Urban transformation and urban movements: The right of the city movements in Istanbul

name of ?urban transformation? appear to distort the city's historic and cultural heritage and its identity in most of the cases. These implementations are being made without the participation of the users, leading to the unjust treatments towards them. As an opposition to this injustice, the associations have been established by local residents in order to struggle against these transformations. On the other hand, there are also many urban movements, which undertake the effort of preserving the urban identity and public spaces of the city, struggling on the basis of the right to the city. It is also observed that people under the influence of global impacts are struggling in different parts of the world. Although they have different ethnic and cultural backgrounds, they actually share the same goals but struggle in different places and regions. In this thesis, it is intended to invite all the citizens to take the responsibility of the historic and cultural heritage, public spaces, streets, roads and buildings against the disruptive transformation implementations in Istanbul by constructing common synthesis from common reactions throughout this thesis study. Thus, it is believed that groups who come together on the basis of the right to the city, which constitute a common ground for all the citizens can create profound effects. It is argued that urban movements which are undertaken on the basis of the right to the city at every scale are important to preserve the balance between social classes, to decrease segregation tendencies in cities, to take responsibility for cities, and to preserve the right to the city. In this thesis study, the belief that the struggle for the right to the city on common grounds will lead to a success in reaching those outcomes have been questioned and evaluated during the interviews made with neighbourhood associations, chambers, various nongovernmental organizations, trade-unions and platforms.