The Origin Story of a Neighborhood Berji Kristin: Tales from the Garbage Hills
The extraordinary migration movements in the second half of the 20th century are undoubtedly the greatest dynamic in the formation of Turkish cities. The new settlements that are attached to the city periphery are called gecekondu, which means shanty houses. The neighborhoods organized around these shelters by the new working class of the city have created unique subcultures and have achieved various gains over time through struggles since their establishment. This study aims to make a urban analysis of Latife Tekin’s Berci Kristin’s Trash Tales, which is concerned with all these processes.
Keywords: Berci Kristin’s Trash Tales, Latife Tekin, Literature, City, Neighborhood, Community, Migration.
INTRODUCTION
Thanks to this assignment, I have the opportunity to continue my study on the neighborhood, in accordance with this year’s workshop theme, and moreover, by examining a literature text that I love. Thus, the main purpose of this study is to examine how the hypotheses of
“the lack of a homogeneous will that builds and reproduces the city, and the absence of such a structure in the disparate components of society, so that the symbols shape the space over and over again through ongoing struggles, transforming the space with the effects of the internal and external influences of the symbols and the communities and individuals who own them”
works in a literature narrative centered on a neighborhood subject. It is expected that a discipline like urban planning, which relies on positive sciences, will be concerned about the limitations of drawing from fictional literature texts and the reliability of explanations based on it. Moreover, the tendency of the planning profession to focus on the practical aspects also creates a strong resistance that nullifies what we are trying to do here.
Examining the research object of science by isolating (detaching from its context) produces a practical result that the knowledge produced cannot be about the whole. Every line that will combine scientifically tested truth points is a narrative, and it is not inherent in the scientific method but also fictional. The plane where a holistic truth perception is closest to science and literature passes through here. In this respect, starting from the assumption that every element in its content inevitably feeds on facts, “… literature can be defined by its distinctive use of language, not by its fictional or ‘imaginary’ nature” (Eagleton, 1996, p.15).
Although there are many examples of scientific methodology being used to construct the structure of literary texts, there are inherent obstacles to the literary author making a claim in this context, such as the fictional nature of the text as a whole and the literary author’s irresponsibility in the face of scientific authorities. However, as will be the basis for all of our arguments throughout this study, this does not prevent a realistic representation of reality from being present in a literary text theoretically. Therefore, it is quite possible and actually inevitable for a narrative to be constructed in which “the sources that inspired the writer, the culture and historical background that nourished him or her will be strongly felt” (Takış, 2003, p.9). Of course, we are not giving excessive importance to the insight of the literary author, specifically the novelist, in analyzing the issues he or she addresses in his or her work. However, we are trying to say something while keeping in mind Karpat’s statement² that “literature will be the first solid source for those who will write the social history of Turkey…” (1962, p.10). Nevertheless, what we are actually concerned with in this study is not the analysis of this narrative, whose validity is debatable, but rather finding a way to think about the city and creating a pattern that can be applied to different examples by benefiting from it. It can be said that Tekin’s work is compatible with the description of the pure novelist in contrast to the thoughtful novelist given by Pamuk. In other words, we do not believe that he thoroughly planned every fact he wrote about and carefully determined everything that was there as well as everything that was not. Therefore, the author has discovered a method that he or she will use to create this artistic object based on his or her own conscious³ and unconscious experiences. We can say that the most decisive aspect that makes this work worth working on is this method of writing. If it were to go through more filters, it would be thought to reflect a subject’s understanding of the city in a more “distorted” way.
The reflections of social unrest in social sciences and literature, and the various perspectives on how issues addressed in literature and social sciences trigger social movements have been discussed in the academic literature. Although literature is characterized as a free and autonomous domain, it is claimed that “the developments in literature are entirely shaped by the developments in social sciences” (Kayalı, 2003, p. 89), defining literature as a reactive phenomenon. However, the view that “how emotional responses to social events were expressed in the first literature, then transformed into a school of thought, and then became a force that mobilizes society’s conscience…”; therefore, “it is a force that describes today’s society and prepares for tomorrow” (Karpat, 1962, pp. 4–5) puts forward the claim that literature takes a pioneering function for revolutionary movements. It is also worth noting the importance of examining literature in the following lines:
“Our scientific knowledge about the past does not emphasize enough that urban polarization in Turkey today is not an exception but a rule. Because in this type of knowledge, there are no images that will help us feel the spirit, atmosphere, and people’s suffering of the past. Numbers, statistics, population distributions, worker wages, and living standards have been recorded, but people’s reactions to their new lifestyles, the suffering they have experienced, the humiliations they have faced, and poverty that hovers at the poverty line have not been the object of science. That’s why, to revive the image of the past, it is almost a necessity to resort to art, literature, and especially novels” (Türkeş, 2005, p. 23).
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Within the scope of this study, the narrative⁴ of Berci Kristin Çöp Masalları was critically analyzed, keeping in mind key concepts such as space-place, community dynamics, and inequalities. The observations made about the city in the narrative were investigated. In addition, all sources related to the narrative were examined in detail, and relevant aspects were evaluated within the framework of our study. Also, additional readings on the history of literature, literary theories, and the view of social sciences on literature were used to expand the perspective.
In the first section, the bibliographical information of the Berci Kristin Çöp Masalları novel, the author’s biography, the language, and narrative features of the work were briefly examined, as well as the implicit provisions of the contract that the novel establishes with the reader based on the distinctions it makes between reality and fiction. In the second section, a brief summary of urbanization in Turkey, particularly in Istanbul, was presented. After looking at the adventure of the novel genre in our literature, the novel was examined in the historical context of the period in which it was written and the period it deals with in the novel. In the next section, critical concepts on which the arguments to be presented are based were explained. In the third section, the space, community, and solidarity spirit, which were observed as three ontological elements of the neighborhood, were analyzed. The “Space” section examined the emergence (migration), establishment, organization, and transformation of the neighborhood.
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF LATİFE TEKİN’S BERCİ KRİSTİN ÇÖP MASALLARI
The author of the narrative to be examined in this study, Berci Kristin’s Tales of Garbage, is Latife Tekin, who was born in 1957 in Karacafenk⁵ Village, Bünyan/Kayseri. At an early age, around 9 years old, her family had to migrate to Istanbul when her father went to work as a laborer. Their first house in Istanbul was an old building on Kapancı Street in Beşiktaş, where wooden houses and mansions were located (Atik, 2012, p. 13). She graduated from Beşiktaş Girls High School in 1974 and got married to her first husband Ertuğrul Bey at a young age of 17 and had her first child. She worked as a civil servant for nearly a year at the Istanbul Telephone Directorate between 1976 and 1977.
Tekin is one of the pioneers of organized feminist struggle in Turkey. She was also a member of the Progressive Women’s Association’s administration for a while. During the 70s when the labor movement was on the rise and unions were relatively strong due to the guarantees provided by the 1961 constitution, she organized many strikes and cooked meals for workers there. The traces of the profound social trauma created by the 1980 coup are evident in her works. Changes in her perception of the world resonate in her works as a way of reckoning with her ideological past. Additionally, the fact that her early childhood was spent outside of Istanbul may have contributed to her estranged perspective on the city.
Her first novel published in 1983, which closely examines the life of a family who moved to a shantytown neighborhood with migration, is Dear Shameless Death. Berci Kristin Tales from Garbage Hill, which she began writing when her first novel had not yet been published, and which was released by Adam Publications in 1984, is her second book, which focuses on the neighborhood but still deals with the same social problems fundamentally, but on a larger scale. Although it was initially considered literarily unsuccessful by many authorities, today it is her narrative that has been translated into the most foreign languages and has the most research written about it. Another common feature of these two novels is their use of the original style of magical realism, which established the foundations of early German surrealist painters that had not been tried before in Turkey but developed in Latin American literature (Turgut, 2003). However, as a requirement of the genre, in literature, “unlike surrealism, magical realism does not use dream motifs; it does not create imagined worlds like in fantasy literature or science fiction, nor does it distort reality; it does not analyze the psychological aspects of characters like in psychological literature or try to find the reasons behind their behavior. Magical realism is not an aesthetic movement, but an attitude against reality” [quoted from Leal: (Turgut, 2003, p.19)].
This attitude can be clearly traced in Tekin’s first two narratives, especially in Berci Kristin Tales from Garbage Hill. By adopting this style, Tekin establishes a representational distance with images that could easily succumb to the weaknesses of pornographic expressions in traditional realistic narrative and thus finds a sanctuary where she can use language freely without being enslaved to aestheticizing concerns. While turning her stories into a visual, auditory, and olfactory feast, she not only raises the literary value of the narrative but also reconstructs a strong panorama of the period being narrated using the possibilities of writing.
She does not object to the comments that her writings are not novels but at most can be evaluated as modern narratives⁶. However, she also resists being confined to the folklore field. Latife Tekin is a writer who carries the prioritization of language (form) over the story (content), which is one of the most distinctive features of the post-modernist writers with whom she is associated. In this regard, the formal aspects of expression can often overshadow what is being narrated. This free and experimental language has sometimes exposed her to criticisms of producing incomplete and fragmented (pulp) works, but Tekin, thanks to the “…unrealized language, the ownerless, non-personal murmur in which many voices intermingle and cannot be distinguished from each other” (Gürbilek, 2014, pp. 37–38), has been able to become the voice of a period and a segment, especially in the narrative of Berci Kristin Tales from Garbage Hill. This narrative is an improvised and imaginary construction, close to form in imagination but never quite achieving it, like the shantytown. In this regard, the medium is also the message itself.
Inter-textual references are frequently encountered in the book. Some of these texts include Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children (Turgut, 2003, p. 67), and the anonymous folk epic Köroğlu Epic (Atik, 2012, pp. 258–264). The book is also like a formal potpourri: prose and verse are intertwined throughout the narrative. Additionally, “… oral literature genres such as fairy tale, legend, memorate, and story are hybridized” (Arık, 2007, p. 182).
The novel Berci Kristin Tales from the Garbage Hills is constructed with third-person narration. That is, the narrator is merely a cold and confident observer. Verbs are usually conjugated in the definite past tense, which increases the impact of the narrator’s narrative reality. Due to the distance established by the narrator from the events and characters, the narrative is described as “… not from the outside, but looking from above… “ (Gökçe, 2012, p. 33), as if a narrator saw a scene from a bird’s-eye view. In this work, which contains almost no dialogue, the characters are described as “anonymous figures. These individuals have no individual identity and are limited to one or a few chapters, serving as background characters” (Açıkyol, 2017, p. 47). Except for small exclamations, the characters’ dialogue is dependent on the narrator’s circumlocution. The book refers to many people in comparison to its physical size. This “…roman characters only serve a function in the relevant section that tells the transformation of the neighborhood and disappear in the following sections” (Balık, 2011, p. 191). Thus, the condition is ensured that no background character will surpass the neighborhood-subject that is at the heart of the narrative.
