©Reuters. A building transferred to the Treasury under a new urban transformation law is demolished, in Hatay, Turkey, January 30, 2024. REUTERS/Umit Bektas
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By Ceyda Caglayan and Burcu Karakas
SAMANDAG, Turkey (Reuters) – Habip Yapar feels lucky that his home in southern Turkey withstood last year’s devastating earthquake. Then in October a text message appeared on his phone informing him that the government was taking ownership of the apartment.
The message sent to Yapar, 61, stated that deeds relating to his property in Hatay province would be transferred to the Treasury under an amendment to the urban planning law that would affect thousands of earthquake survivors.
Urbanization Minister Mehmet Ozhaseki said in early February that the government needed new powers set out in the amendment to speed up the redevelopment of neighborhoods in cities badly damaged by the earthquake, which flattened a swath of the southeast of the country on February 6, 2023.
Hatay, the southernmost region of mainland Turkey, bordering Syria, suffered the most damage during the deadliest earthquake in the country’s modern history. Since then, reconstruction has fallen behind ambitious deadlines set by President Tayyip Erdogan.
According to the regulation, approved in November, the seizures were to create “reserve building areas”, a temporary measure to speed up reconstruction. Interested people will be entitled to the property after paying construction costs, it said without giving details on the financial burden.
Although earthquake insurance is mandatory in Turkey, the rule is not always enforced and the insurance often covers only a fraction of the costs of rebuilding or buying a new property.
Interviews with nearly two dozen residents, lawyers and local officials show that thousands of homeowners were blindsided by the seizure plans, and many learned on social media that their properties would be affected.
Like Yapar, dozens in his coastal hometown of Samandag received text messages even before the amendment was passed in November.
Five months later, the government has yet to inform those affected how much they will pay, what happens if they are unable to do so, any compensation they may be entitled to and exactly when and how long their securities will remain in the government’s possession. , people Reuters spoke to said.
“It’s like going to a restaurant where they bring you a dish, but you don’t know the price. You have to pay whatever the bill is,” said Ecevit Alkan, president of the Committee on Environment and Urban Law at the Bar Association of Hatay.
Reuters spoke to four homeowners and two lawyers in the districts of Hatay, Samandag, Defne and Antakya, who filed a lawsuit at the Hatay Administrative Court to block the orders.
The Urbanization Ministry and Erdogan’s office did not respond to questions from Reuters. Several opposition parties have submitted parliamentary questions asking the ministry for more information on the new law, but they remain unanswered.
Yapar lives with his wife, adult son and daughter in a temporary tent. At least 215,000 survivors in Hatay live in container camps or tents.
The retired civil engineer had been saving money to repair his two-story house. Now that the property has been transferred to the government, he cannot start working. The house is scheduled to be demolished.
Yapar, among those who filed suit, denied that the building was beyond repair.
“We can rebuild our homes ourselves and we don’t want a penny from the state.”
HOMELESS IN HATAY
Just over a year after the devastating earthquake that killed more than 53,000 people in Turkey, hundreds of thousands of survivors remain in temporary homes such as containers and tents.
Most of the affected owners have been living with acquaintances or in temporary containers since the earthquake flattened or damaged their apartments and there has been no word on when the new buildings will be ready, residents and lawyers said.
Others were left homeless due to seizure notices. Hatice Altinoz said she and her adult son Ahmet had to move from their damaged apartment in Hatay’s Antakya because the building is in a reserve area largely cleared for reconstruction.
“The authorities didn’t provide us with a container to stay in because our building hadn’t collapsed, so I moved into my daughter’s container house,” Altinoz said.
Omer and Dilay Dolar, residents of Antakya, said they learned on social media that their five properties were in a designated area, where few buildings are located.
“My family and I have worked hard to own these assets,” said Dilay Dolar, 57, an entrepreneur. “But now it is unclear what the future holds.”
The federal government-run Hatay governor’s office said on its website that nearly 44,000 homes will replace relocated properties in February. He gave no figures on how many people’s properties will be seized during the trial and did not respond to questions from Reuters.
In total, Erdogan promised 254,000 new homes for the province, but fewer than 7,300 have been completed so far, according to data from the governor’s office. An official told Reuters last year that limits on funds and rising prices were responsible for the delays.
Alkan, a member of the bar association, said nearly 50,000 people will be affected by property seizures, based on the population of neighborhoods designated as reserve areas in the province.
In Samandag, Mayor Refik Eryilmaz said he welcomed the government’s plan for a modern bazaar and new housing in designated reserve areas.
But, he said, it was wrong for the government to send text messages to property owners in his city without explaining the project or the legal and financial arrangements.
“Government authorities have failed to provide a satisfactory explanation to the public, which is problematic,” Eryilmaz, of the main opposition CHP party, said in an interview.
Some residents see politics at play. Hatay is an opposition-run district where Erdogan is eager to make inroads in local elections on March 31.
The speech in the province on the first anniversary of the earthquake was widely interpreted as a veiled message that reconstruction aid would flow more smoothly under the ruling party’s administration.
Erdogan then stressed that reconstruction efforts do not distinguish between supporters and opponents of the government.
LAWSUITS
Given the paucity of information, homeowners and lawyers who spoke to Reuters were wary and feared the state could hold the property if the owners were unable to pay.
The new amendment to the Law on the Transformation of Disaster-Prone Areas granted the Ministry’s Directorate of Urban Transformation broad authority to designate private properties as reserve building areas without first obtaining the consent of the owners.
Orhan Ozen, a lawyer from Samandag, said the law violates property rights and does not specify how owners will be protected after their properties are handed over to the Treasury, despite promises of a smooth reconstruction process.
So far, the Directorate of Urban Transformation has declared more than 200 hectares of land as reserve areas in Hatay province, official data shows.
Ozen, who sued over stays on two parcels of land in Samandag, said the designation covered the city’s most valuable properties.
“The balance between the public interest and citizens is being ignored,” Ozen said, adding that the lack of detail in the law has sown uncertainty, including what will happen to a new property if the owner dies before paying it off.
In a plea seen by Reuters, the urbanization ministry said the suspension request should be rejected on the basis that the applicants only have rights to individual properties, not the larger area designated by the ministerial decision.
Samandag Central Bazaar is located amidst around 1.6 hectares in the district seized for renovation as per the plan. Ali Tas, who runs a toy shop in the bazaar, said he would be willing to work in a container for a while if the bazaar eventually looks good.
But Hasan Fehmi Cilli, a 56-year-old doctor, said neither he nor his neighbors, whose offices and shops operate in the bazaar but are slated for redevelopment, have given their consent. He was among those who filed a lawsuit.
“There are a lot of uncertainties. Will the state provide us with a property in the same location, on the same land and of the same size?” Fehmi Cilli said, visibly angry.