Sulukule Update: Parliament to Investigate
Turkish Daily News, May 8, 2008:
Three members of the European Parliament sent a letter to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan Tuesday welcoming the decision to task Parliament’s Human Rights Commission to look into abuses taking place in the ongoing demolition of Istanbul’s traditional Roma neighborhood known as Sulukule. Underlining the lack of understanding on the part of the Istanbul Municipality, which continues with the systematic destruction of houses without fair procedure and adequate compensation, the letter said the municipality did not include the local Roma in the decision-making process for Sulukule’s housing plans. The destruction of Sulukule (one of the oldest Roma communities in Europe) is a loss for the Roma as well as for Turkey which hosts so many treasures from the past, it said. The parliamentarians called for a common solution to this international problem, which will bring together the interests of both sides.
The urban transformation project in Sulukule envisions relocating thousands of Roma from the neighborhood along Istanbul’s Golden Horn where they have lived since Byzantine times.
Discussion Area - Leave a Comment