At this point, let us state that the narrative claims to “…reveal a space that is born, grows, develops and changes and the subjectivity of that space” (Sönmez, 2004, p. 47). “In classical narratives, spaces have a design that is more physical, concrete, and similar to the real/external world, whereas in modernist texts [like the one we are examining], they take on a more symbolic, abstract, and mental character” (Arslan, 2017, p. 199). This stems from the fact that the discovery that space is not just a physical geography and its structures but rather a manifestation of the will that constructed it is a modern one. Therefore, while there is a consensus that the narrative is about a space, it is also about the community that is actively involved in that space and its collective spirit.
The adjectives and nouns chosen to describe people, places, and events reveal the author’s formal fantasies. Names that directly embody the action (Kovma Burnu), names or adjectives that are not entirely clear (Çöp Muhtar), names that do not reveal the meaning they evoke (Kibriye Ana), and names that are established in contrast to the situation that arises in that action to strengthen the character’s most distinctive action (Sırma), while strengthening the narrative, are also seen as an instrumental apparatus in which the author develops judgments about situations and individuals through his monopolization of naming. As will be analyzed in detail under the subheading of “housing,” even the concept of shanty houses is a subject of a purely formal etymological fantasy at the beginning of the book. Moreover, as in the event of “coolness entering between the colonel and the shanty dwellers” (Tekin, 1995, p. 110) after they buy the first refrigerator in the neighborhood, the formal aspect of language has been directly studied, and therefore, many examples beyond the scope of this study are involved.
The French painter Manet is the first to expose the absurdity of the claim to reproduce reality in the work of art, which began with the invention of perspective in the Renaissance. In this sense, modern art begins with him. He tries to keep the audience on the surface by intervening with depth illusions in his paintings and trying to keep them at the interface in contact with reality beyond the lying cosmos of art. The actor who winks at the camera in cinema also takes inspiration from this modern attitude. The most competent textual examples of metafiction have become the creed of postmodern writing after being seen in Brecht’s theatrical works. Another distinctive feature of the narrative of Berci Kristin Çöp Masalları is that it has details that allow it to be classified as metafictional. “Lado (…) decided to write his life as a novel” (Tekin, 1995, p. 102).
Lado is Tekin’s alter ego; his actions and activities refer to Latife Tekin’s real-world existence. Even the fact that the character’s name is chosen as Lado brings to mind a possible abbreviation. The author’s placement of herself within the fiction brings the fictional closer to the real world. This allows the traditional novel’s convention with the reader to be relaxed in this narrative in particular. The poems that Şiirli Hoca writes on the garbage hills in Çiçektepe (pp. 79–83) both serve as an act of someone outside of Çiçektepe and contribute to the narrative’s metafictionality due to the fictional character’s fictional production. Similarly, the fairy tales Ciğerci tells (pp. 51–56) or Hınık Alhas’s distorted historical myths can also be considered examples that strengthen our claim. However, the section where Çiçektepe residents say in unison with Lado, “Let’s make a beautiful novel together” (Tekin, 1995, p. 103), is the most dramatic way in which the work reveals itself to be a metafictional text.
While discussing the topic of the contract established between the reader and the narrative, we would like to add a few more points. The view that the narrative is based on the declaration of the older generation of shanty dwellers who witnessed the emergence of an extremely important subculture (Paker, 2000, p. 6) complements Tekin’s statement: “I would write everything that the people I narrate believe to be true, believing them to be true myself” (Özer, Latife Tekin Book, 2005, p. 68). As expressed in Berger’s words, the narrator is the rumors that try to follow, predict, and bring together events that are always on the brink of chaos, arising from the imagination of the uncertain (2000, p. 2). Here, it becomes apparent that Tekin’s assumption excludes any hierarchy and conflict between the real and supernatural from the outset (Turgut, 2003, p. 61). The fact that the narrative is built on the declaration of the old generation of shanty dwellers implies that any extraordinary situation may be a reflection of their (old generation/elderly) superstitious minds, and the fictional elements in the book should be accepted by the rational reader as not affecting the truth of the story. Therefore, nothing that seems extraordinary should be subject to questioning. Another unnamed provision of the contract is that all characters have names suitable for their situations. Adjectives and names reveal something about the character without the need for description. However, there is a moment when the author violates this provision: in the propaganda text hung on the window of the garbage collector’s shop for the election, it is seen that his real name is Ferat Karabacak (p. 53). This is another scene where the dramatic plot is punctured, and the silhouette of the real world is revealed.
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“Night Lessons” (1986), “Ice Swords” (1989), “Signs of Love” (1995), “No Death in the Forest” (2001), “The Garden of Forgetfulness” (2004), “Muinar” (2006), and “The Book of Dreams and Awakenings” (2009) are the author’s other novels. The story of the film “A Sip of Love,” which was released in 1984, belongs to her and she is one of the screenplay partners. We see that almost every element she established in “Dear Shameless Death” and “Berci Kristin: Tales from the Garbage Hills” is brought to the screen with the possibilities of cinema in this film. Finally, the author has a memoir titled “Gümüşlük Academy,” published in 1977.
HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF THE NARRATIVE: MODERNITY, MIGRATION, URBANIZATION
During the early years of the Republic of Turkey, the anti-urban sentiments of the political elites stemmed from their anxiety about the rising class politics around the world. Ankara was positioned as an exceptional, ideologically-driven showcase, standing in opposition to the memory represented by Istanbul. The distance between Ankara and Istanbul remained rigid for many years. In the early Republican period, the planning discussions for Istanbul also reveal traces of modernist pursuits. The Prost Plan was a satisfying response to this search. Prost’s protectionist approach, which restricted the urban fabric to monumental works, found its balance with the motivation to produce counter-monuments. As a result, Istanbul became the subject of a holistic design for the first time through a plan experience that was only partially loyal to the original.
Following a change in power, the operations carried out in Istanbul during the Menderes period — although defended by Menderes as the implementations of the Prost Plan after the coup — were an uncontrolled, rapid modernization imposition that focused on transportation and aimed to direct the city’s spatial development. However, this also left a tradition of the central government controlling an issue that should have been resolved locally in Turkey.
During this period, Turkey accepted to side with the Western bloc in order to balance the Soviets in accordance with the Truman Doctrine and had the opportunity to carry out industrial investment projects that were stifled by a shortage of capital with American aid. Istanbul was emerging as the scale economy thanks to its geopolitical position and historical importance at this point. The post-World War II period aimed to create a serious economic volume for the restoration of the damage caused by the war. The 1950s were particularly important in terms of the trend reversal of the world’s total gross domestic product, which had been developing in favor of Western civilization for almost a millennium. After this date, the rise of Eastern societies would be witnessed. Istanbul’s advantage was the possibility of creating a multiplier effect with suitable investments due to its unique features, as mentioned above. However, the lack of cheap labor was the most important production factor missing.
The rural-urban migration resulting from the historical intersection of the repulsive nature of the countryside and the attractive nature of the city has created an unprecedented rupture in Istanbul’s 4,500-year history. In a short time, shack areas called gecekondu have emerged around the industrial facilities that have selected cheap land in the unsettled areas of the city. As the trend of industrial growth exceeded all expectations, demand for labor increased, creating an impact that would continue the migration movement and expand the existing gecekondu areas. Gecekondu, described as an informal housing production method, was mostly created on land without infrastructure and owned by the treasury, financed by its residents. This created a trend of self-growth that accelerated the process of capital accumulation without reflecting any cost element to either capitalist industrialists or the public budget. The character that made it possible to comment on the “cheapness” of Turkey’s urbanization was, in fact, nothing more than the transfer of cost from one class to another.
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Since Cervantes, the novel has been one of the most important expression tools of Western writing. In the classical realistic novel that prevailed until the 19th century, “… the idea that the world is a describable world and that what is real can be copied is dominant” (Moran, 1994, p. 54). The transformation in the universe imagination accompanying the birth of modern art opened the door to a period in which serious discussions would be conducted on the representation of reality in the novel. After Baudelaire’s announcement that the artist had lost his halo, two new trends emerged in literature. The first is that the debasement of even the vulgar subjects of everyday life in narratives would no longer be objectionable, and the second is that the tendency of the classical novel to depict what the eye sees in the text according to a divine clock hanging in the air has been eroded, and motifs from the world of dreams and the unconscious, as well as the incomprehensible, and therefore not so easy to express, were used to express reality. The primary determinant of periodical patterns (classical, modern, post-modern) in the Western world is the understanding of physics⁷, especially the worldview shaped by the moral erosion caused by the two world wars witnessed in the 20th century. The fact that reality patterns in people’s minds were destroyed during this process is a fact.
The impact of the efforts of Westernization in the Ottoman Empire on the emergence of the first attempts to adapt the novel is well known. In the Tanzimat period, the novel was primarily considered an intellectual activity area. The first examples, shaped around the themes of the East-West conflict and the division of identities, created their own reader base over time, and the emergence of new themes became possible. Looking at the adventure of the novel in Turkey, it is possible to capture periodical-political patterns until the 1980s.
During the early years of the Republic, the emergence of village novels can be witnessed due to the influence of the ideology of organizing enlightenment in villages and the anti-urban tendency briefly mentioned above. The escape to village literature can be seen as an endorsement given to the desire to represent certain themes of the Republic ideology in literature. Thus, it is observed that a literature dominated by fictional classical novel elements and giving importance to elements such as “temporality, conformity to external reality, dominant point of view, guiding the reader, and social benefit” (Balık, 2011, p. 13) prevailed in the Turkish literary circles between 1940–1970. Therefore, literature stands out as an ideological apparatus that not only deals with social and political structure but also takes on the function of creating it during this period (Balık, 2011, p. 18).
Prior to the 1980 coup in Turkey, there was a political environment where the hope for an international revolution was suspended and local resistances were on the rise. The theme of a nostalgic return to roots was evident not only in literature but also in music⁸ of the time. In contrast to the tendency to make social issues the subject of literature after the 1960 coup, the effects of the 1980 coup emphasized individualization. Moreover, it is seen that the neoliberal transformation the world was going through influenced the literary texts produced in Turkey through the reflections of new art movements and closed, super-narrative texts. In this sense, unlike the escape in village literature, “…the most obvious idea of escape in this period has gone far beyond concealing the truth” (Moran, 1994). In another context, Tanpınar’s observation that “The Eastern tale is a long and delicious escape. The golden doors of the miraculous open wherever life exhausts its possibilities” (1992, p. 60) is worth mentioning here. In other words, in the post-coup period, “…the reality is so bitter and painful that the artist found a solution in creating a new reality, a fictitious/toy reality” (Lüleci, 2017, p. 29).
