The latest status of squats in Istanbul (Oct 2018)

By: g - October 18th, 2018  Filed under: Announcement

– Yeldeğirmeni, Don Kişot: Began during Summer 2013. Evicted in November 2015. Torn down in November 2016. A new building rises now instead of squat.

– Kadıköy, Caferağa: Began in Autumn 2013. Evicted in December 2014. Back then, activists had organized the largest demo ever in Turkey to protest a squat eviction (https://bit.ly/2ypyMuO). Burnt down in November 2016.

– Beşiktaş, Berkin Elvan: Began in Spring 2014. Evicted in a month…

– Söğütlüçeşme, Samsa: Began in Spring 2014. Abandoned by many activists by Winter 2015. The building stands still as doors locked.

– Acıbadem, Lojman: Began in Winter 2016. Its anarchist collective has largely been dissolved by Summer 2016. As of October 2018, Lojman is still being maintained as a de-facto squat by several occupiers. Restricted access. For short stays, visits and other queries, please contact: lojman@@@riseup.net

*There are ongoing guerilla gardening (bostan) projects as well. Some of those areas are located on squatted sites like Roma Bostani in Cihangir.

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Istanbul (Turkey): squatting update

By: xxx - November 28th, 2016  Filed under: News

– Yeldeğirmeni, Don Kişot: Began during Summer 2013. Evicted in November 2015. Torn down in November 2016.

– Kadıköy, Caferağa: Began in Autumn 2013. Evicted in December 2014. Burnt down in November 2016.

– Beşiktaş, Berkin Elvan: Began in Spring 2014. Evicted in a month…

– Söğütlüçeşme, Samsa: Began in Spring 2014. Abandoned by many activists by Winter 2015. The building stands still as doors locked.

– Acıbadem, Lojman: Began in Winter 2016. Abandoned by many activists by Summer 2016. This squat is still open. Contact: lojman@@@riseup.net

[Translated from Turkish.]

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Turkey: Gregor Samsa and Don Kişot fighting against windmills. Squatting in Istanbul as an attempt to resist neoliberal urban politics

By: fawda - June 30th, 2015  Filed under: essay

Donkisot_serbesiyet_IstanbulOn the Trails of Don Kişot – Our Field Research in Istanbul
By the changing shape of the Istanbul skyline, the rapid growth of production within the city since the Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (AKP) rose to power in 2002 is easily visible to the city’s inhabitants. Over the past two decades, Istanbul has undergone a neoliberal restructuring process (1). Progressing globalization and digitalization have not only turned the city into a site absorbing surplus value – an epicenter of the accumulation of capital – they have also formed a new urban space in which traditional national spatial arrangements engage with those of the global digital age (2).

As a research group, we were concerned with Istanbul’s economic, cultural and social transformation into a global city over the past 50 years as well as the various effects of this transformation. During our travel to Istanbul from May 23, until May 31, 2014, we conducted field research on squatting in stanbul. The political controversies regarding common usage of urban space in everyday life as well as the political struggles stemming from immense changes of social life culminating in the Gezi Park protest in 2013 were the most obvious links between the projects we visited.

In reference to David Harveys’ “Rebel Cities”, we call people’s occupation of Taksim Square “their right to the city” (3). In our field research, we intended to explore the political intentions of The Don Kişot Sosyal Merkezi, a squat in Istanbul German leftist magazines focused on, calling it a “follow up movement to Gezi.” (4) We asked ourselves in which way squatting in Istanbul is connected to the 2013 Gezi Park protest movement and how it relates to neoliberal politics and
urban transformation. [Read More]

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