Urban Poverty in Turkey by Burcu Sentürk

Author:Burcu Sentürk [Sentürk, Burcu]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Middle East, General, Social Science, Poverty & Homelessness
ISBN: 9781786730565
Google: 9BKMDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2016-09-23T04:33:37+00:00

Expropriation of Northern Ege and Ege-Mutlu Housing Cooperative (EMHC)

The former waste dump of Ankara was in northern Ege between 1964 and 1978. This is why northern Ege is still called Çöplük (Waste Dump). Now, it is an empty area and not used for any specific purpose (see Figure 10). The level of coal gas created by the condensed solid waste was measured in 1993 and the experts suggested that this accumulated waste was producing high levels of coal gas, which might explode. This would have affected the nearby houses violently so this area was declared unsuitable for human settlement. Therefore, construction was forbidden in northern Ege in 1993 and Ankara Municipality expropriated this area in 1994. This meant that the area became public land and the municipality had the authority to decide how to use it. It also meant that people could not legally claim any rights to this area. Since none of the people had title deeds, the municipality only paid them the cost of debris (enkaz bedeli).

The relationship between people of northern Ege and political parties, especially the social democrat central left parties, was based on clientelism, due to their left-leaning Alevi identity. The majority of people in northern Ege were Alevi by background, as was the mayor of Mamak in the 1990s (Eroğlu 2011:126). The mayor was from the SHP (Social Democratic People's Party) and this party, like other central left parties, was supported by Alevi people. He was under pressure from the people who were directly affected by the evacuation decision and he needed to take steps. He offered to initiate a housing cooperative in 1995 for northern Ege people. People were told that they could own their house by paying small amounts of money monthly. However, they did not know the type of houses and the payment conditions. Based on the gecekondu Prevention Law No. 775, the Ministry of Public Works and Settlement provided cheap land in the Tuzluçayır Gecekondu Prevention Area, which was within walking distance of Ege. The cooperative, Ege-Mutlu Yapı Kooperatifi (EMHC), was established in 1995 by the people and it was legally attached to the ministry. They elected board members for the cooperative and started to pay monthly instalments. After some months, they could no longer pay because the monthly instalments continuously increased. The building lasted for seven or eight years and the monthly payments increased 80 times in nominal value during that time (Eroğlu 2011:127). Most of the residents had to hand over their rights to third parties and get back what they had paid until they sold out. The cooperative should have been composed of only çöplük people; however, my interviewees told me that there were other people who became members, paid and got houses when they were finished. They told me that people who were close to the managers of the cooperative, who were among the çöplük people and close to the mayor participated in the cooperative. The number of cooperative members among northern Ege people had declined from 344 to 161 by the time the construction was completed (Eroğlu 2011:127).

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