Impacts of "Gecekondu" on the Electoral Geography of Istanbul

Abstract

Gecekondu (squatting) has been the dominant form of urbanization in the major cities of Turkey, especially Istanbul, just as it has been in most developing countries. Istanbul receives an estimated 500, 000 migrants each year from the rural areas of the country, most of whom become squatters. The old city is surrounded by gecekondu settlements, which include sixty-five percent of all buildings in Istanbul. In these areas the dominant economic activities are as informal as the housing. Most of the gecekondu settlements have evolved in time from the original definition of "housing with poor conditions in order to survive" into areas where lower-middle-in-come apartments predominate. This evolution not only made gecekondu an economic investment, but also the subject of daily politics. Continuously, there have been populist attempts of various political parties to legalize these settlements. These attempts encouraged new gecekondu investments, and in turn the new gecekondu areas came to depend on such populist policies, creating a vicious cycle. Mainstream urban policies had the tendency to see both gecekondu and their informal economic activities as unwanted, and thus did not include the considerations of such populist groups in their content. The organic tie between gecekondu and politics, together with these unsuccessful urban policies, allowed urban politics to establish in gecekondu areas before urban culture and economics. By 1994 their population had increased to the point where it constituted a majority, and gecekondu areas began to determine local election results. By this token they ensured that urban policies would no longer exclude them. The rise of the Islamic Political Party in these areas is thus not coincidental, but strongly related with the internal dynamics of gecekondu and informal economic activities.