“Since 1980, the date of the coup and the transition to a market economy, a paradigm shift can be found in the majority of novels that have managed to maintain their literary values while also achieving commercial and cultural popularity. Our novelists’ interest has shifted from property/distribution relations and reflecting political contradictions to sexuality, embellishing and reflecting history (pastiche and parody). The majority of our novelists prefer to turn the concrete problems of the present time into a literary object of desire, rather than facing them head-on, creating a consciousness about individual and social conditions that are dialectically related to each other and cannot be transformed anymore” (Okay, 2011, p. 57).
Considering that Latife Tekin’s first novel was published in 1983, there is no reason not to include her in the category of writers who produced after the 1980s. This is not only due to a coincidence of time but also because we can find the fundamental features of post-80s literature in Tekin’s work. She did not pursue the qualities described in an undefined category that had yet to be established. However, as a result of her quest, she was able to capture the objective spirit of her time. As an author, she explained her emotional state before making a move that would open up her path:
“At that time, it was so important that I could save myself by doing something… I had to do something with that kind of violence to eliminate the violence of September 12th and not to be fragmented” (Özer, Latife Tekin Kitabı, 2005, p. 21).
Her first two novels are the results of this search. Her use of themes such as migration, shantytowns, and the living conditions of the working class to construct her novels would later receive a lot of criticism, but after passing the test of time, these negative criticisms⁹ seem to have given way to evaluations such as “the panoramic reflection of the worker and class movements that she conveyed in a fairytale language with autobiographical references” (Balık, 2011, p. 103). Although she generally pursued the achievement of something through language and language mediation, it is understood that she problematized some of the facts that revolutionary circles had tabooed, such as the identity of the upper class. Her most significant innovation in realistic literature in this sense was her opposition to the understanding of immutable and unquestionable categories. Therefore, her characters are more human than they are workers, for example. Thus, it can be seen that she deals with the disappointing human aspects and struggles with them through her texts. Traces of this conviction can be seen in her approach to people before she began writing novels:
“These people seem innocent, but they can be cruel to each other, they can beat up a person, and make them go insane. I was telling them that I would write despite them and explaining what I wanted to do, and they were answering my questions. They wanted someone to be their voice” (Özer, Latife Tekin Kitabı, 2005, p. 62).
While she may have succeeded in being someone’s voice, it would not be unfair to claim that her true motivation was not to behave appropriately in this role. In almost every interview, when she recounts the period when she started writing novels, she finds herself repeating that she was in a state of fleeing from the police. This may indicate that she aimed to establish a strong connection between her works and her life. However, the existence of this bond is already evident and beyond doubt.
Regarding the narrative of Berci Kristin Çöp Masalları, “the slum panorama conveyed corresponds to the historical and social reality concerning the slum problem” (Budan, 2014, p. 184). Moreover, in the narrative, “the traces of worker protests that took place before the 1980 coup are clearly seen” (Atik, 2012, p. 197).
It can be argued that the novel covers the three years before the 12 September coup, although it is not certain. This is because Berci Kristin Çöp Masalları begins “one winter night,” and after two winters are mentioned throughout the novel, references are made to the grasses and flowers sprouting from the slopes of the Vakıf Çiçektepe, indicating the spring or summer months (Balık, 2011, p. 244).
The novel was written in the political environment after the 1980 coup. In this period, which witnessed dramatic transformations both in Turkey and around the world, looking at the pre-crisis period from a certain distance makes the work special in terms of historical witness. Although it appears to tell a distant past, the subject matter is actually quite current, and important observations that closely concern the future of many people living in Turkey are included (Turgut, 2003, p. 73).
Although it is widely accepted that Berci Kristin Çöp Masalları contains important observations on urbanization in Turkey, the originality of the narrative lies in its construction as a thought experiment that questions the possibilities of building a neighborhood unrelated to the core of the city. It gives the impression of an adaptation of Robinson Crusoe. In this sense, the experiment is like a reasonable answer to the question of what kind of world would emerge if the future residents of Çiçektepe, apart from the values they carry with them, found themselves in nowhere. Although this experiment has been repeated many times in the migration history accelerated by Istanbul’s industrialization, it is interesting to follow it through a literary text.
ONTOLGICAL ELEMENTS OF THE ÇİÇEKTEPE COMMUNITY
THE EMERGENCE (MIGRATION)
Çiçektepe, similar to the sudden appearance in national origin epics, seems to have emerged out of nowhere in the form of eight shanties while struggling with nature. The birth of the neighborhood seems to begin when something is learned about the past of Kürt Cemal. Since time immemorial, the city’s garbage¹⁰ has been brought and dumped here, and thus, the first nucleus of the neighborhood is established on this empty space that could not become a place: “…on top of the garbage, that is, the thrown away…” (Güntekin, 2011, p.89). Although Çiçektepe seems disconnected from the city, it is actually in connection with it from the beginning through what it excludes, namely, garbage, “therefore, it is connected to it” (Dişçi, 2017, p. 241). This space, located beyond the city, beyond the border, and beyond the network, has only one connection to the known life, which is Garbage Road. As the name strongly suggests, this road was not initially intended to have any function other than carrying garbage to the collection area. The road is also the only channel through which this space, which later turns into Çiçektepe, is connected to the city. However, this channel only allows one-way communication. From the perspective of Çiçektepelis, it is only possible to make an indirect reading about the owners of the city through the traces they leave here. The urban community is also unaware that the Çiçektepe community will recognize them through these objects, just as they are unaware of the community itself. Therefore, there can be no objection from city dwellers to be recognized through the garbage, which can be expressed as objects that would be more beneficial not to maintain ownership relationships.
We cannot know how the future residents of the garbage hills were transported to this space, nor do we have any clues as to where they might have come from. The members of the community seem to have left their memories behind. Even the fragments that appear in Sırma’s imagination do not dispel this uncertainty:
“Sırma opened her sleepless eyes to the darkness. She traveled a long way by train in the dark. She sat under a stone bridge with her mother. (…) Sırma never saw the houses lined up along the wide roads or the sea” (Tekin, 1995, p. 14).
Rather than shedding light on the migration journey through the events that Sırma imagines after falling asleep due to trauma, the narrator seems to want to emphasize the migrants’ lack of familiarity with the most characteristic elements of the city they were transported to and their arrival at the garbage hills without memories.
In the unnumbered seventh chapter of the book, there is a mention of a character named Kurdish Cemal, who parcelled and sold the garbage hills just as they were about to descend into hell:
It is expected that a migrant would not know where they could settle in a city they have never been to before. Therefore, it is likely that some intermediaries benefited by indicating livable areas to migrants. Considering Kurdish Cemal’s level of relationship with the bureaucracy, it is possible that the information about livable areas was provided through his corporatist connections. Moreover, there is already an indirect connection between the residents of Çiçektepe and the factories producing plates, medicine, and light bulbs during the establishment phase. Although we defined the garbage hills as an uninhabitable space, it is difficult to claim the same thing for the factories in the immediate vicinity. After the struggles of the demolition process, we see that the Çiçektepe residents developed even stronger relationships with the factories in the area. They even worked there as laborers. The fact that the factories existed in the area before Çiçektepe was established is a prerequisite for this. Migration was the reason, and completing the settlement process in this area was the goal. It seems that the author’s choice is to reveal this process step by step.
“Güllü Baba worked in a small biscuit factory before he got wind sick. (…) His eyes were closed after he fell from a height while working on a dam construction site” (Tekin, 1995, p. 27).
It is often argued that the success of Turkey’s urbanization, which is not connected to the rational intelligence of central government programs, is due to the well-functioning community relationships such as neighborhood ties, kinship, and familiar patronage. The introduction of the book tells the story of Çiçektepe, which may be true for that hilltop¹¹, but it is clear that the first generation of immigrants were not the founders. As seen in the above quote from Güllü Baba, his decline from the dam construction must have happened relatively early in his life. Although it is not necessary for him to have worked as a dam laborer, as it is not impossible for local labor to have worked in various dams established in Anatolia, it is likely that Güllü Baba migrated to the city as an early industrial worker to work in a biscuit factory. The source of Güllü Baba’s wisdom should also be that he had experienced a similar process earlier than other Çiçektepelis. We can also evaluate his prophecies in this context.
There are a few themes that almost all analyses of the narrative of Berci Kristin Trash Tales agree on. Çiçektepe has a problem of integration with the rest of the city, cannot become integrated into the city, and cannot urbanize rural values. Now, each of these would be quite acceptable themes if the subject of the analysis were not the novel in question. There is also a comforting aspect to explaining our urbanization experience with these few concepts. However, the outside world has been deliberately kept blurred here. Off-topic. There is no event that would require any interaction with urban centers. And why should there be any? A closed and self-sufficient structure is inevitable under those conditions. Factories and workers’ neighborhoods.
It is interesting that the cliché of a person who cannot cling to the city and has a strong desire to return to their hometown while feeling alienated in the city, which is built on the Arabesque discourse created by the shanty town subculture, does not find a place in this book. The only exception is when Kurdish Cemal encounters glittering garbage piles under the sunlight on his first visit to the garbage hills:
“Kurdish Cemal wept, seeing the places surrounding the garbage heaps resembling his village” (Tekin, 1995, p. 57).
Even here, the idea of returning is not considered as a thought or a dream. It is as if the possibility of returning has long been forgotten in people’s minds. If the founders’ struggle for survival in tragic circumstances did not lead to a decrease in their insistence to stay there, the possibility of returning has already been removed from people’s minds. Even the implicit hopes that are felt throughout the narrative are not nourished by this possibility. There is a strong acceptance. Also, we do not encounter an expression of dissatisfaction with the city or being in the city.
We cannot come across any narratives about the village either in terms of memory or action. Only two expressions that are remarkable to explain today through clumsy comparisons are murmured:
“In the village, the girls who milked the sheep that grazed in the pasture and stayed outside at night to milk them were called ‘Berci girl’ (…) In Çiçektepe, this adjective was given only to the girls who pick and collect garbage.”
“Women put one hand on their hip, gather madımak with their eyes on their children, and fill bags [with garbage] like separating bulgur.” (Tekin, 1995, p.20).
