Turkish authorities’ planning for urban renewal have been protested in Istanbul right in front of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality headquarters where protesters clashed with police, one CHP deputy is among the wounded.

Istanbul News / NationalTurk – A member of Turkish Parliament from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) received head wounds today after being injured during a protest in ıstanbul. Demonstrators have been protesting against authorities’ urban renewal plans in front of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality building in Fatih in the Old City.

Mahmut Tanal, an Istanbul deputy from CHP ranks had joined other demonstrators to revile the plans for urban transformation plans when violence erupted between the protesters and the Turkish police.

An unidentified number of protesters were taken into police custody as usual following the violent clashes.

Istanbul undergoes huge controversial reconstruction programme

Turkey’s cultural capital is undergoing a huge construction programme that is driving out communities, demolitions in the central Taksim neighbourhood of Tarlabasi are still under way despite legal objections from residents, architects, and human rights groups.

Environment and Urban Planning Minister Erdoğan Bayraktar stated a recently announced urban transformation project to reinforce structures against earthquakes would commence following the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan at the end of August.

Empty buildings, many of which date from the late 19th century and are used to house a large part of Istanbul’s former Greek population, have already been gutted, waiting for their turn. In the area’s main street, only the local barber and one cornershop still hang on.

Urban Planning in Istanbul is AKP treachery to our environment

About 50 other ancient neighbourhoods in Istanbul alone are earmarked for urban renewal projects, and 7.5bn Turkish liras (£2.69bn) has been budgetted for Istanbul’s public development projects in 2012, according to Kadir Topbas, mayor of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality.

The formerly Roman neighbourhood of Sulukule, renown for its Gypsie residents and their jolly lifstyle has already been razed to make way for ‘ Ottoman-style’ disgusting townhouses, and the Turkish transport minister, Binali Yildirim, a controversial figure even among AKP ranks, has vowed to go ahead and went indeed with the construction of a third Bosphorus bridge that, environmentalists and urban planners warn, would further increase traffic congestion and lead to the destruction of Istanbul’s last forest areas and water reservoirs. However the fogy AKP ministers did not heed the calls.

Professor Gülsen Özaydin, head of the urban planning department at the Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts Istanbul, warns: ‘ There is no urban planning that sees Istanbul as a whole. Projects are completely detached from one another, and take no heed of the existing urban fabric, or the people living there. That’s very dangerous for the future of a city.’

Istanbul Urban Planning will profit those who are close to AKP administration

And all sensitive Turkish citizens ( exactly 54 % of the country) are well aware of the fact, that the ruling AKP ( Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party) set the urban planning freakshow into motion so some construction firms and contractors can cash in more unearned income. The sites where so-called urban planning will occur, are estimated to gain in value immensely.