THE METROPOLİTAN PROCESS IN TURKEY BEFORE 1984

TÜRKİYE’DE METROPOLİTEN ALAN YÖNETİMİ ÖNCESİ DÖNEM: ANAKENTLEŞMENİN TARİHSEL ARKA PLANI

Abstract

Since the 1950s, the rapid industrialization process in Turkey has triggered internal migration movements, leading to unplanned and intense urbanization, particularly in metropolitan cities such as Istanbul, Ankara, and İzmir. This rapid urban growth overwhelmed local governments’ capacity to deliver services, and the fragmented administrative structure further hindered coordination in public services. These challenges prompted a search for a new management model that would enable comprehensive metropolitan-scale planning and governance. After the 1980s, particularly with the enactment of Law No. 3030 on Metropolitan Municipalities in 1984, the metropolitan municipality system was formally established on a legal basis in Turkey. The metropolitan municipality model has aimed to ensure higher levels of spatial and administrative coordination, developed for effective urbanization, planning, and delivery of public services. Among the short- and long-term metropolitan management models developed in this context, service agreements, special-purpose organizations, consolidation models, and local federations have come to the forefront. In Turkey, laws numbered 2560 and 2561, along with institutions such as İSKİ, established specifically for Istanbul, have played pioneering roles in institutionalizing this structure. Additionally, the Development Plans and reform efforts of the 1980–1983 period laid the conceptual and structural foundations for the transition to the metropolitan municipality model. With Law No. 6360 enacted in 2012, the boundaries of metropolitan municipalities were expanded to align with provincial administrative borders, incorporating rural areas into this administrative structure and thus initiating a new phase in metropolitan governance. In this study, the historical development of the metropolitan municipality system in Turkey, from the late Ottoman period until 1984 (when Law No. 3030 was enacted), is examined through a multidimensional analysis. This analysis goes beyond merely legal regulations and includes development plans, international governance models, and urbanization dynamics.