However, there are many examples of both spiritual and economic relationships continuing with the village after migration to the city. It is interesting that we do not come across scenes similar to this in the narrative when so much food is still being transported in bags in bus terminals or airports. This raises the possibility that perhaps the whole village has migrated together. Uprootedness. Insistence on not taking root in Çiçektepe could be due to this.
THE SPACE
Space is the result of social production and a constant factor that reproduces it, where social meanings emerge, and it takes on different meanings beyond being a geographical space, just as gender carries different meanings than biological sex. Lefebvre argues that to reveal space as a social production process and as a prerequisite for the production of society, it is necessary to “go back to the action that creates it, the action that produces it from the object (existing space)… to reconstruct the process of production and interpretation” (as cited in Avar, 2009, p.8). However, before such a rereading can take place, it is important to consider that space is produced and, moreover, not produced for the purpose of being read. Therefore, taking space as a discursive entity and deciphering its codes through language would mean abstracting concrete space through language (ibid, p. 9). Consequently, it is impossible for a text claiming to analyze space to avoid such abstraction. This is precisely why space cannot be experienced through representation. The experience of space is possible only if one is in the space. A city plan, an architectural project, a text that describes space, or a photograph; all of these are different from space itself.
In a literary narrative — especially if the text makes references to surreal elements — how should space be explained?
“Manfred Jahn (2015), emphasizing that the ways in which spaces are described and interpreted are more important than their topographical structures, argues that literary spaces should be studied in terms of their semantic/semiotic aspects, given the fact that spatial characteristics can greatly affect characters and events” (as cited in Arslan, 2017, p.200).
Here, we assume that the social dimension of space can be captured well in literary narratives. “Representations based on narrative¹² are constructed by the reader through a text” (Ryan, as cited in Alemdar, 2009, p. 61). Based on past spatial experiences, readers mentally construct those places through the descriptions in the narrative. Although there is a two-way effect, in literature, most of the responsibility for creating space lies with the reader. The secret of the cliché that is often mentioned in terms of the reader realizing their own truth through literature is also here. Buried relationships can only be revealed when viewed from a certain distance.
In its historical development, literature has used space in different functions. The static spatial details that can exist on their own as decor in classical novels have become increasingly complex in modern and postmodern examples, becoming an integral part of existence (Lüleci, 2017, p.25). In this sense, the social dimension of space has been explored and has been incorporated into narratives. In Berci Kristin Çöp Masalları, space is not simply a decor but an essential element that is not inherently pre-existing, but rather functions as a factor that reproduces relationships. The fragility, temporality, and readiness to be reconstructed of all physical elements that create space make it clear throughout the text that the essential element that creates Çiçektepe is not physical space but the relationships that make that physical space possible.
There are three basic points about space that various analytical texts written about Berci Kristin Çöp Masalları have in common. The first point is made by John Berger in the preface he wrote for the English translation of the novel, entitled Rumours. Berger observes that the shantytown, which has never before been depicted as a subject in written narrative beyond being a decor or social problem, is now being portrayed as an entity in its own right (p. 2). This observation undermines the notion that the characters — or types — appearing in the book are insignificant tools serving the essential element. This dilemma confronts us with the question of whether analyzing these characters has any value. The second point is expressed by the book’s translator, Saliha Paker, in her introduction — namely, that the narrative is about the shantytown’s journey from innocence to corruption, as the title of the book suggests¹³. This view forces us to confine all assessments within the framework set by this presumption. Although we will take these two interpretations into account where necessary, we will attempt to approach the issue from a broader perspective. The third point is, Paker’s observation that the Garbage Road mentioned in Berci Kristin Tales from the Garbage Hills refers to a bus stop on the main road from Boğaziçi to the city and that the tin-minareted mosque existed until 1988, refers to a fictional reference to reality in the narrative. We believe that tracing the references to real life in the narrative would not be useful for this assignment. According to Tekin’s explanation,
“When I was writing Berci Kristin Tales from the Garbage Hills, I was also thinking about and reading about shantytowns around the world. Similar things have happened in many countries. (…) I planned to write it in a way that would not feel alienated when read around the world” (Özer, 2005, p. 64).
As this is a story about a shantytown neighborhood based on the author’s experiences, it is quite normal that many real elements from real life have been manifested here without much alteration¹⁴. Moreover, we know that during the process of writing the novel, the author conducted interviews with young female workers in Gültepe and Zeytinburnu (Özer, 2005, p. 64–65). However, searching for and finding the trace of one shantytown neighborhood and relating every line in the narrative to that neighborhood can create a tendency to read this narrative, which establishes a general discourse on shantytowns, with a local-historical perspective, leading to a reading impasse. In fact, the above passage we quoted from the author’s own words indicates that he shares this opinion.
***
In Çiçektepe Neighborhood, where the transformations that the protagonist undergoes throughout the narrative are presented to the reader in stages, the first step in establishing the area is taken with the first wave of eight kondus. As hundreds of kondus follow, it becomes a determined settlement with two aftershocks, one of which is naturally and consequently the most challenging to overcome. Natural obstacles such as wind, snow, and water/drought are the biggest problems that the shantytown residents need to overcome to survive. However, there is also an abstract, official power that emerges in the form of destructors, which stands against them as an existential threat. In this sense, the issue appears to be centered around the established property regime in the field. From the first day of their settlement attempt in the garbage dump through migration, the community confronts the reality that even garbage has an owner (Atik, 2012, p. 199), which causes them to linger in determining the cause of the disasters that befall them. For instance, during the clandestine burial of a baby that was crushed under a roof blown by the wind or when the community is trying to cope with the overwhelming stench and sickness caused by pollution from the garbage dump, this interpretive problem emerges. Similarly, the impression that a natural problem arises when the blue water flowing through Çiçektepe is separated from the process that gives it its blue color. Moreover, even if it is not the source of the water, the property regime has been established in the previous stop before Çiçektepe. The helplessness faced with the stench and disease-causing pollution rising from the garbage dumps is not different from the struggle against the wind or destructors. It is perceived as if nature and culture are working hand in hand. However, the conflict between culture and nature is also observed, as in the case of the factory smoke drying out the flowers.
The problems experienced throughout the establishment of the neighborhood, the main motivation for the organization of the residents, and the ongoing transformation all develop under the domination of the property regime. Perhaps only the cardboard houses of the Roma (p. 87) and tent cities (p. 86) provide clues about the possibilities of a practice outside the established regime. However, as evidenced by the attitudes they face, they have little chance against the widely adopted regime. The organized efforts of gecekondu residents to acquire deeds have revealed their desire to become part of this regime. As a result, the acquisition of property in the area has become an integral part of the construction of identity for the residents of Çiçektepe, manifesting itself at every stage of the narrative. In fact, the essential element of genius loci will continue to exist, even after the neighborhood reaches its growth limit, first in three sub-neighborhoods with similar characteristics, and ultimately in the division of the area into two neighborhoods with different characteristics.
THE ESTABLISHMENT
In this section, we will examine the establishment of Çiçektepe, keeping in mind the keywords of housing, sanctuary, workspaces, and sanctuary.
Let’s divide the notion of space into two representations: representation as a mental design and representation as something that is hidden in imagination. The first one is a design object that the individual shaped by modern formal education perceives the world through measurements and places it in its context with physical references in order to redesign it when necessary. This form of representation allows individuals to speculate on the mental plane before intervening in the real plane of the design object. The action of urban planners or architects playing with space on computer software or scale maps is an example of this mental design representation.
The second representation is the one that directs the movements of the mind that have been constructed through traditional methods of knowledge transfer when it begins to create. The design object is in constant interaction with the image in the mind until the image emerges. Measuring manual dexterity is either not included or used sparingly and cannot be a determinant of form. The final object is both a representation and a product. Like a carpenter carving a stool from a piece of wood in his hand, the object is not represented until it corresponds to the image in his mind.
We will claim that the establishment of the Çiçektepe housing complexes began by relying on the second representation described above. Therefore, the people of Çiçektepe “rebuild their village in the city with their traditions, makeshift mosques, and oral histories” (Kırgız Karak, 2014, p. 249). The housing complexes were built with whatever materials were available during the establishment of the neighborhood, and after each destruction, they could be easily rebuilt with the remaining materials, which were expected to be less useful than before. This is due to the fact that the representations of the buildings in imagination are scaleless and flexible. In this respect, they manage to take the first step, albeit with difficulty, to maintain their existence with the advantage of not having entered the atmosphere of the city. Since no condition has yet been met for any differentiation to occur, things are resolved through solidarity and unity. Gecekondu (informal housing) settlements, which will be under constant existential threat starting from the first settlement of eight housing complexes, are within the scope of the authorities not only with their physical existence but also with the urban land on which they are placed.
In the previous sections, we mentioned that in post-modern narratives, which we are examining an example of, language is an area of interest for the narrator. Although in general, “the shantytown panorama conveyed coincides with the historical and social reality of the shantytown problem” (Budan, 2014, p. 184), the narrator derives the motivation that initiates and drives the action in the establishment of the neighborhood from the deconstruction of the term “gecekondu” (shantytown). This word, which seems to be a description of a temporary halt, rather than the name of an object, especially a building, which is derived from a verb quite arbitrarily and is unlike its relatives such as “konut” or “konak” (Parla & Irzık, 2004, p. 223), is conveyed by considering its opposite. The fact that the first konds that were built could be read as their potential to fly again, just as they flew with the wind along with baby cradles attached to their roofs, until they were re-landed. The concept of the neighborhood is also likely to have been approached with a similar perspective¹⁵.
We have a tendency to think of the neighborhood as a purely spatial phenomenon surrounded by physical boundaries. The biggest problem with spatial definitions is that they imply completeness. However, such a completeness is not possible within a project or an organic development. It can only be spoken of in terms of a constantly changing, evolving existence. The agency of a shared community constitutes the essence of the concept of the neighborhood, while the activity area of the neighborhood community can define the neighborhood as an urban unit. As a physical space, the neighborhood is a reflection of the community’s desire and effort to act together, in short, its will. The most important point to consider in the context of neighborhood discussions in “Berci Kristin Tales from the Garbage Hills” is that witnessing not only the creation of a neighborhood but also the emergence of a class with the creation of the Çiçektepe cosmos.
We will examine the reasons why a class consciousness could not emerge organically later. However, for now, we should emphasize the importance of the fact that, although there were community affiliations such as blood and kinship, there was no indication of such a unity anywhere, and these affiliations would give way to a political unity. Although there seems to be a division of labor between simit sellers, garbage grocers, door-to-door salesmen, white goods vendors, and scrap dealers, Çiçektepe is a working-class neighborhood.
