The people of Şahintepe Mahallesi, located in Istanbul Başakşehir, are being exiled from their neighborhoods where they have lived for years, with the Kanal Istanbul and Yenişehir Project. Neighborhood residents and supporters who oppose the project said, "We want to be addressed for any transformation plan to be made, we do not accept the understanding that ignores us."
Due to the Kanal Istanbul and Yenişehir Project, which is planned to be built in Şahintepe Mahallesi in Istanbul Başakşehir, the people of the neighborhood, who are wanted to be exiled, continue their resistance. Neighborhood residents gathered in front of İskender Esma Mosque in Şahintepe District and organized an action.
Many citizens participated in the action. After the press statement made during the action, HDP Istanbul Deputy Züleyha Gülüm and CHP Istanbul Deputy Özgür Karabat took the floor.
People living in Başakşehir/Şahintepe Neighborhood, which is on the canal route to Istanbul, are being displaced for the sake of profit under the name of "haste expropriation".
We stand by the people of Şahintepe, who made a press statement saying "Şahintepe belongs to the people, and the people will remain". pic.twitter.com/l1QdB3b9So
— Yeşilkent Community Center (@Yesilkent_HE) July 31, 2022
Cengiz Tokmak, a neighborhood resident who read the press text, said that they have been deprived of basic needs such as electricity, water and natural gas in their neighborhoods that they have built by laboring for years.
In the statement, Tokmak stated that the rent games in Şahintepe continued without interruption and said, "First, we will make a way to dry food, and a decision was made for 'urgent expropriation' about 300 households on the Sonevler side of our neighborhood. After that, people living mainly on the Aşık Veysel side of our neighborhood and on the parts of the hill close to Aşık Veysel were asked to be exiled to Hacımaşlı.”
“The reason for the transformation in the neighborhood is rent”
Emphasizing that the structures in their neighborhoods are stronger than the structures in many parts of Istanbul, Tokmak emphasized that seven islands in the region were declared as risky areas due to the rent, and said:
Başakşehir Municipality in June 2022; It received full authorization from the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization for the urban transformation to be carried out on the islands 1542, 1543, 1554, 1606, 1540, 1564 and 1617. And at the moment, the 1543rd island is actually under construction. At the same time, on many other islands of the neighborhood, people in plain clothes from the municipality are walking around the houses saying "there was a request from you on this island, we came to meet you". However, it turned out that the municipality aims to enter new islands as well. The transformation to be made in our neighborhood was based on the “Law No. 6306 on Transformation of Areas Under Disaster Risk”. We explain the reason behind the declaration of these 7 islands as risky with only one thing: its name is rent. So much so that Başakkent AŞ, a legal entity, collected land in our neighborhood from the period of Mevlüt Uysal to the period of Yasin Kartoğlu. Today we learn that the biggest partner of the island numbered 1554 is Başakkent AŞ with 2 thousand 69 square meters. In other words, Başakşehir Municipality has collected land with its own company in the board of directors and now it is after turning these plots into money. While doing this, they take the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization as a partner and tell people "this is a risky area, if you don't give your place, we will expropriate it".
“We do not accept the understanding that ignores us”
Finally, in the statement, the following was said: We want to be addressed first for any transformation plan to be made here, we do not accept the understanding that ignores us. It is not credible to say that people gave their house and title deed voluntarily, by showing a stick of expropriation under the aba. The Mayor and the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization should first come and tell all the people of the neighborhood about the project they have done, let's see if there is any profit or benefit in this business! Those who have their eyes on our places, those who worship rent should know that we will not give up our places and that we will continue our just struggle. Mayor Yasin Kartoğlu, who quietly came to the construction site and said that the residents of the neighborhood can relax here, and built cells with a gross area of 70 square meters of 51 square meters, should know that we do not accept the transformation!
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