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Güven Sak, PhD - [Archive]

If it was TOKİ, Barcelona would not be as it is today 13/07/2012 - Viewed 2783 times

 

If it was TOKİ, Barcelona would probably have turned into a compilation of distant and strictly separated satellite towns.

I am sincerely sorry that I cannot cite Istanbul as a case to explain my point today. At the end of the commentary, you will agree that I am right. Today, I have decided to use Barcelona as my example, also because I visited the city last weekend.

I don’t like revolutionists that are afraid of change and conservatives that don’t look after their traditions. In fact, I am afraid of them. Why? Because they pretend to be revolutionist or conservative just for the sake of conversation. You can expect anything from people like that. But you cannot carry out a discussion with them. The historical infrastructure of Turkey’s cities generally has been messed up during the rule of conservative administrations. Are you aware of this? I just fail to understand why. In Barcelona, Prague, and Paris, buildings are historical. Istanbul, on the other hand, is full of apartments built by Laz contractors. We first ruined Istanbul and then spread the contractors throughout Turkey. We joyfully said, “Our city has developed impressively. It looks just like Istanbul!”

The damage already was done before the Turkish Housing Development Administration (TOKİ). And this damage is the clearest evidence of the lack of tradition among conservatives in Turkey. If you respect your traditions, you should not settle with only protecting the monuments in which your ancestors lived. You should not attempt to privatize the Darülbedayi-i Osmani (Municipal City Theatres), launched in 1914 by Istanbul Mayor Cemil Topuzlu Pasha. On the contrary, you should work to protect them.

A similar case of conservatism lacking tradition was demonstrated by the Barcelona Municipality of Franco’s time. They destroyed the historic fabric of Barcelona, the capitol of Catalonia that supported the democratic government during the Spanish Civil War and demanded autonomy and the use of the Catalan language. Right until Franco’s death in 1975.

Barcelona is designed to tour on foot. Until 1975, it was a city to drive around, but in almost fifteen years, it was transformed into a pedestrian city. Some people thought, “Barcelona is the star of our national culture. We have to turn this city into a place to live and wander with joy.” They both protected and unraveled the historic fabric. You don’t need to do extensive research to learn what it means. Just walk from the Çırağan Palace to the Swiss Hotel in Istanbul: desolate pavements, a rattling road, nothing to do or see. Barcelona is not like that.

Wide pavements in the middle of the roads are one of the best things about Barcelona. During Franco’s time the pavements were added to the boulevard to make room for cars. After 1975, the common sense enlarged the pavements and restricted the car roads. A group of people reversed Barcelona from a city to drive in to a city to walk around. Who did this? The socialists who took power after the Franco era. They prepared a comprehensive plan for city development and changed the appearance of the city under our noses in almost two decades. They used the 1992 Olympic Games to finance their plan and altered the identity of the city for around $2 billion. They invested funds in the urban infrastructure rather than into stadiums that would be used only 3-5 times a year.

What if it was TOKİ that had been chosen to restructure Barcelona? Barcelona would probably have turned into a compilation of distant and strictly separated satellite towns as the Administration does not know any other urbanization model. Historic monuments would be torn down or converted into shopping malls. There would be no sidewalks or pavements and you would have to drive to everywhere. Such cities that prioritize functionality but fail to animate lives and create convenience have been tried in the US, the UK and the Soviet Union. But then they gave up the attempts. Only TOKİ has stuck to this model. To no avail I have been arguing that the TOKİ model dates from the 1930s. In fact, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez likes the TOKİ model.

This commentary was published in Radikal daily on 13.07.2012

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