Urban protection and renewal dilemma: İzmir Mezarlıkbaşı

Abstract

At the beginning of the 21st century, efforts to preserve cultural heritage in his- torical settlements is a highly problematic and multi-faceted issue in Turkey. Al- though conservation legislation dates back to 60 years ago, heritage conservation has not been internalized and accepted in the wider part of society, and, has not established a sound political foundation. On the other, however, there is also a lack of integrated land-use planning and management. The purpose of this study is to present the difficulties of dealing with the con- servation, renewal, and regeneration for heritage areas in the historic core of İzmir, Mezarlıkbaşı-Kemeraltı, as well as to discuss the intrinsic physical qualities, dynamic characters and diversity of community groups with a view of new spa- tial agenda. The objective of the study is therefore twofold: 1) documentation of the physical characteristics and values for understanding the place; 2) to evaluate incorporating integrated strategic planning and management approach pointing the need for incorporating, leadership, partnership, integration and inclusion as a policy guideline for the safeguarding the heritage area. Our findings show that the Municipality of İzmir has made a significant attempt as TARKEM’s leadership position, which has succeeded in attracting national and international interest in Kemeraltı and creating opportunities for the future, but partnership (opera- tion), management (structure) and inclusion (its processes) still lack. Commu- nity groups are not seen as part of the planning activities and planning has been remote, fragmented and exclusively missing an integrated planning management approach