Kamil Pasha

Photos are by Jenny White

I visited the Romani (gypsy) area of Sulukule yesterday, which is being torn down and its historic population moved 40 kilometers outside of Istanbul to make room for a housing development. Sulukule is a neighborhood of substandard homes, a number of them in various stages of being demolished. It is surrounded by a conservative working-class neighborhood of apartment buildings and small parks. There were many children in the streets of Sulukule (on a school day), women sitting on crumbling stoops or hanging washing from listing balconies. There are numbered white stickers on the buildings to be demolished (including an Ottoman-era fountain, see photo below). There were almost no buildings free of stickers and there is no sign of any archaeological work in this historically sensitive (Byzantine, Ottoman) area.

The residents have set up a Sulukule Foundation to try to stop the eviction. While property owners will be given some compensation and apartments in the far-away location, most residents would prefer to stay in Sulukule, where they have lived for generations. However, the compensation is not sufficient to allow them to purchase any of the new houses. Some have been selling to third parties offering slightly more money than the municipality, but still not enough. The municipal plans for the new development show fairly small houses (net 60-70 square meters). There is a sense of consternation. Where will they go? “We’ll stay here,” a man at the foundation said. “We’ll set up tents in the street.”

When I asked if outside pressure from the EU and the US has helped, he said he thought so. Two months ago when the US Congress sent a plea, the municipality tore down a number of houses the next day, but, the man said, there have been no demolitions in a month and a half. There is a lot of money at stake and the project appears to be linked to a relative of someone high up in the AKP. It seems inevitable that the neighborhood will be razed, but it is the fate of the Romani minority that concerns the world.

Tags: Culture, Istanbul, Rights //