URBAN TRANSFORMATION

The demolition planned without any prior notice to the residents in Süleymaniye postponed for a month. Two buildings that tenants live would be demolished within the scope of urban transformation on April 17, Tuesday morning at 07:00 am. The demolition crews just made an announcement that they'd demolish the buildings and the electricity and water of the buildings were cut off.

The families objected to the demolition and they said that the corporation gave them the promise that their buildings would not be demolished until the schools are closed.

Most of the Suleymaniye residents came from Kurdish region by forced migration and bianet reported the damnification of the families due to this sudden demolition.

When this news was reflected in the press, the families were given one more month for evacuation.

What's happening in Süleymaniye?

Suleymaniye was formed as an Ottoman district in the 16^th century and most of the mosques, churches, madrasahs and Islamic-Ottoman social complexes were protected by now. In the past they were the preferred places of "elite and rich class", however this was changed into poor residential areas after 1950's.

Suleymaniye became a "protected" area in 1977,  it was included to UNESCO History Heritage list in 1985, and it was declared as a "renewal area" in 2006.

The renovation will be formed in 5 stages and it covers 938.000 square meters, 728 registered, 1239 unregistered buildings.

The project was launched with the idea of "revitalizing Ottoman-Turkish District" in 2007 and UNESCO Executive Committee in İstanbul stated that the historical buildings would be demolished and reconstructed by steel and this would destroy the best examples of Ottoman wooden architecture.(NV)