Brave New Turkey

Brave New Turkey, 2015-2016
Norman Behrendt

Rapidly rising housing complexes, skyscrapers, huge shopping malls, highways, another bridge to span the Bosporus, the biggest airport of the world, dozens of tunnels, the extensions of the metro-lines and hundreds of new built mosques - Turkey's construction boom is the engine of its growth spurt.

Since the AKP under prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan became the first party in Turkey in 2003, it is constantly building an Islamic regime and aims economic growth as the main goal, followed by the desire to develop Turkey into one of the most important economic platforms worldwide. This growth is mainly made possible by foreign capital inflow and gets visible in uncountable construction sites, especially mass housing projects all over Turkey.

Similarities to the the pell-mell construction boom and the rapid growth in Spain and Ireland are obvious, where alliances among banks, developers and politicians contributed to the creation of real estate bubbles that popped once interest rates began to rise, puncturing the overall economies as well.

According to research by Mustafa Sonmez, a specialist on the Turkish economy, the construction spending in 2014 was about 9 percent of the overall economy, a level that the International Monetary Fund has found to be associated with problems in other countries. Moreover the list of unsold housing units has risen to 1.5 million, compared to levels close to zero several years ago. (NY-Times, May 2014)

In my work „Brave New Turkey“ i take a look at some of the obscure housing projects. I focus on Turkey`s capital Ankara, especially the district Yenimahalle.