid, 153.

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Vernacular Politics

Opposite page: 11 a. Furhter horizontal enlargements of gecekondus.

11 b. Communal rooms and the circulation spaces found in developed gecekondus.

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II. The Economic Evolution of the Gecekondu The typological and social evolution of the gecekondu goes hand in hand with the development of construction processes that clearly respond to external economic and political forces. Therefore the gecekondu housing model continues and evolves over time reflecting the economic, technological and organisational framework in which it is built.

During the first period of immigration and the following land occupation, the applied method by the peasants for the construction of the gecekondu houses resembled the one of rural dwellings, which can be found within their village of origin. The only exception was one of material change as an answer to the given site conditions. Accordingly, the gecekondu construction as well as the building material have been deliberately adapted in response to soil and climate conditions, a process that remains rather omitted within housing developments by the government. Regardless of the applied material, the construction itself during the early periods is of temporary nature due to the danger of demolition brought about by the penal law No.486 for the destruction of gecekondus in building process.

12. Section of the gecekondus' construction type in its first phase.

13. A single-room gecekondu dwelling.

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20. T.Kurucu, “Zeytinburnu Gecekondularinin Kurulusu ve Usta Teskilatlari” (PhD diss., Istanbul University, Social Anthropology and Etnology, 1965).

21. Tansi Senyapili, “On Physical Aspects of Squatters in Turkey,” O.D.T.Ü. Mimarlik Fakültesi Dergisi, 7 (1986): 144.

The dominant building methods of the gecekondu settlements built between 1945 and 1950 consisted of two main types, namely the sun-dried brick construction and the stone construction (Fig. 12-13). The former was the most common type as its raw material was easy to find. Neither did the making of those bricks require advanced building knowledge or inaccessible material nor did it result in high expenses. The bricks consisted of a soil and water mixture to which hay dust was added, resembling the function of fibres. The mixture was then poured into a rectangular mould measuring a base of 35 by 60 centimetres and a depth of ten centimetres.20 Following the constellation of the mixture, the filled moulds were placed under the sun, which was used to attain a natural drying procedure. The sun-dried bricks enabled the construction of large seized units, which facilitated a fast erection of the gecekondu dwellings. Furthermore the natural material acted as good thermal insulation. As for the masonry, the foundations, generally out of stone, were laid at night in advance and covered by soil in order to prevent any evidence of an ongoing building process. On the second night the hardened sun-dried bricks were transported to the site, placed on top of the foundation without applying mortar in between the courses of blocks and plastered with mud. The latter construction method was very much dependent on the availability of stones within the occupied territory. If the resources were relatively high the dwelling was built out of stone. In this case, mud was applied as bonding material.21 Both, the sun-dried brick as well as the stone buildings were occasionally fitted with timber flooring, however this was usually added at a later stage.

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1st Phase, 1945–1950

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The roof was either stripped with scrap materials such as tarred tarpaulin or tin sheets, fixed through long timber slabs, or covered with tiles. Although tin is a rather expensive material today, it was convenient and free to collect at the time as it was discarded by the factories. Window and doors, which were supported by wooden boards, were provided by small local dealers, who specialised in the sale of demolished material. Out of all building material ‘windows, doors and hardware are almost always of recycled selvage material while in some cases a carpenter friend or a blacksmith relative helps to manufacture them.’22 A boom in the construction sector in the 1950s created the driving force for the second phase of the gecekondus physical development. Entirely under control of private entrepreneurs, this upswing lead to grand land speculations while, due to increasing employments within the construction industry, it created a new class of skilled craftsmen, most of whom were workers from the gecekondu population. As older dwellers gained practical experience, both on building sites in the city and within the newly emerging irregular settlements, the gecekondu construction became more organised at the level of the neighbourhood. These men distributed the invaded land among themselves and became main actors for the site management, including the provision of the plot of land, workforce and information on construction material suppliers. In return they received financial rewards from the newcomers. This process of internal organisation was only affective because of the close relations that the asserted men maintained with the gendarmerie. ‘If the gendarmerie intervened with the construction, these craftsmen came and settled the trouble’ however ‘if a person attempted to build a gecekondu by himself, the craftsmen informed the gendarmerie and the construction was torn down.’23 Besides the newly emerging craftsmanship, the demolition, collection, storage and sale of discarded materials as well as submarkets of workmanship became common practice and turned into profitable jobs.

14. Section of the gecekondus' construction type in its second phase.

15. Construction of the foundation and floor leveling.

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22. See the Nomination Project “Gecekondus: Various Cities in Turkey”, (Ankara: Aga Kahn Award, ongoing), 12.

