Transformation of rural areas on Istanbul fringe Agacli-Yenikoy sample

The industrial revolution and change in means of production relations induced the growth and transformation of the rural areas in the immediate surroundings of cities. From the industrial revolution to the current globalization period, the relation of urban and rural has been reshaped by political and economic environments. Until the industrial period, the city was a settlement that was not independent of the countryside. The production within the countryside was necessary to sustain its existence. The cities were preserving themselves with the additional products of rural areas. Along with the industrial revolution, this phenomenon has radically evolved into a different relation. From the beginning of the revolution the city has become the dominant side of the relation, and caused the transformation of the rural areas. The urban-rural struggle, which continues to exploit and transform the city until globalization, has evolved into a new type of relationship with globalization. Current situation in rural-urban interaction in the world is that rural and urban can not be two different concepts. It is accepted that urban settlements in the periphery of the cities should be considered together with the multi-centered spatial system framework to be a multi-centered region that directly participates in global world and global economies. The history of urbanization in Istanbul reveals that the city has been developed according to urbanization strategies that were deeply influenced by each period's different political agenda. As the city grows, it also transforms the countryside in his surroundings and includes it to its borders. This situation deprives the original qualities of the rural land fundamentally, and causes them to be equipped with urban characteristics. Today, Istanbul continues to grow rapidly under the effects of neoliberal policies and poses great threat to the last rural areas and rural settlements in the north. The city continues to grow with urban unearned income which constitutes the largest tool of economic sustainability. Built environment that is closing in on ecological boundaries does not suffice for capital recycling. For this reason, it is possible to say that it poses a great threat to the last remaining rural settlements. Within the scope of this thesis, beginning from 1950's late industrial era, the transformative effects on the rural areas of the periphery of Istanbul, reasons of these effects for the different periods and the dynamics of the transformation have been examined in the articulation of the urban land and rural settlements to the city. Within the context of the transformation of the rural lands in the western part of Istanbul, the recent example of Ağaçlı-Yeniköy region has been studied and the end point of the rural-urban interaction on the Istanbul axis has been attempted to interpret. The known history of the Ağaçlı-Yeniköy region, which is located in the north of Istanbul and surrounded by Terkos Lake, Belgrad Forests and Black Sea, dates back to a thousand years ago. The area includes most of the northern forests of Istanbul, the Terkos basin which is one of the most important for the city, hosts many habitats and stands at a critical point in terms of ecological sustainability. The area is an ancient Trak settlement with archaeological value along with an industrial history due to ongoing mining activities. In addition, since 1920's the city has an important role on supplying drinking water, and the pump station built for this purpose is an important industrial heritage. By the end of the 18th century, immigrants who had come to Istanbul with the start of the liberation movements in the Balkans were displaced with Bulgarian and Greek populations living in the villages. Currently the majority of local people living in the region are the fourth-generation grandchildren of these immigrants. Local residents continue to carry out agricultural and livestock activities for more than a century in the land that is inherited from their families and play an important role in ensuring Istanbul's food supply. The region is suitable for agricultural production due to its location in the basin and the abundance of rivers. Furthermore, it is a geographical area suitable for buffalo farming due to the existence of wetlands, clay surface and climatic conditions. For these reasons, the vast majority of food production in the region is made up of vegetable - fruit and dairy production. The Ağaçlı-Yeniköy region is located at the intersection of four mega projects of Istanbul, 3rd airport, 3rd bridge, Kanal Istanbul and Yacht port which have extensive scale and transformative effects. Although the rural settlements in the region are excluded from the project boundaries, most of the areas such as communal pastures, forests, meadows and ponds, which are means of maintaining agricultural production, remain in the land reserved for the projects. The region has entered into a comprehensive transformation process with the announcement of mega projects to the public opinion around 2011. Starting from this date, agricultural production and number of animals in the region have begun to decrease. Simultaneously, both the public and private interests have started to change their ownership patterns and purpose of use of the land. One of the aims of choosing the study area, Ağaçlı-Yeniköy region, is to narrate and record the current situation and the transformation process that it is going through, which will soon adopt a completely different settlement structure, and to discuss the possibilities of developing the area without transforming it. In order to understand the transformation in Istanbul and Ağaçlı - Yeniköy region, primarily a conceptual research of the evolution of rural-urban relations has been carried out. It has been looked up at when and how the city emerged as a separate settlement from the countryside, when a continuation of the dual-benefit relationship prior to industrial revolution entered a cycle where the city interfered the rural in a brutal manner. Projects and academic studies that investigate the ways of transforming rural and urban relations into a unity without conflict have been researched. As the last point, an alternative and contemporary perspective on the relation of urban and rural has been investigated. The international cycle of the capital emerged as a result of globalization has created a system proposal for urban and rural relation. The system proposes a well-established network that interlinks the means of productions of all individual centers. This network allows a mutual flow of goods such as raw material, labour, culture, service and energy. Thus the urban and rural are programmed as productive systems that are working together, not against. The process of rural and urban interaction in Turkey and Istanbul cases is based on the acceptance of the "land law", which permits private property ownership at the end of the 18th century. Land ownership patterns of the rural lands in Istanbul's peripheries are examined within the context of this law. Along with it, productive land belonging to the state has started to be transferred to the members of the Ottoman dynasty and senior executives of the government. After the decline of the Ottoman Empire, the lands, which were sold to the immigrants from the Balkans, are the first examples of the change in ownership patterns on the Istanbul fringes. Despite the struggles of World War 1 and economic hardship, these farm lands which were around the city until the 1950's continued to maintain their existence and active production. The approach, that gives importance to rural development until the 1950s, prevented the rapid growth of the cities and ensured the preservation and development of the unique characteristics of rural areas and their production. With the expropriation acts, land sales and construction activities for the housing supply that is demanded by the increasing population, productive land has gradually begun to embrace urban characteristics. The period beginning with the 1980s was the first time the Turkey encountered neoliberal policies. The city, which decentralizes industrial production, has been reproduced to carry new functions such as service, finance, and tourism in order to attract global capital. The city peripheries have continued to grow and lose ground as a result of increasing private car ownership, the development of transportation projects that focus on individual transportation, and housing areas that feed decentralized industries. Globalization and neoliberal policies, which are becoming more and more evident today, are growing and transforming in the direction of mega-projects in order to realize the capital cycle and attract the international circle to the city. From the 1950s to the present, it is observed that the political dynamics peculiar to each era have continued to transform rural areas for different reasons as the city continues to grow. Nowadays globalized and deeply influential neoliberal policies have caused the city, which has grown up to its ecological limits, to enter into a radical transformation process by including natural areas and the last rural lands remaining in the nearby surroundings to its structure through the mega-projects. Due to The four major mega-transport projects planned around the Ağaçlı-Yeniköy region, it is where the effects of these urbanization policies are most visible. In the near future, with the impact of these projects, the region will evolve into a radically different urban settlement from its present state. Soon local people whose production is going to the end, will be forced to seek or migrate to search for other living options in different sectors. Within the aim of the study, although the mega transport projects are considered to be the dominant asset, the nature of the transformation has been discussed. It has been examined what alternative urban transformation scenarios might be possible according to today's urban-urban definitions, where urban and rural areas can exist together by feeding them from multi directions. The ongoing transformation does not take into account the local characteristics of the region, ignores the continuing production and ecological values and ignores the economic potential that these characteristics can provide. For the Ağaçlı-Yeniköy region, it has been questioned how the protection and development of rural qualities could be a transformational policy that could also add value to both the city and the country in economical terms.