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"POLITIKA" contains my rants, raves and random thoughts about the society. There are writings about Turkey, on issues such as human rights, democracy and freedom of speech. I also post contemporary and historical political event articles that I find worth sharing and worth thinking on every now and then.

Articles from Turkish newspapers are translated by me. All articles taken from various sources are credited.

Beril Bahadır
Fire at Istanbul’s historic Haydarpasa station building: an accident- or vandalism of the government?

Haydarpaşa station building on fire

Apart from anything else, what really strikes me about Istanbul is its glorious  buildings, and how you can find traces of history in every one of them. On November 28th, a beautiful historic building, acknowledged to be the symbol of Istanbul, caught fire due to a “restoration” process taking place.

Five years ago, the government announced an architectural transformation project that would renovate Haydarpaşa station and the surrounding region. The project included transforming the Haydarpaşa station building into a hotel, making the area become a “World Trade Center”, and replacing the Haydarpaşa port with seven skyscrapers. These will surely make the historical feel of the district disappear. It’s not hard to see why the ruling party wanted to come up with such renovation plans in the first place, to make income out of it. The plan is very serious, although it is not reflected much by the Turkish media (which is not surprising under such oppression): You can click here to see the details of architectural project, led by an architecture company from France.

Arson, yes, it is indeed the favourite tool of Istanbul “developers” impatient for their big projects to begin. Perhaps in the future, it will be decided repairs will be too costly, so a new station will have to be built elsewhere, and as the building will have lost its primary purpose it will be transformed into a new showcase development.

It is such a shame to see historical monuments being wasted so that some political party will reap monetary benefits. I, like any other sane person from Turkey, do not want this area to be transformed into a shopping/entertainment hell, the city is already invaded by buildings of such sort. I hope I really am getting too far-fetched by accusing the ruling party with arson, I deeply wish to be proven wrong. I really wish Haydarpaşa is not, and will never be, the victim of some architectural project so that certain people make income out of it.




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