BUDDIES in Turkey 2008: 06/12/09

... it's almost done...the istanbul authorities threw down almost the whole rrom quarter Sulukule. And the world was watching, almost without doing anything... 1000 years of gipsy story swept away in 1-2 years. "Who cares...it are just gipsies who don't make profit for the business men and authorities. So why should we respect these Rom people..". That is the way of handling of not so obedient people by -turkish- authorities. Something will remain...not everything has been lost. But the way the authorities handle the sulukule people is symptomatic for what can expect all peoples who aren't profitable and obedient.... it's time to stick together and let the authorities know that we won't obey anymore...they better hide...

To watch the video follow the link: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=55649592

Sulukule update: New AKP gentry in Roma district March 2009

Demolition of the thousand-year-old Gypsy Roma quarter of Sulukule, hard up against the ancient Byzantine city walls, continues (see prior posts under ‘Istanbul’). The Roma are to be moved to an area outside the city where they would have no opportunity to continue their musical and entertainment traditions and lifestyle. In their place, the city would build middle-class villas.

Now allegations have surfaced that AKP officials involved in razing the neighborhood have bought some of the land and new houses. No one is suprised by this, and there have been some forced resignations. (click here) The losers are the very poor, relatively uneducated Roma, a minority whose culture is undoubtedly offensive to the alcohol-shunning, buttoned-up pious population in surrounding neighborhoods and in the AKP. The AKP used to claim it was the ‘clean’ party. It’s time it took itself to the laundry.

An extract from the original note:

ISTANBUL - Resignations and suspensions have brought attention to ethically questionable land purchases by ruling party politicians and people close to them in the municipality responsible for the urban transformation in Sulukule. Recent reports suggest political actors in Istanbul’s Fatih district are cashing in as local Roma residents are checked out.

Full note available at: http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/english/domestic/11239923.asp?gid=244

The alternatif local development plan for Sulukule 2008

The development plan from the Platform.. I guess with some help from Yves and Cassidy... and the maps from the BUDD report? You can download the original file from: http://eng.habitants.org/content/view/full/7717

Sulukule 2009 There is still people living there..

Video about situation around January 2009. Images from the children's center (I think!)...

Link: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=51263645

Turkish bulldozers raze 1,000 years of Rom history May 2009

Within hours, the last remnants of a thousand years of Rom history were wiped out by bulldozers.

Anti-riot police supervised this final phase last week of the demolition of Sulukule, a neighborhood on the European bank of Istanbul once home to a vibrant community of musicians and artists whose rhythmic songs and belly dancing served as the city's musical heart. Similar scenes have been repeated across the country as municipalities, supported by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), drive home a programme of urban renewal, destroying ramshackle and often unsanitary housing in favour of new tower blocks, often many kilometers (miles) outside localities.

City officials in the Fatih district, run by mayor Mustafa Demir from the AKP, estimate the project will relocate about 3,500 people from Sulukule -- 1,300 of them Roms -- and replace their old housing with fancy, wood-panelled "Ottoman style" buildings. The demolition, begun at the end of 2006, will wipe out "hovels you wouldn't dump coal in," according to the mayor. However local activist Hacer Foggo of a group called the Sulukule Platform estimates that closer to 5,000 people, the bulk of them members of the minority, are being displaced, and all to benefit the ruling party and its allies. "Who is going to buy the houses that they will build here? It will be the profiteers, those close to the AKP," she said. "The idea is to expel the poor from the city centre and put the rich in their place." Turkish media reported a few months ago that several AKP members and figures close to the party were allegedly among the prospective buyers of the new houses. Foggo said the resettlement will break up a community that has survived through centuries thanks to a tradition of solidarity and mutual aid.

Extracted from: http://www.france24.com/en/20090519-turkish-bulldozers-raze-1000-years-rom-history

Forced from their homes March 2009

ISTANBUL — They lived for almost 1,000 years around the remains of Istanbul's Byzantine walls. But when they were forced to leave, the gypsies of Sulukule only found out about their eviction from the journalists flocking to their shantytowns to cover the story.

"We heard from the media that the neighborhood would be destroyed to make way for luxury residential developments," Mehmet Asim Hallaq, 55, a spokesman for the ongoing campaign opposing the removal, told me in the summer of 2007. "This is a kind of aesthetic assimilation they're trying to impose on us."

It is all part of what locals call the "Dubaification of Istanbul." Kemal Ataturk’s secular Turkish rep

ublic has strived to put water between its Ottoman Empire precursor and the European vision it harbors of itself. With Turkey’s beaches beating Spain to second place as the holiday choice of Britons for the first time last summer, a real estate boom has swept across the country.

Extracted from: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/turkey/090228/fo

rced-their-homes

Sulukule Children's Center Demolished January 30

As part of an urban regeneration project, Sulukule, the oldest Roma settlement in the world, has been experiencing demolitions.

International and national warnings unheeded

UNESCO, UN Habitat, UN Human Rights Commission, the EU, as well as international and domestic NGOs have called for a reevaluation of the gentrification project, which forces the Roma, who have lived in this area for many centuries, to move 40 km out of the city.

However, 80 percent of the neighbourhood has already been demolished. In order to help the resident children to deal with the trauma and continue their education, a children’s centre was set up eight months ago.

Children's centre also demolished

There, the children have been receiving music, drama and art classes.

The demolition of the children’s centre was staved off recently when children protested. However, two days ago, the bulldozers came again and destroyed the building.

The children’s classes will continue despite the demolition. (EZÖ)

Text extracted from: http://bianet.org/bianet/minorities/112234-sulukule-children-s-centre-demolished

Images from Sulukule February 2009

Since we are trying to update our knowledge of the situation in Istanbul, here are some images of what is going on in Sulukule (february of this year). More available at http://www.demotix.com/news/sulukule-urban-transforming-gypsie.