THE DISAPPEARANCE OF HISTORY IN BUCA: GOOD BYE YAYLACIK, GOOD BYE ADATEPE
THE DISAPPEARANCE OF HISTORY IN BUCA: GOOD BYE YAYLACIK, GOOD BYE ADATEPE
One of the important locomotives of the Turkish economy is undoubtedly the construction sector. Especially since the beginning of the 2000s, in order to reduce the economic stagnation in the world and to alleviate the effects of the 2008-09 crisis, the central banks of the USA (FED), Europe (ECB) and Japan (BOJ) have provided ample liquidity to international markets, and especially developing countries, thanks to the abundance of foreign exchange. It is known that he has made many investments. Turkey, as a developing country and with its increasing young population, has undoubtedly become one of the countries that benefited most from the abundance of foreign capital.
However, today it is much more clear that the foreign currency coming into the country in the following years was used for domestic demand rather than for investment in the future, and investments were made in non-permanent areas, especially construction, and the danger of current account deficit and inflation was ignored in order to achieve economic growth. Many Turkish investors invested the foreign currency they easily found in investments such as construction instead of turning it into permanent investments such as industry, and they could not sell when the demand for housing decreased, and they also had difficulty finding foreign currency with low interest rates, as important central banks, especially the FED, signaled that they would tighten money in the future. happened. With the depreciation of the lira against foreign currency, how these companies will pay their debts in the coming months is another question mark. Today, there is an economy caught in the interest-inflation spiral, where the current account deficit is growing and both inflation and interest rates are rising at the same time.
Investments in the construction sector not only harmed the economy, but also ruined the entire aesthetics of cities, including Izmir. We should point out that this situation does not only apply to Turkey and that the situation is also the same in countries with very rich history such as Egypt, Iran and Lebanon. While the historical fabric of the cities was damaged, the cities literally lost their own identities. Water beds dried up and they lost their green areas. Traffic problems arose. Neighborhood culture has disappeared.Unfortunately, Buca district has become one of the settlements that could not escape the construction frenzy. Buca had already been in a state of constant expansion since the 1970s. First, the area around Zeytintepe was opened to settlement, then today's neighborhoods such as Kozağaç, Menderes and Vali Rahmi Bey were formed. Workers' Houses district was formed. Afterwards, the fields between Şirinyer and Buca were also concreted, and then the southern countryside of Buca was opened to settlement and finally Buca Koop. Neighborhoods such as Evka and Evka came into existence and Buca, which once smelled like grapes, became a concrete city. Today, construction has not stopped. The Zafer neighborhood outside Buca started to be built, the surroundings of DEU Tınaztepe Campus and the south of it have been caught up in an incredible construction frenzy in recent years, and even in the villages of Buca, houses have begun to be built in an unprecedented way and the natural appearance has begun to deteriorate. Even the brief summary above is already an indication of how quickly Buca is being structured. However, what happened to Buca did not end there. The historical Yaylacık and Adatepe neighborhoods are centrally located and therefore very valuable financially. Yaylacık and Adatepe neighborhoods are not considered within the protected area, except for a small area in the south. In other words, it is possible to do all kinds of construction. As a result, although they preserved their historical image until the 2010s, they also began to be affected by the breakthrough of the construction industry in Turkey. Of course, it is absolutely out of the question to blame the people who put their houses up for sale here. The job of preserving historical buildings does not belong to citizens. It is already very burdensome and not everyone can handle it. At this point, the state expropriates historical structures, if necessary, and protects them by restoring them. He also pays the property owners whatever the fee is. When the central and local authorities, let alone protecting these buildings, became busy with policies to further encourage construction, the property owners here tried to secure their future by building at least three-four-storey apartment buildings instead of one- or two-storey old buildings. The depreciation of the lira against the currencies of developed countries in recent years has further accelerated investment in real estate. As a result, starting from the 2010s, historical houses in Yaylacık and Adatepe neighborhoods began to be demolished one by one and the appearance of the neighborhood changed over time. Let us give brief historical information about Yaylacık and Adatepe neighborhoods here. Of course, these two neighborhoods do not have as high quality and well-preserved houses as the Dumlupınar neighborhood. However, the upper neighborhoods also have a very important place in terms of the history of Buca, and not only for the Turks and