The fact that factories have occupied landfill sites since time immemorial requires describing Çiçektepe as a secondary element in terms of priority. After Çiçektepe was established, a narrator describing the neighborhood as “a single shack with a roof from the sky and walls from the factories” (p. 85) also clarifies the existence of a neighborhood surrounded by factories. As Çiçektepe expands, so do the factories. This growth occurs both through the spatial expansion of existing factories and the establishment of many new factories of various sizes. As a result of the self-expanding supply-demand cycle, the spread of the slum neighborhood occurs in parallel. As illustrated by the example of Mr. İzak’s refrigerator factory, it can be seen that the informal land occupancy practice attributed in the literature only to housing built by workers was also applied by the capital class during the construction of factories. In this regard, Mr. İzak’s shack factory definition is interesting.
In Sunni Islam-centered interpretations, the neighborhood is the congregation who worship in the same mosque. The first sense of belonging that the Çiçektepe community established with the neighborhood was through the Teneke Minareli Mosque. Contrary to the silent construction of the settlements under the cover of darkness, away from the threatening gaze of the established order, the Teneke Minareli Mosque was the first structure built in broad daylight (p.16). In this way, the residents of Çiçektepe discovered a way to establish direct contact with a legitimate source that went beyond the consent of the higher authority. Symbolically, this was the first public announcement of the fact that the garbage dump belonged to the people of the neighborhood. Thus, the mosque would not only be at the core (center) of the community that the settlement owners created, but it would also serve as a symbolic tool to strengthen their position.
However, this symbolic discovery would not remain exclusive to the Çiçektepe community. As seen in examples such as the factory mosque’s imam hired by Mr. Izak adopting a strike-breaking rhetoric in his sermons or the attempts to establish local power that began with the Çöp Bakkal starting a race to build a mosque next to his house, the mosque would both increase in number and gain instrumental functions for different centers of power. In this sense, they are places where the collective unconscious is constructed.
We know that besides Sunni Muslims¹⁶ living in Çiçektepe, there were also Alevis and irreligious Gipsy people. However, we do not come across an expression of the budding idea of establishing a temple for Alevis¹⁷. It is only implied that they performed the Alevi worship in their settlements. Until the establishment of the Teneke Minareli Mosque, it is observed that Güllü Baba undertook a non-spatial temple function. The Su Baba Tomb (yatır), cemetery, and even the muezzin’s settlement, in some ways, have temple characteristics at times.
It is not possible to agree with the assessment that Çiçektepe has a “false identity that imitates the city, decorated with the city’s remnants” (Balık, 2011, p. 201). First of all, there is no data to suggest that the will that created Çiçektepe could conceive of the city as a whole. We also do not know whether it had any physical contact with the parts of the city outside of itself. Moreover, it can be argued that its own conditions drew unquestionable boundaries for its desires. If a memoryless community is left in an empty space surrounded by garbage dumps and factories, they will be expected to build shantytowns and work in the factories every time they need shelter. We do not agree with some writers’ attempts to explain Çiçektepe with the concept of exclusion, considering that they never had any demands from the core of the city, and since there was no demand, this was never rejected.
THE ORGANIZING
In this section, we will talk about two opposing organizations somewhat scatteredly because the structure of the narrative allows for it: “The organization of Çiçektepeliler for the salvation of Çiçektepe” and “The organization of non-Çiçektepelis — for their own salvation, but — against Çiçektepe”.
Organization is an inevitable state that arises when multiple people are together. However, when evaluated as a mental activity aimed at achieving a goal with organized rules, it takes the form of an activity program. For example, the invention of the Su Baba shrine, which represents the conscience of the people during the establishment, or the struggle of Çiçektepelis against the destroyers as if they were regular military units, cannot be considered as a political organization as described because it emerged as a reaction and had no purpose beyond maintaining the existence of a shelter.
Although it is difficult to draw clear boundaries, it can be said that the first real organization emerged when petitions were written in the coal depots for a bus to be provided to the neighborhood (p. 23). The ineffectiveness of the Çiçektepe community was related to the unanswered petitions. Although examples of organic division of labor such as carrying water from distant wells to the neighborhood and cleaning and selling garbage separated from the garbage hills require a certain level of organization, the emergence of a profession like beard trimming with Kel Ali carrying water from Harip Well with his donkey and selling it in Çiçektepe (p. 61–62) indicates that this organization continued to take shape. Finally, the activities carried out to lay water pipes indicate the emergence of a truly planned organization (p. 62). However, there is no clue in the book about what happened before this. This deficiency makes it impossible to take a chronological look at the short history of organization in Çiçektepe.
The evolution of the organization of the Çiçektepe community as a subject cannot be separated from the fact that its residents began to become professional workers. In fact, the community seems to have learned from the class-based organizational model carried out by unions in order to solve their daily problems by acting together. The missing political aspect of the community thus comes to the forefront. The politics we are referring to here encompasses a much wider area than the concepts of class consciousness and exploitation that are ingrained in minds as they are discussed in dressing rooms and in halal places (p. 36). In this area, we witness a constant struggle between the mechanical class structure that is organized around the employer-employee relationship and the community structure that is shaped around mutually organic relationships that cannot be separated from how the community perceives the world. As the fate/interest partnership transforms, the political nature of these two organizational structures will also differentiate. Ultimately, a future portrait will be drawn in which the class-based organization is shattered and the community structure is dispersed around identity differences. Perhaps the most visible example of this is the division experienced through coffeehouses (p. 98–99).
A short-lived class partnership that was strengthened through strikes could also be established. The moment when the waters of the stream flowing from the medicine factory passing through Çiçektepe and its blue waters were cut off due to the work stoppage of striking workers was a moment of conflict between class and community interests (p. 37). The organizing activity of the capitalist class, which materialized through Fabrikatör İzak Bey and his manager, is more rational, programmatic and systematic than that of the workers. However, the organization of capital does not seem to have been decisive in the organization of Çiçektepe community in the long run. Perhaps to some extent before the emergence of workers’ actions, but only to that extent.
Two dominant characters and their actions will stamp the political character of Cicektepe. The first of these is the garbage vendor who will be referred to as “Garbage Muhtar” after being elected. The narrator suggests that Garbage Muhtar, whom he describes as “more humble than the stars that open at night in the sky” (p. 48), increased his political influence on the neighborhood noticeably after forming an alliance with the second dominant character, Kurdish Cemal. In the later stages, Kurdish Cemal, who has been the most important determinant of Cicektepe’s fate since the establishment of the neighborhood, will revive the alliance to be elected to the municipal council. It can be argued that an organized work was also involved in the struggle for recognition, considering that the process of recognizing the neighborhood as an administrative unit by the official authorities required overcoming many bureaucratic obstacles¹⁸ and that the alliance formed by Kurdish Cemal and Garbage Muhtar led to this. In this respect, Kurdish Cemal and Garbage Muhtar are the doors opening to the outside of Cicektepe.
The muhtar election is an important moment not only for Çiçektepe’s political existence but also for the character of the community formed in the neighborhood to emerge and begin to take shape. The alliance of Garbage Muhtar, Garbage Agha, and Kurdish Cemal emerges with pragmatic promises to dissipate the abstract and fantastic speeches of their rivals, Cigerci and Naylon Mustafa. Garbage Muhtar leans on the bureaucracy, party, and flag jargon in his language, referring to the settlement plans of Cicektepe in his hands, and talks about land distribution, sparkling yellow taps, and electric cables that will light up the courtyards (p. 55), leaving no chance for his rivals.
It is possible for the residents of Çiçektepe to have their names removed from the party they have registered with just as easily as they have registered. In this sense, organizing around the party does not occur for ideological reasons, but rather for its functionality. However, it should not be understood as a reverse hegemonic superiority that they can establish. The party is instrumental for the members more than it is for the neighborhood residents. Therefore, when the party loses its functionality, consent is generated through other relationships. In the face of the residents of Çiçektepe removing their names from the party after not finding the promised job opportunities in Kurdish Cemal’s newly opened factory, the Trash Muhtar, whose power was shaken, emerges with the idea of building an elementary school. Despite the concrete nature of the project itself, the effect intended was demonstrated when the news of Çiçektepe’s school building was announced along with its picture in the newspaper after its construction. The success of the executive and project-based government in producing consent is not a bad example of this. However, the school is perceived as ‘just a building’ for the residents of Çiçektepe. Therefore, an outside teacher will be needed after the school opens. While discussing the lack of a space-based settlement analysis, it seems important to emphasize this detail.
The enthusiasm with which Kurdish Cemal’s promise to show the forested land as a shrubbery area through a decision of the municipal council is greeted may imply the tacit acceptance that class-based organization is no longer a valid category for the community that hopes to obtain urban land from here. The formal-clad individuals who spread throughout the neighborhood with the promise of land allocation can also be seen as another reflection of the changing character of the neighborhood. As a result, the portrayal of the social lives of the residents of Çiçektepe as a kind of commune life in the narrative seems to be related to the perception of shantytown settlements as isolated living areas from the rest of the city (Budan, 2014, p. 186).
THE TRANSFORMATION
In the previous section, we talked about the political nature of the organizations emerging in the neighborhood. Different expectations and the interest relations established to meet these expectations seem to be directly related to Çiçektepeliler’s ways of understanding the world. Therefore, as political individuals, the political preferences and therefore the priority agenda of the community they create together change as the areas where Çiçektepeli individuals come into contact with life become differentiated. Since its establishment, Çiçektepe has gone through a unique value accumulation process that cannot be associated with the culture in which its residents shaped before coming to this neighborhood, but which also did not repeat what happened in the city. Çonoğlu states that Çiçektepeliler’s way of life that has been completely trapped in their own world creates a “protected structure that resists change” (2008, p.155). Balık opposes this and states that this is not a correct assessment for the peripheral neighborhood, and that “on the contrary, Çiçektepe increasingly resembled the city it wanted to be included in with the transformations it went through, and finally became an entertainment center and one of the illegal places in the city at the end of the novel” (2011, p.42). Therefore, it can be concluded that Çiçektepe has created a unique subculture within a rural-urban dichotomy, this subculture cannot be considered as a synthesis, it has evolved into an urban identity that is too urban to refer to rural identity anymore.
