Stay of Execution on Okmeydanı Reconstruction Plans
The court issued a stay of execution of the 1/1000 and 1/5000 reconstruction plans encompassing Okmeydanı neighborhood, an official risk area and long-time combatant of urban transformation.
Neighborhood dwellers had previously secured an injunction in 1997 against the reconstruction plans prepared while current PM Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was mayor.
In 2013, then Republican People’s Party (CHP) parliamentary members Halil Özer and Ali Rıza Yakupoğlu had launched a case to secure an injunction against the plans.
Attorney Ali Rıza Kaplan spoke to bianet and confirmed that İstanbul 6th Administrative Court’s motion for stay of execution had already gone to the National Judiciary Informatics System (UYAP), but not yet been officially declared to the parties.
Okmeydanı Environmental Association members also filed separate cases against the reconstruction plans, which are still ongoing.
Declared a risk area
Okmeydanı has been living under the threat of destruction for many years. The urban transformation project prepared by Beyoğlu Municipality had increased concerns in the neighborhood.
What is more, when the Beyoğlu Municipal Parliament declared the neighborhood a risk area within the scope of disaster law no. 6306 on June 2, concerns rose significantly.
Contesting the municipality’s risk area ruling, CHP's only construction commission member İrfan Karakuş had stated that the court had not shown any scientific reports on the neighborhood’s earthquake risk.
The risky decision concerns 5,500 buildings, or 24,000 independent units that fall into the alleged risk area in Okmeydanı’s Fetihtepe, Kaptanpaşa, Keçecipiri, Piripaşa and Piyalepaşa neighborhoods. The area houses a total of 82,000 people.
Neighborhood residents struggling for years to obtain title deeds are afraid of being kicked out of their homes in the process of urban transformation. Consequently, they want the municipality to sign a covenant protecting their legal rights; however, the municipality insists on not signing it. (NV/PU)
How was the neighborhood formed?According to its residents, economically motivated immigration from all over Turkey to Okmeydanı began in the 1950's, when the area consisted solely of fields and mulberry growths. Neighborhood dwellers explicitly bought the fields and built “clandestine” housing. The municipality gradually provided the neighborhoods with roads, water, electricity, and other infrastructure services, and started collecting taxes. Politicians promised them title deeds in exchange for votes before every election. Residents prepared their files on 1983, and acquired deed allocation documents, which would later turn to deeds, by paying Ziraat Bank 2,000 TL. While 30 years have since gone by, neighborhood residents have yet to receive their deeds. In the meantime, immigration into the neighborhood goes on; numerous people from the eastern and southeastern regions continue to settle in the neighborhood, especially following 1990, due to "mandatory immigration." With its garment workshops, grocery stores, hair salons, the neighborhood has set up a system. Most locals get by on minimum wage or retirement allowance. |