Muslims, but also for the Greeks, although not for the Levantines of the lower neighborhoods. The first settlement of Buca is the south and east of Yaylacık neighborhood and the west and south of Adatepe neighborhood. Dumlupınar neighborhood is a neighborhood that was formed later, except for the northern part. It is known that Buca was a small Greek village in the 1600s, which reveals that Yaylacık and Adatepe neighborhoods are actually at least 400 years old. Dumlupınar neighborhood was formed in the 1800s, and these three neighborhoods formed the old Buca until the 1950s. Although it is hard to believe, the history of other neighborhoods in Buca cannot go further than 60-70 years. The Upper Aya Yani Church, considered sacred by the Greeks, is also in the upper neighborhood and its construction date was 1796. Even though the entrance gate remains today, it is seen that Greeks come here from time to time and at least take photos in front of the outer gate. While the foundation of the Aya Yani Church in Yeni Buca town near Athens was laid in 1952, the first stone laid on its foundation was the original stone of this church. After the Republic, Greeks no longer existed and Turkish, Bosnian and Albanian Muslims began to come from various parts of the Balkans. Among these people, especially those who earn their living by farming, settle in the above neighborhood. Then there were two neighborhoods in Buca. Upper and lower neighborhoods. The upper neighborhood was later divided into two: Yaylacık and Adatepe. The parts of the upper neighborhood towards Tıngırtepe were also populated by immigrants who had just arrived in Buca, and the borders of today's Yaylacık neighborhood were formed in this period. They give this name to the neighborhood to keep alive the memory of Yaylacık village, where they came from Greece. Today, almost all of the people of Buca, whose origins date back to the 1920s and 1930s, have had a connection with the Yaylacık neighborhood of their grandfathers and grandmothers. The current borders of the Adatepe neighborhood were formed in later periods. As a result, for both Muslims and Greeks, these two neighborhoods, formerly known as the upper neighborhood, have historical as well as emotional significance. While people walk these streets, they also pass through the same streets that their grandfathers walked through decades ago. The filling of the upper neighborhoods, which hold countless memories for many Buca residents, with four- or five-storey buildings will turn the upper part of historical Buca into a soulless concrete state, and has begun to do so. The old neighborhood tradition has already begun to die. Neighborhoods are disappearing. Dozens of people who do not know each other live in the apartments on the site of the old historical houses. In addition, the Bosnian and Albanian culture of the upper neighborhood is also disappearing. The upper neighborhoods take on a completely cosmopolitan structure. Of course, 81 million citizens have the right to live wherever they want, but such an amorphous and uncontrolled change may cause demographic problems in the future. The tragicomic thing about the construction activities in Buca is that all these activities are carried out under the name of so-called 'urban transformation'. There is no urban transformation in Yaylacık neighborhood or Adatepe neighborhood. Concrete is literally raining down on two neighborhoods. The region, which is exposed to unplanned construction in urban transformation, is completely or largely demolished, except for historical buildings, and after the historical monuments are restored, buildings are built in the destroyed area in an orderly manner. The roads are wide. Afforestation is done. In Buca, instead of one-two storey houses, four-five storey houses are being built haphazardly. The streets of the upper neighborhood, which are already narrow, will become even more uninhabitable. People will have difficulty breathing. Probably no one will come and plant trees. Because Zeytintepe is in the same situation. This hill in the south of Buca, which was once covered with olive trees, has now become a 'concrete hill' and one feels like drowning while walking on its streets. There is not a single tree, let alone an olive, on the streets. There is no reason why the upper neighborhoods cannot be like Zeytintepe. The upper neighborhood of Buca is dying. The only thing that can be hoped from now on is that at least the remaining historical structures can be preserved. This requires state support. While the government is so eager to reduce interest rates even at the expense of increasing inflation in order for the construction industry to survive, whether restoration and conservation projects will come to the agenda is another question mark. It is important for Buca Municipality to make an effort to preserve historical buildings, and it should; if necessary, a sponsor should be found, operators should be encouraged to carry out restorations, and support should be requested from Ankara. Most importantly, the historical streets of Yaylacık neighborhood and Adatepe neighborhood should be included in the protected area as soon as possible. Otherwise, in 10-15 years, many of today's historic upper neighborhood houses will only be in memories and photographs.
Additional Maps: Buca protected area map, Yaylacık neighborhood, Adatepe neighborhood.
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