The development of urban transformation process in Turkey and the discussion on recent legal and administrative format

After 1950s, with the industrialization movement, migration to the urban areas had been increased and concept of squatting had been arisen in Turkey. With the 1980s, squatting gave place to illegal settlement. The most important reason for the changeof the squatting in terms of concept and the housing was the existing legal arrangements at that time. With the phases of illegal settlement, legal and administrative format had been undergone a serious change. However, this change could not be quite enough to prevent the illegal housing in Turkey. The first regulation against the illegal settlement was made in 1966 with the Squatting Law No. 775. Although there were several legal arrangements, laws and rules in the last 45 years, the tendency to the illegal settlement could not be stopped in Turkey. After 1980s, along with the changes on the illegal settlement, legal and administrative format also had been changed. Especially after 2000, legal regulations have started to include the concept of urban transformation. Nevertheless, Municipality Law, Metropolitan Municipality Law, Law about Historical and Cultural Structure being Protected by Regenerating and being Used by Keeping Alive and several other laws has xivbecome inadequate to lead urban transformation. These deficiencies can be listed as not being determined how to locate the urban transformation areas with the existing legislation, not being established how and which institutions to administrate urban transformation process and not enough existing stakeholder related regulations and etc. All these legislation related deficits cause problems in the management of urban transformation process and in the planning of location.Recently, with the Law about Transformation of Disaster Areas under Risk No. 6306, urban transformation concept and process has become a top issue. In this law, urban transformation is based on the disaster. However, some statements and concepts in this regulation can be exploited as unearned income tool. In last 10 years, misunderstanding urban transformation concept and some legal regulations based on this misunderstanding have caused both some problems in applications and unjust public treatment in Turkey. The cities in Turkey, which has illegal settlement problem, especially Istanbul, need a legal base that considers the urban transformation process accurately and regulates all phases of this process.Keywords: Urban Transformation Concept and Process, Legal Extension of Urban Transformation, Organizational Structure, Existing Applications, Illegal Settlement