23. Tansi Senyapili, “On Physical Aspects of Squatters in Turkey,” O.D.T.Ü. Mimarlik Fakültesi Dergisi, 7 (1986): 152.

24. Ibid, 151.

The physical appearance of the gecekondus during this period improved in quality as the houses were transformed into more permanent structures, which was a response to the better handling of the demolition threat. The applied material became more solid and the forms more standardised. While previously used materials, whether sun-dried brick or stone, were replaced with cinder blocks, white wash finished the facades of the properly built houses (Fig. 14).

Not only did those blocks offer a better look but they also proved to be a much stronger and lasting material. According to a study on the physical aspects of gecekondus ‘those who could save their shacks from demolition, built cinder block walls inside the house and then tore down the outer wooden walls.’24 For those who could not afford the new material a more traditional building method was approached. This type of construction consists of a timber frame structure with gravel or mud-brick infill and reflects the repetition of rural dwellings based on the Black Sea houses (Fig. 14). Following the laying of a stone-mortar Vernacular Politics

2nd Phase, 1950-1960

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or a stone-mud foundation, the floor was covered by timber boards on which a wooden skeleton was mounted (Fig. 15). Furthermore the frame was enhanced through diagonal planks and filled with a combination of rubble, mud, stone and sun-dried brick pieces.25 Their rigid structure even facilitated a vertical extension creating two storeyed buildings. Throughout the years cement replaced the white wash as it was more likely to withstand the humid air of Istanbul.

Following a period of relatively difficult participation of merchants and industrialists in the foreign market during the 1960s, the rapidly growing domestic market became an important asset for the economy of Istanbul.

Whereas until then the gecekondu family’s role within this economic framework was one of cheap labour provision, its function underwent a significant change throughout the forthcoming decade by becoming one of the markets main actors, both as producers and as consumers. Additionally, the more and more assimilating families constituted active consumers within the local industry.

The assignment of the ‘gecekondu entrepreneur’ was no longer solely the sale of building material but throughout this course also included the gecekondu construction according to building specification through the conclusion of a contract. From the very beginning on the occupation of the migrated peasants was pivotal in determining their reputation in the settlement. The ‘gecekondu entrepreneur’ asserted himself as the most prestigious followed by industrial workers and craftsmen. Service workers were considered the least reputable, with the exception of those employed by the municipality.26

25. T.Kurucu, “Zeytinburnu Gecekondularinin Kurulusu ve Usta Teskilatlari” (PhD diss., Istanbul University, Social Anthropology and Etnology, 1965).

26. Kemal H. Karpat, The Gecekondu: Rural Migration and Urbanization (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 136.

16. Section of the gecekondus' construction type in its third phase.

17. A gecekondu settlement of two-storey buildings.

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27. Mehmet R. Akbulut and Seher Baslik, “Transformation of Perception of the Gecekondu Phenomenon,” METU JFA, 2 (2011): 22.

28. Kemal H. Karpat, The Gecekondu: Rural Migration and Urbanization (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 80.

The emerging material prosperity of the gecekondu population informs and unveils through the changing appearance of the dwellings. Thus the increasing use of concrete and the introduction of plastic and clay tiles as building material contributed to their physical improvement and prevalently facilitated vertical extensions (Fig. 16-17).27 As both construction material and process became more standardised, the costing started to follow more explicit breakdowns. In this regard an average of the total expenditure for the gecekondu construction could be calculated, which divides into the material cost of about 1500 liras, equating 100 British Pound, and the total price of the dwelling, including the land, of 4000 to 6000 liras, equating 300 to 400 British Pound.28

II. The Political Evolution of the Gecekondu Moving on to the scale of the neighbourhood it should be considered that the gecekondu, rather than describing a single building type, represents a settlement formation, which could only function as a whole through the creation of a multitude of dwellings. On this note the gecekondu was not a housing solution for the individual but much more it became a tool for the urban reestablishment of rural communities. Gecekondu studies held in the 1980s categorize the Vernacular Politics

3rd Phase, 1960-1980

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settlement formations into three differing arrangements, ranging from a block arrangement on straight topographies, to an orthogonal arrangement on sloping territories and a parallel arrangement on sloping territories (Fig. 18). However, examining the settlements found in Istanbul one can observe a rather scattered arrangement of houses that have been placed not in reference to each other but in reference with the contour lines of the existing topography (Fig. 19).

Therefore the settlement formation allows for an accurate reading of the terrain, by means of the positioning of individual buildings. Nevertheless these scattered neighbourhoods, which at the time developed without any specific planning considerations, consist of rural patterns of cluster housing that form irregularly organised individual communities (Fig. 20).