Paker’s interpretation that Berci transformed into Kristin has led to the conclusion that “…how much the negative qualities of the city can destroy the unpolluted social fabric…” (Açıkyol, 2017, p.45). The assumption that the rural is associated with innocence and the urban with the opposite is the starting point of this reasoning. The power of these assumptions to determine the understanding of those thinking about the city is so high that at this point, questioning all the corpus constructed by the mainstream may require skepticism. Perhaps the city’s air provides the conditions that reveal its weakness (we use this word in a neutral sense). We tend to think that there is an essential difference between what is more urban and what is written about the city, but there is a common exposure to the dynamics of the city between them. Çiçektepe did not claim to emerge as a unique entity, nor was there any imagination or design about what it would later become. It just existed. Spontaneous, unplanned…
Returning to the Berci-Kristin debate, neither Berci nor Kristin chose their names. It is the community that gave them their names. It is actually an adjective. The valuation of the subjects named is determined by the community¹⁹. The identities of the subjects named, who are given these names, have changed and transformed, so much so that they cannot be identified with the names given to them. The community’s power to name seems to be a power to transform as well. The individual, who has undergone a transformation, may not only have lost his/her previous identity but also his/her own individuality.
The transformation of a space involves a secularization process. Conversely, secularization leads to transformation. In this sense, it is necessary to say that the transformation experienced in Çiçektepe began with the role of magic, which passed from Güllü Baba to Kibriye Ana. When Güllü Baba’s ungrounded cures were replaced by Kibriye Ana’s treatments, which would find more buyers by claiming that she knew the places of the human organs, Güllü Baba stopped reciting prayers and blowing onto wounds and started reading people’s fate in exchange for cheese, olives, and soup. Similarly, Kibriye Ana’s power would be terminated by the community when it lost its function, and would be pushed into a more abstract realm, perhaps to be re-functionalized. The process of rationalization we are talking about increases its influence after the neighborhood election.
To stand out in the community, Çöp Bakkal, who had built his roof in a way that nobody else had, installed a huge door with a lion’s head relief in place of his old door. However, after Naylon Mustafa discovered where Çöp Bakkal had taken the door from and installed one in his own house, a competition to install doors began among the people of Çiçektepe. Later, these doors were randomly numbered. The interest in these doors, which were removed from old mansions, is seen as the manifestation of the efforts to integrate with urban life, “admiring those who are socially and economically superior to themselves” (Çonoğlu, 2008, p. 156), and therefore “feeling this superiority in every aspect of their lives” (Açıkyol, 2017, p. 46), “imitating the splendor of the past” (Sönmez, 2004, p. 46) through the metaphor of doors. When it is thought that these doors were removed from old mansions, it becomes apparent that a radical transformation is taking place simultaneously in other parts of the city, alongside the limited transformation experienced in the shantytown of Çiçektepe. Therefore, it is not only about newcomers filling a blank page in the city, but also about the fact that written pages are being rewritten.
With the opening of a bank branch in Çiçektepe, a new street begins to emerge (p. 109). On the other hand, coffee shops are opening up on the Garbage Road. The transformation in Çiçektepe starts to spread to all areas of life with the establishment of small, makeshift factories, the construction of numerous mosques in narrow spaces, the opening of a cinema, and the migration of the Roma people to the neighborhood (Atik, 2012, p. 248). Kurdish Cemal’s cinema (p. 111) has symbolically triggered many changes. After this, neighborhood women will remove their headscarves, begin to open their arms and legs like artists, and fulfill the mission of spreading not only emotional but also physical desire for love that Tirintaz Fidan failed to achieve. The competition to install doors, carry bank wallets, and acquire goods actually indicates an increase in prosperity among the working class. For the Çiçektepelis who were struggling to survive in the establishment phase, this is an important progress and must have affected the worldviews we mentioned.
After the discovery of urban land as a tool for capital accumulation, the importance of the redistribution of urban land increased, and the Çiçektepe settlement established itself and began to struggle for ownership of the neighborhood’s land. The formula of enabling workers to acquire property against class-based organization²⁰ is an old idea. When this formula led to the dissolution of organizations based on class concerns, it created a disappointment for the literate members of these organizations. In this respect, Tekin seems to agree with the roughly plundering squatter arguments of the middle classes.
At this point, Çiçektepe, which was previously divided into three neighborhoods — which we believe is a naming issue and a practical solution to describe the location — is then divided into two neighborhoods: Vakıf Çiçektepe and Birlik Çiçektepe. Vakıf Çiçektepe is where everything started. In this respect, it is like a sketch where an original urban life was born, learned, transmitted, and sustained. Inequalities are present from the very beginning, while Birlik Çiçektepe is established as a utopia of the Varlık Çiçektepeliler. Thus, Vakıf Çiçektepe becomes a place identified with crime, with the spread of gambling and prostitution after the opening of casinos (p. 106). However, there is no implication that the criminalization in shantytowns, as we generally learn from their experiences, was implemented as part of a program by dominant powers. As a result, Çiçektepe turns into a “carnival” of wealth over time with the migration of people, followed by the participation of merchants, workers, gamblers, prostitutes, and gypsies (Kekeç, 2011, p. 220).
THE COMMUNITY (CEMAAT)
Our attempts to discuss the concept of space as a physical phenomenon in three mutually related stages under the heading of space have often been hindered by its inseparability from the concept of community. In fact, this was inevitable. Here, we will try to focus on the inequality axes that have created and transformed the Çiçektepe community without repeating the arguments we have previously discussed.
THE CLASS
“In Latife Tekin’s novels, poverty is not treated as an economic problem or a sociological fact, but as a cultural and mental issue. (…) Tekin’s poor are people who aspire for power and struggle to achieve money” (Balık, 2011, p.85). Every detail presented as the Çiçektepe neighborhood in the narrative is, in fact, a story of a worker community that emerges from nothing and is influenced by circumstances. As depicted in the book, the issue of class provides a good panorama of the unique capitalist experience in Turkey. This section will focus on how the class issue is presented as an axis of inequality in the narrative of Berci Kristin Çöp Masalları.
The practice of burying the umbilical cords of newborn babies in the factory garden (p. 28) shows how the transfer of class affiliation from generation to generation is normalized. In the story of the thread-spinning girls whose blood has been contaminated with lead, who can only marry the battery-selling boys (p. 40), the limiting effect of the workers’ class position on their life choices is emphasized. The character of the Trash Baron seems to represent a feudal remnant, but its exact representation is unclear as the narrative is not deepened. On the other hand, the distinction between class and status is blurred in perception. Therefore, for example, the people of Çiçektepe can liken a well-dressed stranger who gets lost in their streets to a teacher (p. 112). Installing a door, building a mosque, opening a bank account, or acquiring property all begin as attempts to gain power. However, once these attempts turn into a race, they are fixed on a higher level where the community members are equal in prosperity. The author makes moves to nullify attempts that create status differences among characters in the same class.
Although each worker in the workplace is paid, distinctions arise among workers, such as manager/non-manager, regular/irregular, unionized/non-unionized. It can be seen that the narrator also takes a stance with an ideological reflex here. The manager of Mr. Izak does not have a specific name. Whenever he is mentioned, Mr. Izak’s name is also mentioned. Therefore, we cannot know what his existence would look like on his own. The irregular workers (muntazlar²¹) are also depicted as types who are afraid to death of the possibility of a strike and do not care about being humiliated in order to protect their gains. On the other hand, it can be understood from the subtext, such as the fact that the refrigerator factory workers are constantly slacking off at work (p. 60), that there is also a rejection of a standardized work ethic. In scenes where the hellish suffering²² imposed on the workers is described with a pornographic nakedness, it can be witnessed that the representational distance that the writer creates through his style is narrowed. Finally, it can be understood that communication with official authorities has been more complex than it appears, developing through conflicts from the establishment phase onwards. Gülbey Usta’s requirement that someone from the Labor Office must come to end his one-man resistance suggests that official institutions are still seen as a guarantee against the employer.
It is mentioned that Güllü Baba was also a worker before the establishment of Çiçektepe and implies that workers migrated in generations. The fact that the prophecies voiced by Güllü Baba in the later stages of the establishment will come true may indicate that he presented accurate deductions in the form of prophecies because he may have already experienced similar processes before. On the other hand, although Güllü Baba is described as a shaman, his shamanistic attribute does not come from belonging to a caste. Inequality is a category established after the first manifestation where everyone was equal. And the neighborhood is such a place that, as can be understood from the fact that the respected ancestors who come from the prophet’s lineage are not respected, it bestows a character on those they choose, and when it deems that they have completed their function, it takes it back from them. In any case, the community makes the selection. In this sense, everything is temporary.
The struggles organized by Çiçektepe workers for the improvement of working and living conditions generally manifest themselves as strikes. However, supporting a striking worker who is a member of the union is considered as a union order. What is worked as class consciousness in us is a normative symbol pile that focuses on the loyalty feeling. The legitimacy of those who keep the watch of this morality to use violence is accepted (see: Gülbey Usta saying that he will bury those who flee from strike/resistance in garbage hills on p. 71). Due to its tendency to facilitate centralization of power, this structure of class solidarity can easily be transformed into an individual power area of the organization or eliminate the possibility of collective action by encouraging individual heroism. Conversely, if the loyalty feeling loses its ability to keep the masses together, class membership can easily become fragmented. However, it is understood that the Çiçektepelis, who are consenting equals to a program that will maximize the long-term interests of the working class, cannot develop a class membership based on principles. Of course, the purpose of these overly reductionist evaluations is generally to emphasize the key role of emotions in determining the ideological position. Let’s take a look at the following quote for another example:
“The factory owner who adopted a child who turned out to be mute was surrounding the Gecekondus. Eyes narrowed and ears blocked as he looked at the Garbage Road. The factory owner, who held his child who couldn’t speak for days, was pitied” (p. 40).
In these lines, we witness the manipulation of the working class through mercy. The disability of the factory owner’s adopted child is one of the coincidences triggering many events in the narrative. Therefore, we are left to directly observe its effects as the issue of who proposes, circulates, and popularizes it is not questioned. Thus, this adds a new dimension to the employer-employee relationship. As a result, a skillful, functional tool is used in different contexts and forms but with the same purpose to soften potential conflicts. The fact that the workers demand holiday gifts for their children instead of a direct wage increase (p. 42) shows that such a relationship is not established only through demand. Or, when health problems increased among the residents of the settlement due to toxic gases from the refrigerator factory, a liter of milk distributed to households once a day for a year (p. 65) can create an irrelevant agreement that will obscure the actual cause of the conflict and its real solution. We do not believe that this trend among the working class occurs naturally. The strategies of the capitalist class, which are embodied in the personality of Mr. Izak in the narrative and aimed at producing consent, aim to manipulate in this way from the very beginning and implement it in stages as part of a program. For instance, when he first established his factory, Mr. Izak participated in the production process wearing overalls just like the other workers he employed (p. 63). However, as production increased, he began to disrupt work discipline and eventually took on the role of a factory owner who would be professionally managed by a manager he appointed. Mr. Izak does not hesitate to use the ideological tools he resorts to. The sermon of the imam of the mosque he established that the strike is setting up tents against Allah (p. 76) is a typical example of religion being instrumentalized in managing the working class. Another method is the bribe offered to Gulbey Usta. The benefit expected from neutralizing people who are likely to cause trouble due to their personality must be considered more valuable than the money to be lost. Of course, keeping the option of using enforcers as a cheaper means of suppression on the table is always an option (Balık, 2011, p. 105). The imbalance created by only addressing the capitalist class through Mr. Izak despite the working class being represented by many and various characters shows that making a class analysis solely based on this book is problematic.
