The illegal business on the Üsküdar coast was finally demolished. Years later, with the demolition of the illegal cafe, which cut the visual connection of Istanbulites with the Bosphorus, hindered the integrity of Üsküdar Square, which was brought to the city by the İBB, and disrupted the aesthetics of the unique work of Mimar Sinan, Kuşkonmaz Mosque, it won the law. A civilian shot a gun to the IMM teams who went to the region to demolish the illegal cafe this morning. The armed civilian, who went to the roof of the illegal enterprise, showed the workers who were trying to do their duty and brought them down. However, the teams did not back down. Upon the complaint of İBB teams, TS, who was learned to be a relative of the owner of the business, was detained by the police. The effort of IMM, which has been trying to run the law for 4 years, gave results this morning. The will, which took a step back against the determination of IMM and resorted to various means to prevent the destruction despite the court's decision in favor of IMM, remembered its duty, albeit late. While the İBB teams, who made the final preparations for the evacuation and demolition, were doing the detection work inside the illegal cafe, Üsküdar Municipality teams started the demolition with a small construction machine. The dangerous construction machine was stopped with the intervention of IMM teams. The big construction machine brought by IMM for demolition quickly carried out the demolition and cleared the coast of illegal structures.
AUTHOR: WE HAVE SEEN THE INSTITUTIONS THAT SHOULD BE A STAKEHOLDER WITH US FOR YEARS
IMM Deputy Secretary Generals Murat Yazıcı and Buğra Gökce followed the demolition on site at the head of the teams. Answering the questions of journalists after the demolition, IMM Deputy Secretary General Murat Yazıcı reminded that IMM has been working to establish the law for 4 years and said, “We have come many times for demolition. We saw before us the public institutions that should be our stakeholders. We did the same procedure today, but we found the security next to us, not in front of us. We do the cleaning. Our only goal here is to fulfill the court decision and to eliminate zoning inconsistencies on the site,” he said.
GÖKCE: WE WILL CONTINUE
Saying that IMM will continue to work to bring public spaces to the public and to open them for use by the public, IMM Deputy Secretary General Buğra Gökce said, “In other places of Istanbul, all occupied spaces have been donated to various individuals, organizations, foundations and associations, for purposes other than their intended use. We will continue to follow the demolition processes of all areas used, both before the law and before the police,” he said.
WHAT HAPPENED?
Since 2019, numerous obstacles have been brought against the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM), which wants to use its authority to clear the Üsküdar coast from illegal structures. Üsküdar Municipality did not do its duty. Üsküdar District Governorship ignored the applications of İBB. Finally, the Provincial Directorate of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change stepped in, claiming that it was authorized, and writing to the Üsküdar District Governor, demanding that security measures be taken, claiming that "destruction will cause irreparable damage in the future". Üsküdar District Governor's Office did not enforce the legal demolition decision for days by planting the state police in front of the state police.
The court's decision dated April 6, 2023, found İBB justified, and despite the fact that there was no legal obstacle to the demolition of the illegal cafe, which was found to be in violation of the zoning law, İBB was prevented from doing its job.
DESTROYMENTS WILL CONTINUE IN THE REGION
IMM, which carried out the destruction of 10 out of 4 illegal businesses on the Salacak coast of Üsküdar, is waiting for the conclusion of the ongoing courts to carry out the demolition of 6 illegal businesses, some of which are under its ownership.