During the early stages of the gecekondus existence neighbourhood activities, whether of cultural or collective nature, as well as the migrants’ individual lives revolved around the community. In turn this community represented the religious and social identity of the villager ‘stemming from a variety of kinship associations, values, and traditional socio-political institutions’ and, which is ‘assumed to be formed by his family, ethnic group, religion and religious sect, kabile (clan), if any, and the village.’29 However religion mainly represented a broader communal village culture, rather than the performance of Islamic rituals, and strengthened existing forms of solidarity as well as community. Evidence for this weakening impact of religion is on one hand the lacking performance of Islamic rituals by the gecekondu residents, although most of them consider themselves as faithful Muslims, and on the other hand the absence of mosques within these neighbourhoods until 1968.30 Although religious institutions did not exist, in some cases religious education was offered to the children of the gecekondu settlements. Yet the religious men, who lectured these children, had leftist tendencies and were positive about technological changes, modern education, and science. Some of these religious leaders, who are addressed as hocas or imams, even encouraged the villagers to be active throughout times of elections, arguing that ‘the Marxist Labour party active during that period promoted laudable social programs.’31 29. Kemal H. Karpat, The Gecekondu: Rural Migration and Urbanization (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 118.

30. Since then many mosques have been built largely as a consequence of outside political factors such as the ruling power of the Justice Party. Ibid, 129.

31. The religious leadership among the Sunni was represented by the imam. For Alevis, imam usually means the head of the sect; for Sunnis a prayer leader.

Ibid, 127.

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Considering the social structure it could be argued that the gecekondu settlement represents a communal enclave within the urban environment. The spatial establishment of these settlements results in the creation of separate communities, each formed by migrants from the same village or kinship. The buildings within are allocated to individual plots and are oriented towards a central courtyard, which becomes the heart of the ‘Gemeinschaft’ and serves as a space of social exchange and interaction (Fig. 21). This spatial formation corresponds with the peasants’ rural origin that was shaped through communal attachments towards the family, kinship, friends and elders. Exactly these values lay the foundations for the creation of strong family customs, maintenance of village cultures and social cohesion within the gecekondu neighbourhoods. The Vernacular Politics

Communal Identity

Opposite page: 18. Generic gecekondu settlement formations.

19. Scattered gecekondu settlement formations as found in Istanbul.

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gecekondu becomes a space of security and provides the rural newcomers with a sense of belongingness and group identity. While the possibility of ownership establishes this security it also eases the migrants assimilation and prevents him from becoming psychologically disintegrated.

32. Ibid, 231.

20. Gecekondu neighbourhood in Maslak, Istanbul 1970s.

21. Rize community in Maslak, Istanbul 1970s.

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33. The migrant does not have any intentions on returning to his place of origin. At the same time he is exposed to sceptical urbanites, who regard the gecekondu dwellers as intruders and ordinary peasants that hinder the process of modernisation.

Over a period of time the concept of community gradually lost its importance, which can partly be explained through the ongoing assimilation process with the city environment of the gecekondu population and the general impact of industrial and urban conditions. On this note the village culture was not properly maintained and underwent constant transformation in response to newly arising constraints in the urban environment. While certain characteristics such as group solidarity, mutual help, and a sense of habitualness still remained, other elements of traditional importance were adapted according to dominating city norms or had to face partial replacement. Regardless of the peasants’ strong rural bonds, values and attitudes, they seemed to be ‘predisposed toward integrating themselves into the city through the adoption of urban physical amenities and through social and cultural identification.’32 This process was very much dependent on the development of the settlement and the securement of the individual buildings themselves, as the formation of a safe environment allowed the gecekondu people to slowly establish new identities that resembled the ones of the urbanites. Indeed, these social adaptations were followed by the gradual propagation of secular urban values in the gecekondu areas at the time.

It has to be stressed that, rather than being a permanent dwelling solution, the gecekondu represents a housing model of constant change and became a flexible environment in which the migrant created his own place in midst the rural and the urban.33

Urban Identity

As the communal culture partly diminished, psychological and physical security was no longer provided to its full extends and therefore had to be reestablished within a new spectrum. Political frameworks became the means to achieve the reoccurrence of a safe existence as well as the reunification of the community members around social and political goals. Furthermore they enabled modes of communication through which the city villagers could express their new urban identity and hence enter the next phase of individuation, namely political identification. This process of individuation through a political culture became much grounded in the settlements as the right party choice had positive influences on the neighbourhoods’ development and physical improvement.

Partly created due to the migrant’s social change the political mobilisation was a natural response to the demands related to the welfare of the gecekondu and its incorporation into the city. Therefore the dwellers’ participation in local and national politics was determined by the neighbourhood’s economic wealth and material prosperity. The majority of demands was based on more contemporary issues, specific necessities and practical interests emerging from the individual dwelling and the neighbourhood as a whole. Just as the gecekondu residents’

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understanding of communal values was informed by the traditional rural culture, the struggle for the survival of the settlement introduced a new political culture, which allowed for dynamic interactions between the migrants and the government.

34. Kemal H. Karpat, The Gecekondu: Rural Migration and Urbanization (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 222.