THE ETHNICITY & THE RELIGION
The only group that is directly referred to by their ethnic origin in the narrative is the Gypsies. They are sometimes referred to as Romani or Romani people. Hınık Alhas’ Gypsy History, which he tells in his unique style, contains many racist and discriminatory details. There are many expressions that state that Gypsies are homeless, irreligious, barbaric, and very dirty. The state of being dirty attributed to Gypsies is not only a result of their own behavior but also presented as a fact that was directed towards the city’s water sources in previous periods of history, which posed a threat to the entire population of the city (p.85). Essentialist observations such as the plumpness of Gypsy women, the thinness of Gypsy men, and the polygamy found only in one Gypsy named Çeri Mahmut, as well as the cliché of playing with bears in a few different places, can also be seen in the narrative. Their inclination towards craftsmanship (p. 93) and their ability to perform nearly a thousand delicate tasks such as dentistry (p. 86) are also presented as characteristics of this community. In 1936, these people who did not comply with the rules were brought under control, and it is stated that they were tricked into being put into the midst of the Turks by changing the word “Roman” in their identity cards to “Turkish.” It is understood that the Gypsies who live in cardboard houses or tent cities create a contrast with the settled neighborhoods and that they will work in gaslit cafes that will multiply like mushrooms due to their love of music and will make this contrast more palpable by seducing the people of Çiçektepe.
It is not clear whether there is a connection between Kurdish Cemal being Kurdish and his being a bully, a political opportunist, and a liar. It is a known fact that there were mass migrations from Kurdish provinces during the period when migration to the city intensified. While there is no implication among the residents of Çiçektepe that there are Kurdish elements living in the neighborhood, highlighting the fact that a name that is a symbol of the land mafia is Kurdish can be explained by the nationalist reflexes of Turkey’s revolutionary tradition. On the other hand, the name of the capitalist, two-faced, lying manufacturer is Bay İzak. At first glance, he may be mistaken for being Jewish, but even the people of Çiçektepe could not figure out where he was born and raised or how he came to the garbage dumps: “Despite countless guesses about where Bay İzak was born and raised, and where he came from, no one could get to the bottom of it” (Tekin, 1995, p. 63). However, based on the common linguistic tendency of using the Sami-origin special name in Turkish as İshak instead of İzak and adding the address expressions to the end rather than the beginning, it is highly likely that Bay İzak is non-Muslim and/or non-Turkish. Here again, it can be claimed that the narrator attributes the role of oppressor to the other, under the influence of ideological unconsciousness.
After it was discovered that the land on which Çiçektepe was built belonged to a foundation, the residents of the neighborhood contacted the municipality. Among the Çiçektepelis gathered in front of the municipality, a man named Mustafa Gülibik started his speech with the words, “Holly Atatürk!” He continued, “We inherited Çiçektepe from Atatürk.” It is clear that the speech took this form for utilitarian purposes. Nevertheless, they must have resorted to this tactic to assert the ethnic identity they considered reliable, even though it was not mentioned directly.
The term Kızılbaş, used as a religious category, also refers to Alevism. The first time Alevism was noticed by non-Alevi elements in Çiçektepe was when curses rained down like snow in response to the Ramadan drummer’s noise in a region where Alevi people lived heavily (p.97). After the uprising against the Kızılbaş in Çiçektepe and the siege that lasted for a night, the resulting fight triggered spatial segregation.
“The boy returns to the mother, and the girl returns to the father After the semahs, the candles go out” (p.97).
The incest implication here will be discussed in more detail under the “Other” heading. However, the dissemination of rumors and the skill in bending the truth will be one of the most crucial events that will shape the communal tendencies in Çiçektepe and the fate of the neighborhood in the future.
One of the methods that Çöp Bakkal used to eliminate his rival during the neighborhood headman elections was to accuse Naylon Mustafa of being a denier. When this accusation was well-received within the community, Naylon Mustafa was forced to withdraw from the headman race. Disbelief, perceived in other ways than denial, is only used for Gypsies. However, the unbelief of the Gypsies is considered less harmful than the denial that Naylon Mustafa fell into as a result of his questioning reasoning. However, even if it did not lead to an explicit denial, the wave of secularization that paralleled the transformation in Çiçektepe was weakening the influence of religion on daily life. When the plot that the muezzin devised to reverse this trend was exposed and resulted in his arrest, the residents of Çiçektepe experienced a crisis of faith (p.116). After this, it was observed that secularization increased its dosage and accelerated the transformation experienced in the neighborhood.
THE GENDER
According to Berger, the drunken ramblings expressed in a male voice in Joyce’s work find a more measured and feminine voice in Tekin’s writing (2000, p.4). Therefore, it is possible to speak of a femininity that pervades the book in terms of the style, descriptions, and narrative. However, it is debatable how sensitive this approach is to the social aspect of gender. The manifestation of patriarchal domination in the roles characters adopt and the behaviors they exhibit in accordance with these roles indicates the author’s choice regarding the level of representing reality. However, in some cases, the narrator seems to endorse some actions that exhibit masculine character traits performed by certain women, as in the example of Dursune Nine putting a gun in her shalwar and going to support the resistance (p.73).
When female representations are examined more closely, we encounter personalities that compete with their peers, are jealous, cynical, exposed to violence, and consider this situation as normal, eager to change their lifestyle, and in need of men’s protection. Thus, the “negation of the female gender” (Gökçe, 2012, pp.87–88) is commonly observed. Masculinity, on the other hand, is positioned on the opposite side of femininity in a symmetrical manner. Qualities such as power-hungry, ruthless, curious, and lazy are attributed to male characters. Failure to behave according to the masculine role is considered a reason for exclusion. A man who cannot impregnate his wife is labeled as “tırnaksız” (meaning “nailless” or impotent) (p.37). Later, this term “tırnaksız” will become a derogatory term used for unionless workers, independent of gender. Thus, gender seeps into the practices of social life. The extent to which gender can be determinative in understanding the world is revealed in how women conceive of God:
“My God, with black eyebrows and twisting mustache!” (p.24).
Gender hierarchy is established from the very beginning by attributing masculinity to God. Women cannot establish solidarity against masculinity among themselves against the community. Şengül, being labeled by her peers as the person who dried up Güllü Baba’s tears, results in her becoming the necessary sacrifice, even though she is clearly innocent. The women who spread the hearsay of Şengül’s misfortune are responsible for the continuity of group spirit. However, if women are not included in the discussion, it raises doubts about how much importance men who strive to be elected as the headman care about the community’s well-being.
There is a noticeable difference between using the same adjective for men and women. In this respect, the madness of Deli Gönül and Deli Dursun is not the same. While Gönül is associated with madness in the figurative sense, as a dreamer, enthusiastic about life, naive, Dursun is mad in the literal sense because he has lost his mental faculties. While the community judges Gönül’s madness, Dursun falls into this state due to heartbreak and continues to be crazy even when no one is around.
The only way for women to exist on their own without being part of a joint structure like a family with men seems to be prostitution. The two female characters in the book are depicted as people whose husbands are imprisoned and who are not under the protection of a man. While the patriarchal community grants a woman who seeks economic freedom outside the family this privilege, it imposes costs such as sexual violence and being excluded from the political structure of the community. Describing the corruption of Deli Gönül, who will later be known as Kristin, as a symbol in Çiçektepe assumes that all feminine states and the will of the community are represented in Deli Gönül’s character. However, throughout the story, there is no expression that suggests that the community attributed the label of a whore to her. So why should Kristin’s fate be the ultimate fate of all Bercis? It is striking that this deduction based on the feminine motif is prevalent in many critical essays written on Berci Kristin Çöp Masalları. The trace of this approach can also be seen in the discourse that suggests that the transformative effect of films works only for women.
Due to the rumors that the other prostitute character, Yarım Saatlik Katır Emel [Emel the Half-Hour Mule], is a fake woman, she is attacked and insulted when passing in front of coffeehouses (p. 123). It is not well-regarded in the public sphere for gender to be in between the clear poles of femininity and masculinity. It is necessary to clarify and finalize it; only then can it be settled. While Katır Emel is treated as a monster in the public sphere due to the uncertainty of her femininity, she is treated differently among Çiçektepeli men on private occasions.
Şini Erol, who worked as a football coach in the times he didn’t sell junk, is another “in-between” character. His homosexuality contradicts with the structure of football, which is usually the showcase of the masculine mind. It is striking that the fact that Şini Erol lives with a young man in his shop is expressed as “warming up” among the conductors.
Sexuality also emerges as an important phenomenon in the daily life of Çiçektepe. Together with Tirintaz Fidan, it is observed that sexuality is instrumentalized by women to mobilize the community since men and therefore, the main actors are men. For example, with the strike that starts in the drug factory, the flow of the blue water stream that passes from the factory and reaches Çiçektepe is cut off. Thus, the lack of water is tried to be made remarkable by attributing it to the issue of men not being able to be with their “wives” rather than being one of the primary vital problems by Fidan (Gökçe, 2012, p. 88). Thus, Fidan who proves his worth takes on the mentoring of women. On the other hand, this attitude will also be a reason for harassment by men. With Fidan’s initiatives, a sub-publicity²³ is established where only women will be involved under the pretext of cutting bangs, eyebrows, etc. (p. 45). After Tirintaz Fidan’s night classes and some intrigues for Çiçektepe women, it will be seen that married women start to demand “pleasure” from their husbands. While even a simple need like going to the toilet was considered shameful at the establishment stage, after a while, women “…have become able to talk about even the most intimate thing, which is considered as “sexuality” (Sürükli, 2017, p. 224). However, closing the wide gap between being able to speak and making it accepted will not be so easy.
