Kentsel Dönüşüm Sürecinde Kent Hakkı: Ankara-Yenimahalle Mehmet Akif Ersoy Mahallesi Örneği

Abstract

Urban regeneration projects have gained great momentum in Turkey in recent years. Old, under the threat of natural disasters or unplanned urbanised areas are being rapidly renewed by transforming them with modern urban planning tools. These projects do not only affect the zoning and physical condition of the space. They affect the space and its inhabitants in many social, cultural and economic dimensions. This effect also plays changing roles on the right to the city. Urban regeneration projects have an impact both on the right to the city, which is related to eşide to the city, and on the will to change the city as Harvey underlines. In Turkey, urban regeneration started to take an important place on the country’s agenda with the 1999 earthquake. Due to both the earthquake disaster that occurred on 6 February 2023 centred in Kahramanmaraş and affected 11 provinces and the expected Istanbul earthquake, the phenomenon of urban transformation maintains its important place on the country’s agenda. In this study, Mehmet Akif Ersoy Neighbourhood, which was subjected to urban transformation by Ankara Yenimahalle Municipality between 2009-2014, will be examined. The aim of the study is to investigate the traces of the right to the city in urban transformation processes and to determine whether the social, cultural, economic rights and the right to housing of the people in the areas subjected to urban transformation are protected while the urban transformation process continues. In this thesis, questions such as whether the people in the area subjected to transformation have a say in the planning and implementation stages of the urban transformation eşide, where they eşide during the transformation process, whether their right to housing is protected by the authority carrying out the eşide, whether the old neighbourhood residents or new families with different social-economic levels eşide in the neighbourhood after the transformation process is over were sought to be answered. In order to answer these questions, the Scale of the Impact of Urban Transformation on the Right to the City was used. Quantitative data were obtained by applying the scale to the neighbourhood and qualitative data were obtained through in-depth interviews. In the conclusion and recommendations section of the study, recommendations have been developed to guide future urban regeneration studies.