Since 2005, the city of Istanbul is moving forward with a controversial project called “The Tarlabasi Renovation project”. It claims to renew this poor area of Istanbul, tearing down more than 20 000 square meters of old buildings, and replacing them with brand new apartments, hotels, condos, shopping malls, etc. The problem is that 95% of the population living in this area are Kurdish and Gypsies.
There is no way that they will be able to afford an apartment in the rebuilt area.
Most of them are going to be evicted to one of the suburbs surrounding Istanbul.
They will be moved from a very poor area to another one. The situation there is very explosive. You can feel the tension when you talk to the Kurdish
people living in Tarlabasi. The “Tarlabasi Renovation Project” aimed to be finished by 2015.