Sulukule (literally: "Water tower") is a historic quarter in the

Fatih Fatih () is a district of and a municipality (''belediye'') in Istanbul, Turkey, and home to almost all of the provincial authorities (including the governor's office, police headquarters, metropolitan municipality and tax office) but not the co ...

district of

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

, Turkey. It is within the area of Istanbul’s historic peninsula, adjacent to the western part of the

city wall A defensive wall is a fortification usually used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. The walls can range from simple palisades or earthworks to extensive military fortifications with towers, bastions and gates ...

s. The area has historically been occupied by

Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnicities * Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia ** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule * Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...

communities. Roma presence in this part of Istanbul dates back to

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

times, while it is in the 15th century, upon Ottoman conquest, that the quarter became (reportedly) the first district in the world permanently settled by sedentary

Romani people in Turkey The Romani people in Turkey ( tr, Türkiye'deki Romanlar) or Turks of Romani Background ( tr, Roman kökenli Türk) are Turkish citizen and the biggest subgroup of the Turkish Roma, they are Sunni muslims, mostly of Sufism branch,https://acikbi ...

. Sulukule was notable for its entertainment houses, where the Romani performed music and dance to the visitors from in and outside Istanbul. The closure of these entertainment houses in 1992 precipitated serious socio-economic decline in the area.

Redevelopment and gentrification

In 2005, the ruling AKP authorities in the

and Greater Istanbul municipalities announced plans to redevelop Sulukule, demolishing most buildings and replacing them with far more expensive housing that was unaffordable to many who had previously lived there. Despite protests and objections, in 2008 the local government started compulsory purchase orders and forced evictions. It’s claimed that these evictions disproportionately affected Roma residents. The redevelopment has since been used as a case study in “planned gentrification”.

Gallery

File:SulukuleHouse12.jpg File:SulukuleHouse13.jpg File:SulukuleHouse15.jpg

References

* Mimarizm.com
''Brief History of Sulukule.''
2008. * *

Redevelopment and gentrification

Gallery

References

See also