Renters, property owners in Istanbul district apply to UNESCO

ISTANBUL - Daily News with wires | 8/15/2010 12:00:00 AM |

“We applied to UNESCO to stop the demolition of our historical buildings,” said Barış Kaşka, the lawyer for the Association for Solidarity with Tarlabaşı Property Owners and Renters, the Anatolia news agency reported last week.

Kaşka noted that the Beyoğlu Municipality will demolish 209 historical buildings due to the project within the framework of Law 5366 on the “Preservation by Renovation and Utilization by Revitalization of Deteriorated Immovable Historical and Cultural Properties.”

Kaşka expressed his concern that the municipality aims to build shopping malls and hotels instead of these historical buildings which have unique Levantine architecture style.

“Renters and property owners will suffer because of the eviction,” said Kaşka, adding that it is sad because this demolition is occurring during the year of İstanbul 2010 Capital of Culture.

Kaşka said they have been informed that demolition will start soon for some of the buildings of property owners who have already reached an agreement with the holding company.

Renters and property owners in Istanbul’s Tarlabaşı neighborhood have applied to UNESCO to stop the possible demolition of houses due to the 'Tarlabaşı Renewal Project' led by the Beyoğlu Municipality.

An association of renters and property owners in Istanbul’s Tarlabaşı neighborhood has applied to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO, in an attempt to stop the possible demolition of houses due to the “Tarlabaşı Renewal Project” led by the Beyoğlu Municipality.

“We applied to UNESCO to stop the demolition of our historical buildings,” said Barış Kaşka, the lawyer for the Association for Solidarity with Tarlabaşı Property Owners and Renters, the Anatolia news agency reported last week.

Kaşka noted that the Beyoğlu Municipality will demolish 209 historical buildings due to the project within the framework of Law 5366 on the “Preservation by Renovation and Utilization by Revitalization of Deteriorated Immovable Historical and Cultural Properties.”

Kaşka expressed his concern that the municipality aims to build shopping malls and hotels instead of these historical buildings which have unique Levantine architecture style.

“Renters and property owners will suffer because of the eviction,” said Kaşka, adding that it is sad because this demolition is occurring during the year of İstanbul 2010 Capital of Culture.

Kaşka said they have been informed that demolition will start soon for some of the buildings of property owners who have already reached an agreement with the holding company.

Beyoğlu’s Mayor Ahmet Misbah Demircan previously said some 70 percent of the property owners had reached an agreement with the holding company and added that the rest had opened lawsuits against the project but the lawsuits failed.

“For those who do not want to agree, there will be expropriation within the framework of the unity of the project. But they still have a chance to sign the agreement,” said Demircan.

He said property owners have two options. One is to receive the value of their buildings and the other is to give shares of their property rights to investors in exchange for the renovation of their buildings. He said a majority of property owners have agreed to retain ownership of a business space or apartment from the project.

Demircan also said renters in Tarlabaşı were offered ownership of a Housing Development Administration of Turkey, or TOKİ, apartment in the Kayabaşı neighborhood with a 5 percent cash down payment. However, some renters had previously told the Daily News that they could not afford these cash payments.

“We applied to UNESCO regarding its mission of protecting world heritage and controlling other members. We presented a file which includes academics and researchers’ opinions examining the renewal projects,” said Kaşka adding that this file also includes the opinions of architects who resist this project and some theses which show the historical importance of the district.

Kaşka explained that there is a need for society-based transformation in Tarlabaşı and said demolition will not provide that aspect of the issue. “A society-based transformation must include helping to enhance the quality of life and educating locals, who have different cultural values and perceptions,” said Kaşka.

The “Tarlabaşı Renewal Project” started in the central Istanbul neighborhood in 2007, when its tender was given to Çalık Holding's GAP Construction Company. Ahmet Gün, head of the association, first submitted a file to the European Court of Human Rights, or ECtHR, against the renewal project.

Berhan Şimşek, the Istanbul chairman of the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, criticized the Tarlabaşı Renewal Project for not being transparent and said that is it being done for the money only, speaking at a press conference last week.

Şimşek said, “The project is being done without consulting the opinions of property owners, universities or trade bodies.” Şimşek also criticized the GAP Construction Firm’s, led by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s son-in-law, role in the project.

Eviction Fears Grow. Tarlabasi. İstanbul

Baris Kaska, a lawyer representing about 100 plaintiffs in court cases against the city’s Tarlabaşı reconstruction project, calls the situation “a humanitarian drama.” Nobody is against the building renovations, Kaşka elaborated, “[b]ut my clients want to be part of [the] new project; they want to continue living in their neighborhood. [The municipality] cannot simply uproot all these people from a place they have lived in for at least 15 years.”

EURASIANET .ORG

The June 12 election triumph of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party not only signaled a political change. It also heralded the start of evictions within the central, working-class Istanbul neighborhood of Tarlabaşı to make way for an ambitious municipal government project to beautify the city.

The sight of the near-daily evictions leaves many of the Tarlabaşı residents who will not or cannot move -- for financial or other reasons -- feeling as if they are teetering on the edge of a precipice.

Standing outside a local courthouse, 40-year-old Tarlabaşı resident Bahattin Argis vented his anger at city officials for the helter-skelter nature of the evictions. “I am living in absolute uncertainty,” Argis fumed. “Despite being a house owner, I face the possibility of being thrown out of my own house at any moment!”

