The Romani neighborhood ignored by the state: Sarıgöl
A Romani neighborhood in Gaziosmanpaşa, Sarıgöl. The neighborhood, which was introduced to urban transformation in 2006, has been declared a risky area and is now facing demolition... The high-rise buildings surrounding it threaten the lives of the people.
Urban Transformation has come so close to us... It has become difficult for the poor to live and even survive. While this situation is evident in many neighborhoods, I have met a new urban transformation neighborhood.
As someone who has been pursuing these issues for years, I was embarrassed to be new to that neighborhood! Yes, Sarıgöl neighborhood in Gaziosmanpaşa... Within the scope of the Rodimata Project carried out by the Zero Discrimination Association, we got on the public transportation vehicle 55T from Taksim with academics and lawyers and got off at the last stop, Gaziosmanpaşa... Uncle Şadi came to greet us with his skullcap, robe and beard.
We entered the Sarıgöl neighborhood by passing through the crowds… This is a Romani neighborhood that met with urban transformation in 2006. A road separates this neighborhood from Gaziosmanpaşa… Uncle Şadi points to the tall buildings surrounding the neighborhood and says, “They surround us and want us to leave here, where are we going to go?”
Then Uncle Şadi, aged 65, explains how the neighborhood was founded…
THEY WILL DEMOLISH OUR 80-YEAR-OLD NEIGHBORHOOD
“They came from various parts of Beyazıt in 1950… This was a military base. It was opened to settlement by Menderes in those years. Look at the IDs of the people living here, most of them say Eminönü-Beyazıt… Those who came there with the exchange… We are the first neighborhood. They are demolishing a 70-80-year-old neighborhood…”
As we delve into the neighborhood, sorrowful faces hang at the top of the stairs… We are perceived as tourists in our own city; how sad! With the weight of not being able to see and hear, I ask Uncle Şadi, this place is registered, what justification did you give?
The answer is the same as what happened in other urban transformation neighborhoods!
“They said it was a shantytown, we filed a lawsuit, then they said renovation, finally they declared it a risky area… “
While saying these words, we pass in front of the newly built construction site, there are tall buildings 50 meters away, Uncle Şadi, with his hand, there are these buildings, there is no risk there, here is risky.. Think about the rest…”
WE SUFFERED A LOT, HOW CAN I EXPLAIN
Everything was so strange, the neighborhood of 800 households is surrounded by construction sites, cranes, and piles of rubble… They say that a country’s own state can only oppress its people like this, construction with no security continues right next to the neighborhood, they have piled the rubble of the construction on top of the neighborhood, it is almost dangerous, but in the end, no one sees or hears these!
We continue to walk around the neighborhood with Uncle Şadi… “Our state does not feel this pain…” he says and adds: The AK Party mayor promised us, he said we will give you a house, we will not victimize anyone… 300 people left here, but they regretted it because they can neither pay the rent nor live… “
Sarıgöl was bought by 6 companies, but the project is being carried out through Acarlar.
Uncle Şadi is a little more angry, “We suffered a lot, how can I explain it, now they are telling us that we will put you in housing estates, with pools etc… Now when you look at our clothes, you will understand that we are poor, then is this state making fun of us, is this transformation? No, our lives will not change, they will become even poorer and take our lives away from us… This is a profiteering transformation…”
THIS SLUMP IS OUR MANSION
Uncle Şadi fought hard for those who left, I told him many times, this is your mansion, I will never leave it, but the municipality managed to deceive the people with persuasion chambers…
This is what upsets Uncle Şadi the most… The destruction of these neighborly relations they established in 80 years. “We can live here without money, but can we live in that site? He says…”
We enter the neighborhood mosque, they have arranged for guests, the neighborhood and we all sit together and continue our conversation…
Halil İbrahim Aslan is disabled… His anger is great; All of the people living here are poor people. They all live in houses inherited from their mothers and fathers. These houses are being taken by the municipality, they are forcibly taking this place away from us. They say you will have to give it up, they pay 30-40 billion for the houses and then kick us out. Here is a large family, if each of them gets a share, we get around 10 thousand... Where will you go with this money, I can’t go…”
Women are also uncomfortable… They have fallen into uncertainty…
THE POOR ARE AGAINST THE CAPITALIST SYSTEM
Let’s summarize all these conversations, life, the poverty we witness and of course the urban transformation that surrounds life with a few sentences by Korhan Gümüş: The profit margin is high, you are not serving capitalism, in the same way, there is a logic here that ignores the fact that they have no interest in money and therefore the poor have a weak ability to represent, and they lose because of this. Because this life is against the capitalist system!
Gülşen İşeri
22.06.2014
