Turkey: Development and Istanbul's Tale of Two Cities

Yigal Schleifer

Tasoluk, a development on the outskirts of Istanbul

The subject of Istanbul and its booming growth appears to be in the air these days. In a recent report, National Public Radio's Peter Kenyon takes a look at how Istanbul's fast-paced development is leading to a clash between old and new and also forcing residents of older, more run-down neighborhood out of their homes.

In terms of policing, Turkey's vast cosmopolis offers lessons for the developing megacities of today, places like Dubai and Jakarta, Nairobi and Cairo. Istanbul has in recent decades been undergoing a rapid transformation, as urban expansion and modernization remake previously dilapidated and marginalized neighborhoods into welcoming retail and residential districts, often pushing the less advantaged to outlying areas. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a former Istanbul mayor, envisions the city as a global hub and world financial center.

It's already one of the safer major international cities, for which Zarinebaf cites layers of law enforcement. Policing principles are drawn from the military. Training and education is essential – 85 percent of Turkish police have undergraduate degrees.

The city sets up police checkpoints at night to monitor movement. An integrated surveillance system connects hundreds of CCTV cameras to thousands of squad cars and scores of mobile stations, keeping an eye on most public areas.

At the same time, a community watch program maintains local vigil, via merchant guilds and neighborhood groups. “Today if I move to Turkey I have to report to the local police and tell them,” says Fariba Zarinebaf, professor of Islamic studies at University of California, Riverside. “This kind of approach to policing – not only from the top, but also from below, keeping an eye on the neighborhood – this sort of policing is uniquely Ottoman.”

Lepska suggest Istanbul and its approach to crime could serve as a model for other growing mega cities. But is that really the case? A recent story by Eurasianet's Alexander Christie-Miller suggests quite the opposite, that Istanbul's unbridled growth -- and especially the creation of monstrous new housing blocks at the city's edge -- could very well lead to the breakdown of the kind community networks that help to passively police Istanbul's neighborhoods and, thus, to more crime.