Gaziosmanpaşa-Sarıgöl Neighborhood Field Visit

On Wednesday, June 18, we made a field visit to the Sarıgöl neighborhood of Gaziosmanpaşa with a group of 30 people including representatives of civil society organizations, academics, lawyers and members of the press to examine the social dimension of urban transformation.

We are sharing the observations about the neighborhood with you from the pen of Korhan Gümüş, an architect-activist and member of the Rodimata Project Advisory Board.

The administrators want to demolish the neighborhood because it is a Romani neighborhood, this is very clear. What does the declaration of a “risky area” indicate? Many things. But mostly the helplessness of poor people.

No research has been done in the neighborhood to date. However, on one side, there are professional people who can make a living. First and foremost, musicians who go to weddings, bars and taverns. There is a coffeehouse on the main street right next to the neighborhood that provides saz sets to those who are looking for them. Those who work in shoe and slipper manufacturing find work in nearby workshops. There are also retirees, housewives and young people who cannot find work in the neighborhood. They seem to be happy with their situation. Their only problem is “urban transformation.”

It has been declared a “risky area” but (as far as I can see) there is no danger in the neighborhood due to earthquakes. However, there may be risks in high-rise buildings without a project outside the neighborhood that have not been declared a risky area.

On the other hand, the “risky area” has not been declared, it has been created by management practices. For example, on the sloped land above the one-and-a-half-story (with attics) houses in the valley of the neighborhood, an excavation soil dozens of stories high has been piled up, ready to slide at any moment. When viewed from the front, it says “an accident is coming”. If you say there is a risk of death, this pile was made for this very reason, to scare the people. But that was not enough. The municipality immediately demolished the houses it bought and left the debris in the middle, making the neighborhood, which was “normally” risk-free, dangerous. People live among the debris. The debris spills onto the roads. In addition, it has mixed with the garbage that has accumulated in the middle since it has not been collected.

It is understood that a kind of natural life has sprouted in the neighborhood against this trend, formed by solidarity, cooperation and voluntary work. After wandering the streets, we gathered at a mosque that remained on the lower edge of the excavation pile. The mosque was built by the locals themselves. The interior is covered with carpets. The entrance, the shelves where shoes are taken off, the service areas, namely the toilets, the ceramic-covered wet area where ablution is performed, everywhere is spotlessly clean. It is constantly maintained.

On one side, the administration that wants to make the neighborhood risky, on the other side, the people who want to protect life here, who are in solidarity and who are living a different experience. Despite their poverty, they are striving to create a virtuous life and a livable environment. However, high concrete blocks are rising right at the bottom of the neighborhood. Construction machines are working hard.

The contradiction between the different worlds on both sides of the road is striking. The gap between the rich who will settle in this new site and the neighborhood gives an idea of ​​the future. These poor people are expected to leave their neighborhoods. In the meantime, there is an attempt to evaluate the land more than tenfold. The neighborhood is offered one-tenth of the price that will emerge as a result of the appreciation of this land in return for their title deed. In the words of Şadi Çatı, a volunteer in the neighborhood who is called “hacı” (pilgrim), “instead of giving us bread, they have their eyes on our bread.”

This is what creates the gap between people who have lived in the neighborhood for sixty years and want to preserve their memories and the capital that is trying to erase them.