Turkey: Letting the Housing Fox into the Environmental Protection Henhouse?
One of the more notable additions to the new Turkish cabinet, whose members were announced today, is Erdogan Bayraktar, head of the newly-created Ministry of the Environment and Urban Planning. An argument could be made for making one ministry in charge of both protecting the environment and developing the cities (rapidly growing, in Turkey's case) that are threatening it, but the appointment of Bayraktar is certain to raise red flags. A first-time MP, Bayraktar was most recently head of TOKI, Turkey's powerful state housing agency, which has been one of the main forces behind Turkey's much-criticized "urban renewal" projects, which have led to entire communities being displaced and vast swathes of undeveloped land turned into cookie-cutter high-rise neighborhoods. In terms of both environmental protection and urban planning, TOKI's record is not great. Several Eurasianet articles about the agency and its actions can be found here.
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