One of the last remaining green spaces in the Caferağa neighborhood of İstanbul’s Asian-side district of Kadıköy is facing housing development.
The parcel, which also serves as an emergency assembly area in the event of an earthquake, has been opened to a tender for residential construction.
To protest the decision, locals gathered outside the Foundations 2nd Regional Directorate in Üsküdar, where the tender was held today, to protest the plan.
The 11,775-square-meter area includes Şair Nefi Children’s Park, the Moda Family Health Center, a 112 emergency response station, the Caferağa neighborhood mukhtar's office, disaster response units, the Moda vegetable garden, small football fields, and an open-air parking lot. It is also designated as a protected heritage zone.
No existing zoning plans
Community members submitted petitions through Caferağa mukhtar Hanife Dağıstanlı, calling for the area’s preservation. In a statement she read out, Dağıstanlı emphasized that no zoning plan currently exists for the parcel.
She argued that the directorate and the contractor lack the legal authority to make planning decisions and said that allowing the contractor to prepare a zoning plan, as stated in the tender specifications, was unlawful.
Any actions taken without a decision from the Cultural Heritage Preservation Board would violate the Law on the Conservation of Cultural and Natural Assets, since the land is within a protected zone, she added.
The statement also highlighted that the site is designated as the Caferağa Disaster Coordination Area and warned of the risks residents could face following a potential earthquake in İstanbul.
📢 Caferağalılar, mahallelerindeki yeşil alanın ranta açılmasına karşı Vakıflar Genel Müdürlüğü İstanbul 2. Bölge Müdürlüğü önünde.
— bianet (@bianet_org) September 11, 2025
🌳✊ “Mahallenin son yeşil alanını, deprem toplanma alanımızı ranta teslim etmeyeceğiz. Mahalle bizim.”
📹 Video: Tuğçe Yılmaz pic.twitter.com/45N8iWvtjk
‘Withdraw this unlawful tender immediately’
Throughout the protest, demonstrators chanted slogans such as “The neighborhood is ours, we’re not giving up.” Dağıstanlı concluded her remarks with a direct message to the authorities:
“To those who wrote the statement claiming, ‘We expect the tender, which was conducted with full consideration of public interest and designed to be self-financed, will enable more efficient public services compared to the current situation,’ we say this:
“We represent the 22,000 people living in Caferağa and we want to hear it directly from you. Beyond the public services that will be disrupted, especially health services, and the last green space we stand to lose, tell us to our faces what fate you have planned for us after a possible İstanbul earthquake.
"Come and tell us that you don’t care whether we die in the streets if we somehow survive the collapse of our unrepaired buildings.
"Your understanding of public benefit, as we gather from your tenders and statements, is nothing more than generating profit, and we reject that. Withdraw this unlawful tender immediately. The neighborhood is ours. We’re not giving up.”
CHP official warns of unplanned development
Separately, Republican People's Party (CHP) Deputy Chair Gökan Zeybek also issued a statement yesterday, urging the General Directorate of Foundations to cancel the tender, emphasizing that the area lacks a zoning plan.
“There is a nearly 12-decare plot in the middle of the neighborhood,” said Zeybek. “It’s a preserved green area with trees, where retirees maintain a botanical garden and hobby plots, grow vegetables, and harvest them seasonally. It’s a place that boosts their morale. Now, this land is being tendered by the General Directorate of Foundations. This is not a proper or lawful procedure.”
He pointed out that the site has no approved zoning plan, saying its inclusion in a tender process breaks with standard public administration practices.
Zeybek also warned that the Caferağa area, also known as Moda, is largely an archaeological site, with buildings averaging 50 to 60 years old. “In the event of an earthquake, even if the buildings don’t collapse, there’s no other space for people to gather. This is the only green space left in the heart of the neighborhood, and now it’s being sold off for development.”
Arguing that the contractor would cut down trees and build on the site with permits from the Environment and Urbanization Ministry, he said, “This is a rent-oriented project, not a public- or community-minded plan,” he said.
“As the CHP headquarters, we are following this process closely,” Zeybek added. “We will take even stronger action to keep this issue on the national agenda and in the public eye, both in Kadıköy and across Turkey.
"I repeat our call to the General Directorate of Foundations: This path you're taking is the wrong one. What you're doing goes against fundamental principles of urban planning.”
(TY/VK)
