The effect of urbanization policy on property ownership in Turkey: Case of Cumhuriyet Street in Van (1957-2010)

Cities have an important place in the history of humanity. The city forces society as a dynamic structure, not merely a static phenomenon, to change with its economic, political and cultural aspects. This process of change, as reflected in external form of physically urban space, socially human relation, can be defined as urbanization. The city is also the case of a scene displayed in the historical tension between the individual and the state. The social structure, which consists of a free individual or individuals liberated by legal basis, has been formed only through the struggles it has fought in the process of urbanization. Urbanization also includes social and political struggles and consist of urban planning, urban space, urban capital and interest. The city of Van was purified from original inhabited starting from World War I and made suitable for the construction of the new nation of the "Modern Nation State". During this period, the externally fortified Turkish population construct the formation and social memory of the new city of Van. It is intended in this thesis to reveal the historical and sociological consequences of the change of ownership of public and private property, especially the re-ownership of property on Van Cumhuriyet Street between 1957 and 2010, in order to see how urban and social planning is implemented within the framework of state policies and practices. The research, as a case study, examined the document (historical report, document and planning) and archive records (Data from Van Directorate of Land Registry) and tried to understand the relationship between the alleged situations. Thus, the purpose of this research is to draw attention to historical and urban change, organized and conscious planning and interventions of the state, urban population change and property ownership in Van in the context of capital by analyzing archives and historical documents.