reblogged from Reclaim Istanbul
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by Yaşar Adnan Adanalı
Economic and social factors such as
poverty, unemployment, bad housing and urban sprawl have been important factors
that have fed terrorism year after year, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdoğan said in Istanbul today.
Speaking during an event in
Gazioşmanpaşa district to preside over the demolition of hundreds of homes –
ostensibly for the purposes of constructing modern housing in their place –
Erdoğan made a connection between terrorism and bad urbanization.
“While in the east our soldiers and
police officers fought terrorism, [previous governments] did nothing about the
poverty, unemployment and discrimination that terrorist groups abused. They
shut their eyes to the migration to big cities while they were building shanty
houses. Urban sprawl became places of abuse that hid terrorism,” Erdoğan said,
emphasizing that young people with no hope for the future became vulnerable
targets of such groups. “We will transform those swamps into rose and tulip
gardens.”
Erdoğan also responded to criticism
about the 63-member Wise Persons’ Commission that held its first meeting on
April 4 as part of its task of overseeing a peace process to end the Kurdish
issue.
Erdoğan repeated that the seven
groups of wise people that will visit each of Turkey’s seven regions to discuss
the peace process would be free to do their own planning.
“We did not force them. But some seem
very upset. Some cry out that they are not in the group, others are jealous. We
are bustling about doing something to stop mothers’ tears, but some are still
trying to gain [political] benefit,” he said.
Istanbul ‘overpopulated’
A former Istanbul mayor, Erdoğan also
argued that Turkey’s fabled metropolis was too populous. “When I became mayor
[in 1994], 8 million people lived in Istanbul. Now it’s 14 million. Is this how
it should be? I don’t think so. We have to find a solution for migration,” he
said.
The Turkish prime minister also
criticized construction companies for building skyscrapers and tall buildings
that now cover the entire Istanbul skyline, arguing that buildings should not
be taller than four or five floors.
“We have to attach importance to
aesthetics. You will tell me that 40- or 50-story buildings can de aesthetic,
too. They can, I won’t deny it. But humans should live near the soil,” he said.
Source: Hurriyet Daily News
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