35. The process of integrationurbanisation politicises many values and concepts in the migrant-squatter’s traditional culture by relating them in an active situational manner to his status and needs in the city. This chain of migration-squatterisationurbanisation, or integration-politicisation, among migrants occurs in several stages in the form of interrelated and overlapping socioeconomic processes built around marginality. E. Akarli, Political Participation in Turkey: Historical Perspectives and Present Problems, Istanbul, 1975.

22. Gazi Osmanpasa neighbourhood in Istanbul, 1960s.

23. Gazi Osmanpasa neighbourhood in Istanbul, 1990s.

24. 'Apartmentalised' gecekondu neighbourhood in Büyükcekmece, Istanbul.

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36. Preparing improvement plans and forming development parcels are prerequisites before this can happen. Therefore, improvement plans defining building permits of slum areas are prepared by the relevant municipality. The final projects are then forwarded to the relevant cadastral and land registration offices for technical control and registration. Finally, title allocation documents are changed to secure titles and given to the slum owners and squatters. Bayram Uzun et al., “Legalizing and upgrading illegal settlements in Turkey,” Habitat International, 34 (2010): 205.

Due to the rational political action within the gecekondu areas, which were driven by specifically determined demands, the gecekondu people moved away from more traditionally and communally oriented party politics and thus outvoted the Republican People’s Party in favour of the Justice Party. ‘The shift of votes in favour of the JP in the gecekondus, resulting from practical motives, indicates a trend to break from the influence of the old type of traditional leaders.’34 First and foremost this transition was enabled through the introduction of a liberal multi-party democracy, which was welcomed by a large number of gecekondu people resulting in an increasing political participation. The growing political affiliation, in turn, had a significant impact on the gecekondus’ transformation as well as on its integration. One could say that ‘Integration into the city, or urbanisation, which puts an end to marginality, has been regarded as part of a broader process of political acculturation and internalisation of urban and national values, which transforms the squatter’s personality and even the culture of the city in which he lives.’35 Examining the process of political identification within the gecekondu neighbourhoods it becomes clear that this form of action and mobilisation accelerated the procedure of integration-urbanisation by informing the existing city politics through more democratic characteristics.

Framing the Affiliated I.‘Apartmentalisation’ and the Rural Decay After the community’s constant change in regards to its social, cultural and political significance within the neighbourhood, the community-centred life was finally put to and end with the enactment of the Amnesty Laws No. 2805 and 2981 in 1984 and 1985. Instituted by the Turkish political authority it comprehended the legalisation of the gecekondu settlements. The inhabitants were asked to apply to the municipality in charge as well as to a registered surveyor and subsequently were categorised according to their status of ownership, ranging from slum, to gecekondus constructed on government-owned lands and gecekondus constructed on the lands owned by third parties. In case of approval the gecekondu owners received their title deeds. However, those documents were neither considered absolute titles nor were they acknowledged as prove of ownership, but were required for the subsequent transformation from title deeds to legally binding titles.36 Vernacular Politics

Amnesty Laws No. 2805 and 2981

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37. Umut Duyar-Kienast, The Formation of Gecekondu Settlements in Turkey: The Case of Ankara (Berlin: LIT Verlag, 2005), 2.

38. Murat C. Yalcintan and Adem E. Erbas, “Impact of ‘Gecekondu’ on the Electoral Geography of Istanbul,” International Labour and Working-Class History, 64 (2003): 91.

39. Ibid, 94.

25. Density map of the Istanbul peninsula, 2009.

26. Gecekondu built-up area (dark grey) and Legally planned built-up area (light grey) on the Istanbul peninsula, 2009.

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40. Deniz Göktürk et al., Orienting Istanbul: Cultural Capital of Europe? (New York: Routledge, 2010), 54. A report of the Chamber of Commerce of Istanbul (CCI), from 1992 emphasises the mostly neglected financial aspect of the phenomenon. According to the report, the total value of occupied land reaches 100 trillion TL if this land was legally developed and planned.

See in Akbulut, “Transformation of Perception of the Gecekondu Phenomenon,” 30.

Following the commodification of the gecekondu, which was of common practice during the 1970s, competition among neighbourhoods became a common phenomenon in which individual profit predominated communal benefits. The legislative processes of the amnesty laws allowed for an even vaster commercialisation and hence lead to the gecekondus’ typological transformation from single-family dwellings to multi-storey apartment blocks as well as to the settlement's rapid densification (Fig. 22-24). A new construction sector emerged giving rise to many small enterprises and small-scale contractors, while at the same time implying increased profits for the gecekondu owners. Besides owners and contractors, the speculators formed another group within the gecekondu market that made major benefits owing to the commercialisation of the housing typology. Thus, considering the changes of the various interest groups, it could be said that gecekondu housing became a tool for enrichment and the catalyst for the establishment of a new lower-middle and middle-class. The former gecekondu houses, which used to be built and inhabited by one owner, were being ‘apartmentalised’ and constructed by small-scale contractors while the landowners increased their property to several apartments. Gecekondu studies show that throughout this process of transformation the term ‘gecekondu’ has been adapted repeatedly to ‘apartmankondu’, which describes the informal construction of multi-storey housing blocks and, compared to the other cities, occurs much more frequently in Istanbul. It specifies ‘housing construction activities in informal areas’ as well as what one would call the ‘semi-formal, i.e. there is tenure to the land, but the construction is unauthorised, which makes it difficult to receive a title to the property.’37 Once the occupants legalised their ownership through the land deeds, the physical conditions of the apartments had been adapted and transformed according to the building standards of the lower-priced houses in Istanbul.