The Beyoğlu municipality that contains Tarlabaşı reportedly claims imminent domain over buildings slotted for destruction, even though the confiscated property is being sold to a private contractor. A spokesperson for the Beyoğlu municipality could not respond to questions from EurasiaNet.org about the eviction procedure in time for publication.

Argis, though, is not alone with his worries. Mine Erel, who bought the building where she has lived since 1977, worries about the safety of living in a semi-demolished neighborhood. “The municipality has evicted all the tenants in the neighboring houses. The house next to mine is in a state of total disrepair. What if there is a fire? What if the building comes crashing down?”

Bariş Kaşka, a lawyer representing about 100 plaintiffs in court cases against the city’s Tarlabaşı reconstruction project, calls the situation “a humanitarian drama.” Nobody is against the building renovations, Kaşka elaborated, “[b]ut my clients want to be part of [the] new project; they want to continue living in their neighborhood. [The municipality] cannot simply uproot all these people from a place they have lived in for at least 15 years.”

In a July 18 press release, human rights watchdog Amnesty International urged the municipality to stop the neighborhood’s forced evictions.

“The forced evictions disproportionally affect those groups most in need of protection; the urban renewal project violates the rights of these groups while it should respect and protect them,” specified Amnesty International’s Turkey researcher Andrew Gardner.

Transgender women are among those groups with few alternative options for housing. As is the case with refugees, Roma or Kurdish Internally Displaced Persons, Tarlabaşı is often the only place in the city where they can find a landlord willing to rent a flat to them, and at an affordable rent.

In a July 20 NTV Turkey television show, Beyoğlu Mayor Ahmet Demircan responded that Amnesty’s allegations about the evictions are “not true.”

Nonetheless, the allegations continue.

Kadriye Sert, a 60-year-old Tarlabaşı resident of 20 years, alleges that the municipality pressured her husband, Mehmet, to sign over their apartment to the government’s project partner, developer GAP Inşaat. Promises of a nicer flat in a new apartment block also were made, she claimed.

Sert’s husband agreed to the deal without having read the contract. “Only later did we realize what my husband agreed to -- we were all deeply shocked,” Sert said.

In exchange for the couple’s spacious 160-square-meter flat, the GAP Inşaat offered the Sert family a 40-square-meter apartment inside the project area – for the additional price of 68,000 lira (about $39,059), to be paid in cash once the Tarlabaşı reconstruction project is finished. “We live on a modest pension,” fumed Sert. “We could never afford to pay such a sum! This basically means that we gave up our flat for free.”

GAP Inşaat representatives were not available for comment.

Kadriye Sert recounts that city police came to the Serts’ flat and demanded that they leave immediately. “I started to cry and begged them to give me a few more days,” Sert recounted.

Monthly rents in parts of Tarlabaşı not affected by the reconstruction project have doubled since the evictions began; “from 300 lira (about $172.43) to at least 600 lira ($344.86),” she added.

The retired couple now lives out of a few plastic bags while their new apartment -- a small flat in disrepair they found with the help of a former neighbor -- is being painted. The flat’s 500-lira (about $289) rent consumes almost all of the Serts’ monthly income of 600 liras ($347.26).

“I am tired of crying,” Sert sighed. “But when I look around my old flat, remember all the nice memories and all the work we put in it, I cannot hold back my tears.”

The Gurdian

Turkey murders suspect faces bone marrow test

 

Court orders Recep Cetin, accused of murdering two Northern Ireland women, to take test to resolve age dispute

A Turkish court has ruled that a man accused of murdering two Northern Ireland women must take a bone marrow test to determine his age.

Recep Cetin is suspected of killing Marion Graham and Kathy Dinsmore in Turkey during the summer. Cetin claims he is 17 and should be tried in a youth court.

But the families of the victims and their MPs for South Down and Newry and Armagh insist the suspect is older and should be tried in an adult court.

If it is established that Cetin is over 18 he would face a much tougher sentence if convicted.

Cetin was the boyfriend of Shannon Graham, Marion Graham's 15-year-old daughter. Shannon Graham gave evidence during the hearing in the Turkish city of Izmir.

The victims' families allege Cetin stabbed Marion Graham and her friend after becoming enraged over their attempts to stop him seeing Shannon. The two women were stabbed to death in a forest near Izmir in August.

Turkish murder accused Recep Cetin is 22 not 17

Bone tests have revealed that the waiter accused of killing two Northern Ireland women in Turkey is five years older than he claimed.

Recep Cetin is thought to be 22 years old, not 17 as he told police.

Marion Graham and Kathy Dinsmore died last August. It means that Mr Cetin will now be tried in an adult court.

Baris Kaska, the lawyer for the victims' families, said if found guilty, he could face life imprisonment instead of seven or eight years.

Mr Cetin was the boyfriend of Shannon Graham, Marion Graham's 15-year-old daughter.

Marion Graham and Kathy Dinsmore, both in their 50s, were stabbed to death in a wood near the city of Izmir.

The friends were on holiday in Kusadasi, about 100km from Izmir.

Shannon was on a boat trip when the killings happened. She alerted police when she arrived home and could not get in touch with her mother.