How many more crazy projects does Istanbul need?

Istanbul has been under attacks of gentrification and transformation for the last couple years with an ever increasing intensity. I call it “attacks” on purpose since it is very rarely that these processes develop organically with the population of Istanbul. They are mostly imposed from above by the authorities without appealing much to the public opinion.

Just recently, Istanbul Haydarpaşa Terminal that has been a major intercity rail station and transportation hub on the Asian side of Istanbul since its opening in 1872, has been closed down in spite of public protests, due to the new fast train project under process. The building which had been placed on its 2012 Watch by the World Monuments Fund in 2011, had already suffered a fire in 2010 when there was carelessness during the restoration project, and this final decision by the authorities to close it to transportation for two years (if what they claim is true!) as of January 31st draws even more attention to the historical train station’s uncertain future.    

Last train departing from Haydarpaşa Train Station on January 31st, 2012.  

The new "model" for the transformation of Taksim Square

Last September the Istanbul City Council approved the new transformation project for Taksim Square which involves the re-construction of the Artillery Barracks built in 1780 and destroyed in 1940 for the construction of a park, as well as building a new mosque on the square. Following the ban on outdoor seating of restaurants, bars and cafes in Beyoğlu, imposing such a transformation without a real project but only with a proposed model, confirms that the public opinion about a public space whose identity has taken years to develop with the surrounding residents and shopkeepers, matters only very little to the authorities. Places such as Taksim Square and Beyoğlu are “public” spaces and they belong to the public as the definition makes clear. It takes years to build up an identity for a public space that grows organically with the public without necessarily resorting nostalgically to the past or in uncertainty to the future; and it takes only seconds and indifferent authorities to destroy it!

Taksim Meydanı Projesi from Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi on Vimeo.

The transformation of a public square into a big shopping mall

There have been claims and statements that the new mosque to be built as the square gets transformed will be accompanied by museums of various religions celebrating the multiplicity of Istanbul, that the square will be closed down to traffic making it more accessible to pedestrians, yet one needs only to be blind in order not to see that the new “model” proposes a concrete jungle in a city whose already getting more and more concrete-fied. While it takes the traffic underground for the better, it at the same time undermines the character of Taksim Square as it is, for the worse. Even then, it is contestable whether an underground traffic will benefit more the pedestrians or the cars, or if it will rather create an uncanny underworld. The already-not-enough trees in the square and the adjacent park are soon to be murdered as they are marked by red paint for their crime of bestowing an identity to the Taksim Square as it is. There is strong opposition to the new “project”, reflecting fears that it will transform the square into a big shopping mall and this fear resonates in the minds and hearts of many of us. Therefore Taksim Platform is organizing a protest in Taksim on Febraury 12^th and the public hopes that their voice will resonate also in the ears of the authorities.