On this account the settlements definition changed from ‘housing with poor conditions in order to survive’ to neighbourhoods in which ‘lower-middleincome apartments predominate.’38 Besides becoming an important component of the domestic market it also gained political importance with many parties trying to legalise this housing model for their own benefits. Showing continuous growth since the 1980s, the gecekondus counted almost sixty-five percent of the entire housing stock in Istanbul by the year 2000 and hosted more than half of the city’s population (Fig. 25-26).39 Nevertheless, the initial village-like settlements decreased as a result of the enactment of a new Criminal Code in 2004, which declared the construction of gecekondus as a criminal offence and could be charged with five years of arrest. The demolition of those dwellings assumed alarming proportions addressing around 11,500 buildings in Istanbul between 2004 and 2008.40 What was left and shapes the cityscape today are the gecekondus, epitomising ‘apartmentalised’ neighbourhoods and contributing to Istanbul’s portrayal as an ocean of concrete blocks.

Vernacular Politics

From single-family dwellings to multi-storey apartments

Rural replacement through adaptation of building standards

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II. Constructing the Individual Just as the gecekondu dwellings underwent a typological transformation, the neighbourhoods at large experienced urbanisation; a totally transforming process, which has been defined by Louis Wirth as one ‘that leads to the disappearance of the neighbourhood and to the disintegration of kinship bonds, to the decline of the social significance of the family and of the traditional attachments and solidarity.’41 In short, it results in the collapse of the community, of which the former members become individualised. This transformation can be traced through the case of Okmeydani, a neighbourhood that represents one of the first gecekondu settlements in Istanbul (Fig. 27). With the majority of its territory being part of the Beyoglu Municipality, and the remaining areas covering the municipalities of Kagithane and Sisli, it is also one of the most central gecekondu areas. Being an inner-city locality it hosts around seventy-five thousand people. Due to its contiguous location at the Golden Horn and hence the former industrial area, it became a popular territory for the first generation migrants in the late 1940s and 1950s. Today it is home to both a conservative Sunni and a leftist Alevi population, which often leads to unrest and rioting resulting in the interference of the ‘Cevik Kuvet’, the police strike force.

Likewise to the other gecekondu districts, the transformation in Okmeydani did not create a readable environment but, due to its fragmented and piece-meal construction process, with contractors transforming only one to three buildings at a time, it created a haphazard urban fabric. The initial irregular blocks with building arrangements along their edges and empty inner parts soon evolved into completely densified islands in which the ‘inner parts of these concentrations become denser and a new subdivision attempt is observed (Fig. 28).’42 Its outcome characterises a neighbourhood that consists of a conglomeration of individual households.

41. Kemal H. Karpat, The Gecekondu: Rural Migration and Urbanization (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 30.

27. Plan of the Golden Horn indicating the district of Okmeydani.

28. Plan of Okmeydani, Istanbul.

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42. Tansi Senyapili, “On Physical Aspects of Squatters in Turkey,” O.D.T.Ü. Mimarlik Fakültesi Dergisi, 7 (1986): 159.

43. See the Nomination Project “Gecekondus: Various Cities in Turkey”, (Ankara: Aga Kahn Award, ongoing), 4.

This also becomes visible when looking at the scale of the individual apartment block, where one can see that the internal spaces are constructed by each individual household according to their own needs. The spatial arrangement relates to the one found within initial gecekondu dwelling, as the individual rooms are accessed through a communal room, characterising the centre of the household (Fig. 29). Although the multi-storey buildings are better constructed than their predecessor, they lose the ‘initial qualities of flexibility, relation of form and pattern to rural settlements, adaptability to different family sizes, to maintain a high level of communal life.’43 As the neighbourhoods become individualised, the domestic life is based around the family. The household becomes a private domain and loses all its aspects of communal life, which is further highlighted through to the lack of the ‘reception room’ found in the later stages of the ‘rural’ gecekondu house.

Vernacular Politics

Inner-City Gecekondu

Individual Households

Façade as projection of individualisation

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The process of individualisation, not only on the scale of the apartment block but rather on the individual household, becomes also very visible through the façade and the buildings physical appearance. Whereas the main structure, which consists of a concrete frame construction, is provided in the majority of cases, the infill is individually constructed by each apartment owner (Fig. 30-31). Therefore the material use can vary on each floor and is determined by the inhabitant’s available means. The individual subsistence from within the building is hereby projected onto the façade. As for the construction, the main building materials are cement, sand and brick of which all have their main resources within the larger region of Istanbul (Fig.32). Büyükcekmece is the major resource for all cement supplies, Agacli provides the biggest amount of sand whereas the brick supply is covered by the three municipalities of Isiklar, Kemerburgaz and Bagcilar.44 Whereas the provision of the primary building materials is dependent on ‘external’ economic relations, that is to say other municipalities, the secondary ones are relying on internal conditions, as carpentry work and glass manufacture are carried out in workshops within the neighbourhood itself.

III. Mobilising the Ordinary Throughout a process of socio-economic change, within the transition from the rural toward the urban, the gecekondus typological transformation resulted in the loss of communality and hence in the increasing need for affiliation elsewhere. The repeated uprootedness of the populace has strategically been answered by the government through the propagation of traditional Islamic community values as well as of common roots and origins. Although the traditional values of this political act previously existed, the way in which they have been applied, as means of power, in order to mobilise these people did not.

This relates back to the creation of heterogeneous neighbourhoods of different cultures and origins. The uncontrolled dispersal of the former kinship-oriented gecekondu communities during the process of ‘apartmentalisation’ acted as the main catalyst for their emergence. As this new population, forming the second generation of rural migrants into the city of Istanbul, was confronted with existential problems, familiar cultural and traditional values helped to form a new understanding of solidarity. The collective community life based on mutual help was replaced by the population’s individual belongingness in a much larger communal framework and hence allowing the gecekondu people to become a political force.

29. Individualised floor plans of the 'apartmentalised' gecekondu buildings in Okmeydani, Istanbul.

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44. The information was given on my site visit in Okmeydani (November, 2014) during an interview with a local material distributor.

During the 1990s and at the beginning of the twenty-first century, the mobilisation of the gecekondu population was driven by the occurring Islamist movement. Resting upon strong community values, or at least aiming to convey Vernacular Politics

Islamist Movement

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them, this process enabled the political participation, on a national level, of a large group of people with different origins. The term ‘Islamist movement’ in this context has been used to describe ‘a general mobilisation of people around cultural, political, and social issues that are presented and interpreted through an Islamic idiom. Like any loosely drawn movement, it aims to unify people around a shared ideology and social and political goals. Islam is the central idiom to which all participants appeal.’45 Although one would assume that the driving forces of this movement are political or religious ideologies, the real mobilisation powers lie within the importance of local culture and interpersonal relations and help to form new understandings of community and belongingness. However, these rather idealised values are accompanied by the gecekondu people’s existential fear and their striving for economic betterment.

As it is of common knowledge, ‘ordinary people think with things’ and thus the foundations have been laid for ‘practices that have been labelled ‘Islam’, ‘politics’, and ‘civil society’ as they are interwoven with the material conditions governing the lives of ordinary people under very concrete circumstances in Istanbul.’46

45. Jenny White, Islamist Mobilization: A Study in Vernacular Politics (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2002), 6.

46. As Robert Darnton (1984, 4) famously put it. Ibid, 7.

30+ 31. The façade representing individual households, Okmeydani 2014 32. Sources of onstruction materials for Okmeydani, Istanbul.

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47. The mobilised people were expected to act within what they called ‘cells’ (hücreler)… A cell consists people who share an intimate history of trust… clusters of cells easily constitute a mass movement. These cells may be mobilised around a shared ideological focus within a social movement. Going from door to door, the AKP partisans generate intimate relationships with individual households and offer help to those who are financially instable. Ibid, 21.

Just as religious traditions, communal values and economic needs define the daily life of the ordinary populace, they also become embedded within the institutional framework on a national basis and within party politics. The Islam oriented Justice and Development Party as well as its progenitors, the Welfare and Virtue Party, used local participatory politics as a powerful tool in order to mobilise large numbers of the gecekondu people. One of the party’s major advantages was its ability to appeal to various groups with different backgrounds and to intervene into local community networks. This move was only made possible due to the Party’s intimate appearance towards these communities. Through interpersonal relations and the forwarded feelings of reciprocity, the ruling power is able to gain trust and regard in the gecekondu areas and thereupon manages to not only mobilise the settlement as a whole but also individuals directly (Fig. 33).47 Furthermore they conduct various ‘good deeds’, including marriage counselling, participation in charitable institutions and the organisation of demonstrations in favour of religious liberty.

All of these acts started to heavily inform the political as well as ideological understanding of party politics, not only on a local but also on the national level.

The ultimate effect of this political process at the national level encompasses the empowerment of the conservative, Islam oriented ruling party through its populist image, common vernacular and in general its personification as people ‘just like us’.

'Intimate' Politics

Whereas the individualised is no longer perceived as a beneficial element for the political governance, the creation of a new class based on interpersonal relations, reciprocity and traditional Islamic community values became a necessary component for the increasing political power of the Justice and

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Development Party, the AKP. Going back to the roots of the gecekondu population, that is to say their village origins, the party uses communal values based on kinship and family relations found within the rural culture and implements them into their spread ideology of neighbourliness, which was further consolidated by correlating it to religious doctrine. The neighbourhoods became important political mobilisation sites and can be associated with Islamoriented parties since the 1990s. However, it is important to stress that the tendency towards conservative parties did not always exist. In 1989, after the gecekondu neighbourhoods became recognised municipalities, they attended in the elections for the first time and voted the social democratic people’s party.

Although the people did not fully benefit from social policies they considered themselves as the working class and therefore possessed leftist tendencies.

The political interdependence of the gecekondu population and the government resulted in the establishment of political organisations in these neighbourhoods even before the introduction of urban culture and economy.

As gecekondu areas expanded and reached a point in which their population constituted the majority in Istanbul, they started to magnificently inform local elections and hence were integrated in urban policies. To this effect it can be argued that the present dominance of the Islamic Political Party in those neighbourhoods reflects an intentional and strategically planned process that directly relates to the social and economic framework of the gecekondu.

From Construction to Destruction I. Towards a Neoliberal Housing Market

33. Gecekondu visits of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

34. A gecekondu district framed by mass housing construction, Kagithane.

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Until the beginning of the twenty-first century, the lack of cheap housing provision in Istanbul encouraged the legalisation of unauthorised land occupation and the construction of gecekondu buildings, both the former detached dwellings and the present multi-storey apartment blocks. The private as well as the public sector supported and tolerated this housing model due to its provision of cheap labour and political loyalty. Evolved through multiple building amnesties and various law enactments, the gecekondu became the framework for a populist coalition between economic and political powers and the working class population in search for an affordable living. However, this populist regime came to a halt with the aspired commodification of land as part of the construction of a neoliberal state and housing market (Fig. 34).

Newly emerging actors such as real-estate investors, developers and powerful state institutions started to dominate the housing market. Guided by the Justice and Development Party, and in particular the President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Vernacular Politics

Privatisation Process, TOKI

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Erdogan, major neoliberalisation programmes aim to introduce Istanbul’s growing capitalist market into the larger sphere of socio-economic life.

areas, appropriated state-owned regions, districts endangered by disaster risks, and deteriorated historic and cultural heritage sites. Depending on the type of settlement, the applied process of transformation can range from demolition and reconstruction in the same location to demolition, upgrading and reconstruction in a different area with the legal owners being relocated.50 The following section of Habitat International on the legalisation and upgrading of illegal settlements in Turkey further indicates the method of transformation: ‘In both models, local authorities determine the illegal settlement area where the upgrading project is going to be implemented, and they place an application to TOKI. The slum owners proving their ownerships in the project area earn the rights of having house/houses based on the value of their real estate and costs of the project.’51 In the case of disagreement between the Mass Housing Administration and the owners, the public sector entity is entitled to expropriate the property. Given these tremendous executive powers TOKI is striving for the accomplishment of two major goals, that is to say the establishment of a ‘formal’ housing market for the lower and lower-middle class as well as the commodification of public land.

In the fore of this process, which is driven by newly empowered municipalities, was the privatisation of public land. This has been enabled through the founding of a gigantic public enterprise in the construction sector, namely TOKI, and the Turkish Privatisation Agency called OIB. The former has been restructured by the ruling party and has been given the key function in constructing a neoliberal regime. TOKI, Turkey’s Mass Housing Administration, plays a major role in the city’s housing sector by providing social housing for the lower-middle and middle class, which is not to be mistaken for affordable housing. Following the implementation of multiple reforms during the period from 2002 until 2008, the Mass Housing Administration gained the rights to manage the zoning and the privatisation of public land. This resulted in the construction of profit oriented housing on state-owned urban land, by either the administration’s own companies or through a public-private cooperation, and hence became a perpetual source of income to build housing for the lower class.48 Furthermore TOKI has been given powers to undertake urban transformation projects, mainly focusing on the gentrification of unauthorised settlements and urbanised gecekondu neighbourhoods. Completely absorbed by the promising rewards of a capitalist state, the political forces no longer respond to their social commitments but pay their attention to the new real estate market. Accordingly, Istanbul’s development today and throughout the last decade has been shaped through the final commodification of land.

50. In case of demolition and reconstruction in the same location the houses were being allocated to the legal owners.

Bayram Uzun et al., “Legalizing and upgrading illegal settlements in Turkey,” Habitat International, 34 (2010): 207.

II. Urban Transformation and the Earthquake Policy Although the urban transformation projects assigned by TOKI seem to have positive intentions at first sight, the unravelling reality depicts a different image.

Throughout the last decade ‘policies and planning have sought to re-regulate land that was already ceded to the squatters, attempting to create a ‘lawful’ city out of the chaotic string of villages whose agglomeration Istanbul has become.’49 The municipalities started to demolish illegal settlements that resemble the very first stages of the self-built, rural oriented gecekondus, while their occupants are relocated to cheap apartment blocks provided by TOKI. Urban Renewal Processes

Whereas during this period only the village-like gecekondus where threatened by demolition, from 2005 onwards, with the enactment of the Municipality Law, any derelict and ‘unsafe’ neighbourhoods in Istanbul became subject to transformation. These renewal projects included the demolition and subsequent reconstruction of the targeted areas and, such as in the urban villages, the authorised owners were moved into mass housing. The law for the upgrading of derelict quarters mainly addresses generally unplanned and problematic Lara Yegenoglu

48. Its budget is designated in cooperation with the Prime Ministry and the Ministry of Finance.

Most of its nearly 160 million m2 of land (as of 2007) has been transferred from the Treasury and from other public institutions, while the rest has been purchased at a preferential price or expropriated. Bayram Uzun et al., “Legalizing and upgrading illegal settlements in Turkey,” Habitat International, 34 (2010): 207.

49. Deniz Göktürk et al., Orienting Istanbul: Cultural Capital of Europe? (New York: Routledge, 2010), 30.

51. TOKI carries out feasibility analysis and design of the project, and then a commission is formed between TOKI and the local authority to determine the right holders and the real estate values. The slum owners sign contracts with TOKI, and declare that they pay the difference between the values of the newly constructed house and the slum in a 15 year-period. Ibid.

Although renewal projects are implemented in various settlement types in Istanbul, the urbanised gecekondu neighbourhoods account for the majority of transformation zones. As these areas are generally located within short distance to the city centre, yet their building stock is of relatively poor physical condition, they became particularly attractive for redevelopment. However these declarations would not have fully justified the implementation of transformation projects and therefore had to be supported by legislative processes, which emerged in the form of Law No. 6306 for the ‘Regeneration of Areas under Disaster Risk.’52 The enactment of this so called ‘earthquake legislation’ empowered the appropriate municipalities by giving them the right to destruct gecekondu apartments found within the territories that have been determined as zones threatened by earthquake risk. Within proximate time around 85,000 gecekondu buildings were designated for demolition and their occupants forced to relocation.53

52. “Faolex: The legislative database of FAO Legal Office”, accessed December 6, 2014, http:// faolex.fao.org 53. One of the largest areas designated for urban transformation at present is Okmeydani.

The renewal project and overambitious master plan aims to gentrify the area and transform it into an upper-middle class district that should turn into the ‘Champs Elysees of Istanbul’ as Beyoğlu Municipality Mayor A. M. Demircan announced.

Vernacular Politics

Disaster Risk, Law No. 6306

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Conclusion Although Istanbul was striving towards its recognition as a global city and the establishment of a neoliberal state since the 1980s, the issue of urban transformation is a recent phenomenon. Examining the present condition of gecekondu areas in midst this battlefield of regeneration and gentrification, it can be argued that this housing model became an institutional apparatus whose raison d’etre was the establishment of a new conservative, devoting class rather than the material betterment and physical development of the gecekondu typology itself. The transformation from communal settlements to individualised, fragmented neighbourhoods resulted in the individuation shift from a rural nationalist to an Islamist political collective identity among the gecekondu people. Whereas this housing type foremost became a state-led project for the creation of a religious-conservative, affiliated class, at present it reflects an antithesis of construction and destruction. In other words, it is exactly this sense of affiliation and belongingness, of the gecekondu populace towards the ruling party and hence the government, that forms political power instruments enabling an unopposed urban transformation and regeneration of this typology. At the heart of this process lies the state government’s thorough establishment of what one might call ‘vernacular politics’, a value-driven political process grounded in traditional culture, communal identity, and ‘intimate’ relations, whilst being initiated through populist organisations as well as local and national party politics. In short, it exemplifies a concept that merges political ideologies with cultural, religious and local values.

Over a period of two generations the rural populace found itself within an urbanised environment, living in secluded, individualised apartments, however, their original culture and traditions still remain to a large extend. During the period of an uncontrolled typological transformation it was the ruling power, who managed to address these values through religious perspectives while offering a place of belonging and social affiliation for the once more uprooted populace. On this note it has to be questioned whether a more intentional process of the gecekondu’s typological transformation could allow for the return of a community-centred populace. Moving away from the existing fragmented construction towards the development of the neighbourhood as a whole, by implementing specific urban forms that reintroduce a more communal inhabitation might be an attempt for the destruction of the institutionally ‘fabricated’ class.

35. A view inside, Okmeydani, 2014.

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