ANKARA, Nov 1 (AFP) - Violent clashes between police and residents of an Istanbul squatter area protesting last week against the demolition of their homes have revived a debate over the state of housing in Turkey, which the government has vowed to improve.
The clashes, in the neighbourhood of Ertugrulgazi in suburban Pendik, on the Asian shore of the city of 12 million, came as police tried to protect municipal demolition teams as they razed 14 houses -- so-called "gecekondu" (built by night, in Turkish) -- built illegally on state-owned land.
The Turkish government led by Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan is waging war against the "gecekondu", which generally house people of rural origin who eke out a living in the city, often in menial jobs. The houses are built without any respect for hygiene and security standards.
The evacuations regularly cause clashes between police and tenants, although rarely on the scale of those last week which involved pitched battles.
The houses are the result of uncontrolled urbanization and a steady population flow from the countryside to urban areas has resulted in entire neighborhoods of illegally built homes mushrooming in and around Turkey's major cities.
The wild urbanisation was tolerated by successive governments which, for political ends, gave the inhabitants amnesties, usually in the run-up to elections, allowing them to stay and letting people who built the houses off the hook.
Under Erdogan's plans some of the neighborhoods are razed while others manage to negotiate deals with local governments to ensure their survival and profit from occasional amnesties to flourish and grow into entire suburbs with their own schools and businesses.
A lucrative underground housing market has sprung up, rushing up houses to meet the demand.
Although the potentially explosive stand-off between security forces and the inhabitants of an Istanbul squatter area was defused on Thursday when city authorities and residents reached an agreement after nearly three hours of talks, Prime Minister Erdogan faces a long-haul addressing a problem papered over by successive governments.
A small shop owner living in his premises jammed between two "gecekondu" in the area of Altindag in Ankara, was laconic when asked about the lives of people living in the neighbourhood.
"Our children go to school. We all have running water and electricity either legally or not, but it's ok...This is not really a gecekondu. We have been here for generations. It is an old neighbourhood, that's all" the 50-year-old man said.
For both electoral reasons and with a view to meeting the standards of the European Union, which Turkey badly wants to join, Erdogan's government recently attacked the issue, voting through a law which introduced penalties of up to five years jail for those who build the illegal houses.
Some 38 percent of Turkish houses are said to be built without authorisation.
So a massive task remains ahead building social housing to house those thrown out of their illicit homes, in a country in which 10 million of the 70 million population live below the poverty line.
The government has announced that it will build hundreds of thousands of social houses over the next few years for the most needy families, with the help of long-term credits.
It has also made clear it is opposed to the construction of new "gecekondu", ruling out a new amnesty.
11/01/2004 13:08 GMT - AFP