Urbanization and architectural developments in North Cyprus during British colonial and postcolonial periods

İngiliz sömürge dönemi ve sömürge sonrası Kuzey Kıbrıs'ta kent ve mimarlık

Abstract

Because of its location in the Mediterranean Sea, Cyprus has seen many colonial rules through history. The British rule is the last colonial period which has left many traces on the island. In the 19th century, India was the biggest colony of the British Empire. Opening the Suez Canal, the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire brought renewed strategic importance to the Eastern Mediterranean and Cyprus. In 1878 the Ottoman Empire relinquishes the administration of Cyprus to the British Empire. Britain annexed the island in 1925 and until 1960 the island remained as a British Crown Colony. Since beginning of the colonial period many improvements in transportation and communication networks; administration, education, and health systems; agricultural techniques; urban and rural planning have been achieved. In earlier years of the British rule, instead of regulations that form architecture and urban planning of whole island, few legal arrangements for local needs has realized -like “Famagusta Development Plan”. The first comprehensive attempt to control the development of the cities and architecture is dating back to 1927 with the “Construction of Buildings, Streets and Wells on Arazi Mirie Laws”. This law has revised several times. According to architectural practices intensity, British Period in Cyprus has been divided into three parts (Early Period, Intensive Improvement Period and Late Period). Administrative organization, surveys of Cyprus and infrastructure works were the major activities in the “Early Period”. It followed by the “Intensive Improvement Period” which dates in between WWI and WWII. The increase of new buildings started in the early 1920’s because of the prosperity owed to maritime trade. In addition to architecture, there were several attempts of urban design. WWII led to an unproductive period characterized by poverty. The migration of unemployed rural population to the cities, shortage of imported construction materials, and discontinuation of building activities created housing problems. Until the end of the “Late Period” many problems like housing, ethnic conflicts took place. This was the combination of the Cypriots demand for freedom (1931) like in many other British colonies and unmistakable signs of the fading of the golden era of British Imperialism. Besides these problems there were many interesting improvements in town planning and architecture. So Patrick Abercrombie, who produced and applied the “Greater London Plan 1944”, prepared a “Preliminary Planning Report for Cyprus” in 1947. The mass housing projects were designed by considering the requirements of users, conditions of Cyprus and the experiences gained by similar projects realized in the after-war England (and in Europe). The Republic of Cyprus, based on Turkish and Greek representation has been established in 1960 and ended after three years because of the recurred conflicts. This was the first independent rule of native people under the guarantee of Turkey, Greece and Britain. After the military intervention of Turkey, Turkish and Greek people started living separately in two different areas. In this article “postcolonial period” will refer to the northern part of Cyprus which Turks live in since 1974. During the period in between 1963-74 there was no considerable architectural and other progress achieved by the Turkish people who had an introverted life in Cyprus. Nowadays the Greek society’s intense relations with Greece and complete membership in the European Union created political, social and economic differences in comparison to the Turkish society. Briefly the postcolonial period developed differently in two areas. According to the mentioned reasons above, the period of 1960-74 and south Cyprus -between 1974-2008- have been kept out of the defined postcolonial period in this study. Since 1974, architectural and urban planning improvements take place in the environment that is result of the colonial process. The existing inherited built environment, administrative and legal formations from British period and after intense relations with Turkey in many areas, affect postcolonial Cyprus in various ways. Insufficiency and mistakes in legal arrangements that form architecture and urban planning result in damages on architectural heritage of valuable historical city textures and natural environment of the island. Specially the outburst lived in the construction sector in recent years, due to the last solution plan of the United Nations (Annan Plan, 2001-04), created disordered living areas, damages on coasts, forests, nature and environment. The main reasons that affect the nowadays architecture and urban developments negatively have been defined as: lack of long term planning in existing unclear political conditions, absence of “territorial physical plan”, administrative reorganization and finance problems, lack of coordination between local and central administrations, unclear conditions created by the laws that have been using since colonial period without real revisions.

Özet

Sömürgecilik (kolonyalizm), bir ülkenin veya bölgenin siyasi kontrolünün başka bir devlete bağlı olması durumudur. Avrupa ülkelerinin farklı kıtalardaki topraklar üzerinde hakimiyet kurma girişimleri olarak tanımlanabilir. Sömürgecilik Batı çıkarları için dünyanın zorbaca sömürülmesi olarak da görülebilir. Ancak giderek kaba zorbalık yerini daha incelikli ve insani değerler kılıfı ile açıklanan bir yönetim biçimine bırakmıştır. Bu çalışmada bir taraftan 1878-1960 yılları arasında Kıbrıs’ta yaşanmış olan İngiliz sömürge dönemi ve diğer taraftan 1974-2008 yılları arasında adanın kuzeyinde yaşanan sömürge sonrası dönem, kent ve mimarlık alanlarında etkili olan yasal düzenleme ve uygulamalar açısından incelenmiş, sorunlar ve sebepleri saptanmaya çalışılmıştır. Sömürge ve sömürge sonrası süreçler karşılaştırılarak süreklilik, değişim, dönüşüm ve kopmalar vurgulanmıştır. Adada 19. yüzyıl sonlarında yoğun olarak deneyimlenmeye başlanan ve sömürge dönemiyle çakışan modernleşme süreci de doğal olarak konu kapsamı içindedir. Sömürge sonrası dönem olarak ele alınan Kuzey Kıbrıs Türk Cumhuriyeti’nde kent planlama ve mimarlık uygulamalarını şekillendiren yasal düzenlemelere ilişkin yetersizlik ve yanlışlıklar, doğal çevreye ve adanın mimari mirası olan tarihi kent dokularına zarar verilmesine sebep olmaktadır. Yaşanmakta olan siyasal belirsizlikler nedeni ile uzun vadeli planlama yapılamaması, “ülkesel fiziki plan” bulunmaması, sömürge sonrası devletin yeniden yapılanma ve finans sorunları, yerel ve merkezi yönetimler arasındaki koordinasyon problemleri, sömürge döneminden beri kullanılan birçok yasanın gerekli düzeyde revize edilmemesinden kaynaklanan yasal boşluklar günümüz kent ve mimarlığını olumsuz bir şekilde etkileyen başlıca nedenleri oluşturmaktadır.