One of the first to request “pleasure” after learning from Tirintaz Fidan is the wife of Çöp Bakkal²⁴. However, far from being satisfied, opening up the subject leads to revealing her husband’s perverted personality. First, she has to listen that pleasure is something to be taxed by men. After being threatened to be sent to her father’s house, she is subjected to a hair-raising sexual violence that she cannot resist (p. 47). While Çöp Bakkal does these, the power that prevents his wife from resisting is the patriarchal property regime that claims the house belongs to men. On the other hand, all of these experienced after the request for “pleasure” also show how desire is a political truth.
Among the people of Çiçektepe, beating one’s wife is a common practice. However, violence against women outside of the family is not tolerated. For the female workers who experience mistreatment, Çiçektepe speaks with one voice:
“Women workers’ honor will be counted as that of male workers…” (p. 91).
However, getting rid of feminine qualities has become a prerequisite for a woman to be accepted as a worker:
“The Çiçektepe girls were asked whether they would get engaged or have children. Those who would not get engaged or have children were selected and hired. Those who got engaged with the hope of finding a job in factories, and those who ran to the midwife to have their unborn babies aborted, emerged.” (p. 120).
Additionally, it is useful to remember that women workers are members of a family. Women beginning to work as laborers coincides with men succumbing to the lure of idleness and beginning to gamble in cafes. Moreover, women’s employment is only possible after men who previously occupied the job have withdrawn. This practice can be remembered from the time when men started working in factories, and garbage collection was left to women and children. At that time, they had shown their generosity in labor by frequently filling bags of the collected madimak and sorted bulgur.
GENERATION
Since Berci Kristin Çöp Masalları narrative covers a period of a few years, it is not possible to conduct an examination in terms of chronological order. Instead, we will examine the distinctions among the groups clustered by age in the visible picture.
From the establishment, the active political individuals in the Çiçektepe community are middle-aged people. Common ground is found in the ignorance of young people and the wisdom of the elderly. Children exist entirely outside the realm of politics, such as playing games. No concrete action can be found aimed at the safety of future generations, except for burying their umbilical cords in factory or school gardens. The primary school building was not constructed for such a purpose. Although not directly stated, it is understood that children are valued by parents for providing a guarantee of security in old age.
The statement by middle-aged greedy men, expressing their desire to build mosques that their elderly fathers can easily access, is entirely motivated by politics. Otherwise, there is no agenda in Çiçektepe for the tranquility of the older generation, such as the absence of an ideal for the next generation.
The wise are elderly people. Güllü Baba, an old woman who reads wedding veils, Kibriye Ana, and to a certain extent, Dursune Nine, are respected and reputable people whose words are taken seriously. However, their significance for the community varies depending on the conjuncture. Establishing a connection with ancestors is an important issue for the people of Çiçektepe in their identity formation. The curiosity aroused by Hınık Alhas’s claim to know the history of Gypsies and the world’s nations’ history stems from the desire to know who their own ancestors were. It is understood that the position of dedelik, which is passed down through kinship ties, is not accepted as expected among families who settle in the city, especially among Alevis. When the position that was certain to be held by the son during the Bedouin period disappeared, the Alevi dede’s son would begin to sell fake jeans. Of course, this example only demonstrates that not only the intergenerational relationships but also the privileged feudal classes have become dysfunctional due to transformation.
SPIRIT OF UNITY (ASABIYYE)
The production of a unique structure by the merging of space and community in Çiçektepe is a result of the collision of many opposing social truths. Class relations, metaphysical/mythical/religious discourse, the construction of claims of ethnic and geographical superiority, propaganda developed against unions, power and relationship dynamics, crude violence, but perhaps most importantly, the dark side of human nature… In Berci Kristin Çöp Masalları, Latife Tekin, under the influence of the disappointments she experienced in the historical moment she lived in, seems to particularly focus on this aspect of human nature. Deep compassion is accompanied by anger in the lines where she describes the trauma of destruction experienced in the founding stage and the harsh working conditions of factory workers. Despite this, we seem to start with the apriori that a member of the working class cannot be inherently innocent simply because they are oppressed. We are faced with the ethical question of whether the ultimate goal of those who are oppressed within an exploitative system is to disrupt the nature of this relationship and construct a different reality, or to wait for opportunities to reverse this relationship in their favor. The workers in Tekin’s novel do not fit the profile of the working class in romantic narratives. It is observed that they skip work when there is no one around to monitor them at the factory. They are cruel to those they see as weaker than themselves (such as women). The desire for power is kept hidden inside, waiting to sprout when the conditions are right. Is it not ridiculous to not crave material possessions? If this dark side is inherently part of human nature, then it excludes the hope of correction from the very beginning. With this perspective, the limits of the possibility of building a better world with the will to live together constructed are already predetermined.
We are invited to explore the limits of those who are human by keeping in mind the qualities they possess as stakeholders in communities established with virtual identities or class affiliations. Therefore, it is constantly implied that these communities’ formations will be affected by these human qualities. However, undoubtedly, the spirit of the unity that the people of Çiçektepe constructed, along with all their internal contradictions, will take its source from the shared destiny of its stakeholders. In conditions where destinies do not converge, inevitably, separations will occur, and every new unity that has been separated within itself will experience these processes anew.
The opposition of “us” and “them” has a crucial role in the establishment and character formation of unity. It is observed that the sacred undertakes a function of tolerating micro-separations that will occur within the community, elevating us and demonizing the other. Fear, whether abstract or concrete, brings about a commonality against what is feared. Furthermore, the spirit of unity is attempted to be sustained by the community through rituals and social control.
US & OTHERS
At the establishment of communities, the leaders either do not have a perspective on the whole or it is left out of the narrative due to its irrelevance. The issue of how they perceive the world cannot be brought up because they have an urgent agenda related to survival, which obliges them to form a collective fate. As life takes root in Çiçektepe, we witness a clash between two formations that differentiate over time. The first is class-based, encompassing all of Çiçektepe in terms of production relations, while the second is based on identity and creates sub-unions. Although these two formations can coexist under different conditions, they always have the potential for conflict with each other because of the common elements they encompass. On the other hand, these two ideal formations naturally have each other as the Other. Against the working class, there is a capitalist class, and against the community organized around identity, there is another community organized around opposing identity. These contradictions require each other dialectically, and although the absence of the Other may be desired, our existence depends on the continuity of the Other.
After founding the refrigerator factory representing the capitalist class, Mr. İzak worked as a worker for a while until the work discipline was broken down. In this respect, we include both Mr. İzak, who is the capitalist, and the workers he employed. A contradiction has not yet emerged due to the success of Mr. İzak’s strategy. However, from this point on, a differentiation will begin between Mr. İzak and the others who have not yet formed a unity among themselves (see: null column). Although the others have been the Other of Mr. İzak since the beginning in terms of class, this will become clear with the institutionalization that will begin with the assignment of a manager who carries the mentality of the country surrounded by the ocean. It has been possible for the workers to unite around Gülbey Usta’s resistance and create an us for the others as well. The determination of Mr. İzak as the Other also means that an identity has been established for the workers. This is an epic scene. The fact that the workers who took the position of the employer for small benefits felt threatened during the strike is also because they realized their class belonging at that moment. In addition, the participation of women and children who were not workers later on expands the scope of class to everyone who earns a living through labor. However, the following part is important: the process of the workers gaining their class identity is far from being a chosen, designed, and woven project like that of the capitalist. It is spontaneous and reactive. We can understand this from Taci Baba’s words on the night of the strike when he realized that the resistance was developing against the workers’ interests:
“We didn’t think about this enough,” (p. 72)
From now on, they try to turn resistance into gain by reacting again. The worker class’s attitude towards the capitalist cannot be sustained in the long term. When the intrigues of the capitalist class²⁵ combine with the human weaknesses of the worker class, this unity cannot maintain its internal integrity for a long time. Already, with the employment demand of the people who were driven to Çiçektepe due to migration exceeding the factories’ capacity, unemployment inevitably begins to wander around the neighborhood. With women starting to work as well, male unemployed workers prefer to spend time in the coffee shop instead of working in the factory, which they do not particularly desire.
The internal differences of the community formed on the basis of identities become more apparent later on, as the conditions that will emerge in the establishment stage do not arise. Since the definition of “us” of the dominant majority positioned at the center of the Çiçektepe cosmos is produced in the vacuum where there is no “other,” it reflexively narrows the existence area of the “other” to overcome its own constraints. In this respect, the existence of the “other” always precedes us temporally. As our identity formation stems from the absence of the “other,” we always encounter delay and incompleteness in identity construction²⁶. In light of these assumptions, the legitimacy provided by considering oneself as an essential element empowers the existence of the “other” and allows one to see the right to establish domination within oneself.
After the dramatic Alevi siege that marked the first clear division, the accounts regarding the only public space in Çiçektepe, the coffeehouse, are instructive:
“As the fight continued, the large and only coffeehouse in Çiçektepe’s industry fell into the hands of Alevi kondu dwellers. (…) As the anger escalated with the collective raids on the coffeehouse proving ineffective, it finally exploded. Fifteen kondu coffeehouses were scattered throughout fifteen different corners of Çiçektepe. (…) The number of coffeehouses on only the NATO Avenue in Çiçektepe rose to one hundred and fifty.” (p. 99–100).
Due to the lack of their own public space, which is distinct from being Alevi or Romanika, the primary element of Çiçektepe gathers in their private kondu dwellings. In fact, the public nature of the kondu is not new. It has served as a stage for storytellers and as a podium for politicians. However, since gathering in the kondu again after the existence of a public space is seen as a sign of regression, it creates a feeling of resentment. As evidenced by the establishment of 150 new coffeehouses on the Garbage Road (p. 100), this feeling is quite strong. However, the fact that the established coffeehouses turn into places where gambling, drug and prostitution negotiations take place reveals that the public does not necessarily need a physical space to produce value, and that a space established with the intention of being public can only be more than a structure in the absence of a realized public.
In Çiçektepe, there are no bedouin reflexes such as kinship or hometown. This does not fit the reality of the shantytowns that emerged after intense migration in Turkey. Both migration and settlement and employment practices are entirely based on these reflexes, and this is the secret of the success of urbanization in Turkey. Although kinship associations no longer carry the same meaning, they continue to exist strongly.
There are many views in the literature regarding the fact that Çiçektepelis consider the city as the other. According to this, the “language of the city they see as the other” (Çonoğlu, 2008, p. 155) is perceived as entirely foreign and strange for kondu dwellers, such as NATO, Anarchist, and Foundation, it is stated. In the narrative, we believe that there is no discourse to support this view. Half-settled Gypsy others and makeshift fully-settled we or Alevi others and the main identities that create the we-other dialectic against them, who are not explicitly stated, appear.
SACRED
The sacred is at the core of identity construction. The search for the sacred in the individual realm draws on a modern attitude. