The people in neighbourhood began to settle in the quarter around 1054 in Byzantium times. After the arrival of the Ottomans in 1453, the Roma community remained there and many of the Romani people passed through to Europe from Sulukule. The neighbourhood is next to the historical city walls in the district of Fatih. There are approximately 3500 Romani people living in the neighbourhood, which was approximately 10.000 before the forced eviction policy of the Fatih municipality began in 1992. The municipality suddenly closed down the music and entertainment venues, arguing that they were not paying the entertainment taxes and that they could not organise such entertainment in this neighbourhood. However, we were supposed to be the tax ‘champions’ (i.e. paid the most in taxes) since we were paying the entertainment taxes without receiving the tax boards (the official document testifying to the payment of taxes given by the authorities). Therefore the people living in the neighbourhood became unemployed and thus became unable to pay their electricity, water and heating expenses and the neighbourhood is not able to receive such services. Now the municipality of Fatih is determined to demolish our houses for which we have registry records in hand received in 1983 and 1984 with the imar affi, the period when all illegal building could be registered and granted an amnesty, thus legalizing their status by payment of their land values. These events, should be considered as a part of a conscious process of removal of Romani communities from the city centre. We, the Romani people living in Sulukule are suffering from the abuse of our basic rights such as property rights, our right to have a decent job and our right to access clean water and electricity.

The number of houses to be demolished is around 571, which is around 8000 square meters in total. We have read in the newspapers and seen on the TVs that the municipality has a development plan for the neighbourhood. Therefore we asked for a meeting with the Mayor of Fatih municipality, Mustafa Demir. We were 17 people from the neighbourhood in November 2005, who met with the mayor. 251 people were landowners and 320 are tenants at that moment. The Mayor said that the houses in the neighbourhood are going to be demolished and this area was declared as an area of urban renewal. He offered new houses to the tenants without going through the usual ‘lottery’ for public housing that exists here in Turkey, in Tasoluk, which is around 2.5 hours from the city near by Gaziosmanpasa. The houses in Tasoluk are going to be built by the Prime Ministry Housing Development Administration, known as TOKI in Turkish However, it is not certainwhat the cost of the new houses will be, and therefore we do not know how we are going to be supposed to pay the rent. On the other hand, the occupations that people living in Sulukule can no longer be practiced in these houses which will result in the burden of an unknown time of rent payment under unemployment. The Mayor offered two options. Firstly, this was to buy their lands based on an uncertain amount of money per square meter. The second option was tooffer houses to be paid for over 15 years after deducting the land value. Our problem is the uncertainty of the situation. There is no concrete project or prices to be offered for our lands and therefore we are unable to decide what to do. We have offered the municipality to build our own houses and to develop a common project. But the municipality has refused our proposal.

Afterwards the municipality sent us individual invitations in July 2006, to explain the situation that we have spoken about before. They based their argument on the decision of Council of Ministers, which asks to determine the urban renovation areas, under the law number 5366. They declared that towards the end of August 2006 we will receive the demolition decisions. So far none of the people from the neighbourhood have received any declaration, however there is an important concern within the neighbourhood considering the fact that there is no concrete solution to the problem and that there are serious demolitions taking place in Kucukbakkalkoy and Yahya Kemal Romani neighbourhoods of Istanbul. In these neighbourhoods the municipalities are demolishing houses for which there are registry records and not offering any solution aside from forcing these people to live in their own ruins.

We, the people living in Sulukule, do not want to leave our houses. In 1960s people from Sulukule were forced to go to Gaziosmanpasa. There is a Romani community living at this neighbourhood under the threat of demolition from Gaziosmanpasa municipality. Therefore forced migration is not the solution to the urban renewal project. We are asking not to be removed or to be forced to live in apartments, which we are not used to. We are willing to keep on living with our instruments, dance and music in the neighbourhood where our ancestors settled a thousand years ago. We do not want to see ourselves as excluded people from the community, neither we are willing to migrate from our lands. Therefore we are asking from organisations and individuals to support us in our struggle against this process of forced migration. We demand lawyers and journalists to come and see the situation and document what we are living.

We will appreciate organisations in Europe or elsewhere to send questions about this situation in Sulukule to Turkish embassies and consulates abroad. We would also highly appreciate your letters of support to our community to feel that we are not alone in this struggle and that the solidarity among people is possible.

Sukru Punduk
President of the Sulukule Romani Culture Solidarity and Development Association
Address: Edirnekapi Kaleboyu Cad. Zuhuri Sok. No: 5, Turkey

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Wave of Racially-Targeted Housing Destruction in Turkey
On 21 September 2006, the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC), acting in partnership with Turkey-based civil society organizations – the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly, Accessible Life Foundation, Sulukule Romani Culture, Solidarity and Development Association, and EDROM, sent a letter to the Prime Minister of Turkey calling for the Prime Minister’s urgent attention and interference to halt the ongoing execution of forced evictions of Romani communities until a reasonable solution to the housing situation of the affected families is found.
column: News | date: 26. 9. 2006