The Istanbul Dilemma: Earthquake Risks, In Addition to the Housing Crisis

Istanbul –

From his second-floor apartment on the western edge of Istanbul, Ismail Çiftsurin watched workers pass through his window toward the building next door.

Demolition was about to begin on the Cinar complex, a complex of 13 apartment buildings, each six stories tall.

Partnership reporting

This article was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting.

His building — his family’s home for three decades — was scheduled for demolition in late March, leaving just over a month to find another place to live.

“Life here is over,” Ciftsuren, 74, declared.

His family is caught in a double crisis: Istanbul, like Los Angeles, faces an acute housing shortage and a severe earthquake risk.

Ismail Sevtsurin helps pack up the apartment he and his family called home 27 years ago. Their building failed an earthquake endurance test and was slated for demolition in March.

(Rina Effendi / For The Times)

The family was concerned about living in a building deemed unsafe in the event of an earthquake. But the most immediate fear was of having to find a new home in a city where population growth and a lack of land for building drove up real estate prices and rents.

They and many of their neighbors opposed a private developer’s plan to replace their complex with luxurious high-rise buildings, and continued to resist even after a massive earthquake killed tens of thousands of people on the other side of the country. But they lost.

The sky was gray and it was raining as the bulldozers arrived, the conclusion of a nearly year-long legal battle.

Ciftsuren moved from room to room as the sounds of demolition from the building next door rippled through his floorboards and rattled his wife’s memorabilia off the shelf. Some of the neighbors were already packing up, dragging their suitcases over corridors strewn with broken glass.

But with nowhere else to go, Ciftsuren and his family had no choice but to stay as long as possible.

He said, “If we can, we’ll get out of here tomorrow.”

The Cinar Residence, a convict complex of 13 apartment buildings where the Ciftsurens lived.

(Rina Effendi / For The Times)

Istanbul had a population of 8 million in 1996, the year Cevtsuren and his wife Bede arrived from their impoverished hometown of Mardin, 680 miles to the east, and moved into their airy two-bedroom corner apartment.

“It was a green area, quiet,” said Sivtsorin, who for decades worked as a manual laborer and spent his entire savings to buy the apartment for $14,000.

Today 16 million people live in the city, and the neighborhood, perched on the eastern shore of Kucukcekmece Lake, is developing rapidly with old buildings demolished and replaced with shiny new ones.

Ciftsurens Residence is built on land reclaimed from Kucukcekmece Lake. The developers promised lake views in the new apartments to be built.

(Rina Effendi / For The Times)

Now Ciftsuren and his wife, who is 74, are chipping away at his state pension while thanking God for making them longtime homeowners.

Ciftsuren first heard that the developers were spinning around the Cinar Residence seven years ago, but the apartment owners have repeatedly voted against their offers. Then in May last year, the complex failed an earthquake test requested by one of its residents.

Under the disaster zoning law, this meant that the buildings either had to be fortified or demolished.

With little funding for retrofits, the owners began considering offers from developers, including Sega Construction, a local firm that proposed replacing the complex with five 15-story towers comprising more than 500 units. When the project is complete, each of the 240 displaced owners will get a new apartment, and Sega will make its money by selling the rest.

A total of 200 homeowners voted in favor of the plan — well above the two-thirds required by law to move forward with the project.

Some retirees have taken the developer to court, claiming that the earthquake test was bogus and that the company was in cahoots with some of their neighbours. The court halted the plans until it could examine the claims.

Ciftsurens did not join the lawsuit – they did not have the money to contribute to the lawyer – but they opposed the redevelopment.

Ismael and Pedi Ciftsuren at home with their family.

(Rina Effendi / For The Times)

Although they will get a new apartment, the monthly fee will be much more than they can afford. More importantly, the redevelopment would permanently displace the tenants, including two of their children, who had been living in separate flats upstairs with their families.

“These buildings are strong!” Ciftsuren said. “A handyman once said he couldn’t drill into the wall, it was too strong. I have no idea why the engineers decided it was dangerous.”

Everyone in the compound was awaiting a court ruling in early February when a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck southern Turkey and northern Syria, destroying cities and killing more than 50,000 people.

The epicenter was 600 miles from Istanbul and no damage was sustained. But the scenes of destruction sparked panic. The city lies on a major fault line, and with many buildings constructed to substandard standards, it is believed that more than a quarter of the population is at risk of significant damage to their homes in a major earthquake.

