A Critical Appraisal on Turkey’s Neoliberal Quest of Urban Renewal in Historic Urban Landscapes

Abstract

The paper aims at presenting a critical appraisal on Turkey’s quest for urban renewal under the threat of man-made disasters, through a special consideration on historic urban landscapes, and particularly its world heritage sites. It deals with how policies designed to mitigate earthquake risk and provide quality of life in the transformation of historic urban landscapes turn into tools of extensive clearance of spatial, social and cultural fabric with the experiences from Istanbul. The paper hopes that the lessons learned from Istanbul’s experience provide a medium to discuss the severe challenges and their resolving instruments associated with natural revanchist disasters as well as man-made disasters, especially in developing countries and in the sites with outstanding common heritage values such as Kathmandu.