On March 3rd we attended a lecture given by Tuna Kuyucu in Bosporus University on construction projects in Turkey and had a meeting with Vice Mayor of Zeytinburnu municipality district. The former’s lecture provided an interesting perspective on construction projects in Turkey, while Vice Mayor’s talk did not touch on many details of policies of our interest but some general statements that did not seem very informative to me.
The title of Dr. Kuyucu’s lecture is interesting and related to the construction projects visited yesterday— “Has Turkey Turned into a ‘Cosntructoracy’?” Dr. Kuyucu argues that construction does not take much share of GDP in Turkey, although there is some change in construction projects overall. He states that there has been more and more public investment than private investment after the economic crisis in 2008. For example, many great projects such as the third highway ring and the third airport were passed in 2009. According to him, there are mainly three reasons for the government to initiate a great number of construction projects: to keep the economy afloat, to generate employment, and to maintain power via populist mechanisms. Another factor of significance is that the government and contractors can all financially benefit from these projects, and the Turkish government is indeed corrupt. He ends his lecture with the word “Gigantomania”, which demonstrates his critical view of these construction projects. Kuyucu’s analysis is compatible with mine in my previous post. As I noted early, many developing countries do similar things to develop the economy and maintain the appearance of its prosperity. This strategy may work in a short-term as long as the unemployment rate is kept on a certain level, and foreign, public or domestic investment keep flowing into the country. However, there is a probability that when the economy is heated too fast, there is no more interest can be gained through investment, and much capital may be transferred abroad.
In terms of my research topic on Syrian refugees, both Dr. Kuyucu and Vice Mayor of Zeytinburnu municipality district talked about this topic. It is interesting that Dr. Kuyucu mentioned that a failed urban renewal project housing called Sulukule currently hosts many Syrian refugees, and these refugees who are mostly wealthy help generate the economy in that decaying community. The Vice Mayor said that the Turkish people were always wiling to share what they had with Syrian refugees, which seemed to contradict with negative reports I read. I would like to further study how Syrian refugees integrate themselves into Istanbul, and if there is any government aid for them.