The city has since received more than 100,000 inspection requests. Dozens of buildings have already been condemned as residents scramble for new places to live and developers corner for building opportunities.

Soon, TV news crews reached the Cinar Residence, reporting that the complex was an example of dozens of death-hunting buildings across the city.

One of the Ciftsurens’ daughters, Nesime, who lives in another compound nearby, has accused pro-redevelopment neighbors of contacting the media.

“They used it as propaganda,” she said.

A week later, on February 23, the court ruled that the demolition must continue, deducing from an expert witness report that the earthquake test was correct.

It was the day the bulldozers arrived.

Over the past two years, average rents in Istanbul have more than quintupled amid competition from newly arrived exiles from Syria, Afghanistan and, more recently, Russia and Ukraine.

Now thousands of people displaced by the February 6 earthquake are flocking to the city.

Sega was offering each Cinar Residence apartment owner $115 per month to cover rental costs during construction. But when Ciftsuren searched online for places nearby, the cheapest he could find was $310 — his entire pension.

The developer offered to buy it for $100,000, but that was far too little to be an apartment anywhere in Istanbul.

Sevtsurin and his wife considered moving back to Mardin, where houses were much cheaper, but Bedi could not bear the thought of leaving her family.

As the clock ticked away, demolition crews took down windows and doors from other buildings. The complex is now mostly deserted. Handwritten sign warns of thieves.

On March 20, the Safechers learned that demolition of their building would begin in seven days. Ciftsuren packed their carpets in huge plastic bags and his wife put their clothes in suitcases.

“They told us not to remove the doors,” she said. “But these doors are ours, and they are good. I want to take them with me.”

The chairman of the complex’s management committee, Simci Açık, was at a loss as to why some residents were still holding out.

“They must be stupid. Why are they still refusing?” He said to the foreman who swung near his desk to take a break.

Soon the Ciftsurens and their children were the only ones left on the premises. Bedi managed to distract herself by visiting her grandchildren – until she looked out the window.

She exclaimed: “Everything is gone, everything is destroyed.”

Then, four days before the scheduled demolition of his building, Ciftsuren found a new listing online: a two-bedroom house down the road. It was $520 a month, but he was old enough that he thought his daughter Elif and her husband—who were displaced from Cinar’s residence—could move in and help share the rent.

“There is a lot of interest,” the owner told him. “I don’t know. I have a family from Kahramanmaras” — a city devastated by the earthquake — “you ask about that too.”

And the owner seemed to be waiting for more money, but after he said Ciftsurens could have the house.

On Sunday, March 26, they got up before dawn.

Bedi cried as she watched her life’s possessions being emptied from her home. Everything looked so small when it was packed up, while her house looked huge and cool. Ciftsuren gently told her that they could not take the doors. They had no place to store them.

The Ciftsuren help unpack at a newly rented house within walking distance of the old building.

(Rina Effendi / For The Times)

Several other buildings in the area were also condemned, and local carriers raised their rates. The Ciftsurens gathered their extended family and moved everything themselves, the men and their furniture moving in a curve as they climbed the stairs while the women pulled suitcases.

They struggled up the narrow path, back and forth four times to their new home less than a quarter of a mile away.

By lunchtime their old apartment was empty, and Pedi slammed the door for the last time.

Ciftsuren took one last look around where he had spent a third of his life. He said, “I will never come back here again.”

His plan was to sell the new apartment they were going to get and use the money to buy another place in town. Their children were priced everywhere in Istanbul and they were thinking of cheaper cities.

For now, the family had no choice but to try to settle into the rent.

Bediye Ciftsuren figurines can serve tea in their new home just by cleaning up the kitchen. The house has a small patio where her grandchildren can play.

(Rina Effendi / For The Times)

The old two-story home was one of the newer in the neighborhood, wedged between new tower blocks with banners advertising units for sale. The wallpaper was peeling and the cracks in the walls were covered in grime.

Bede believes that with some care, he can be brought back to life. She could serve tea once the kitchen was cleaned, and there was a little patio where her grandchildren could play.

“When it’s over, it’ll be like a different place,” she said.

She did her best to put aside another concern. The previous tenants had left Istanbul after the February earthquake because they feared that this house would also be unsafe. The Ciftsurens knew it was also likely to fail the building test – and that if that happened, they would have to leave again.

Smith is a special correspondent.

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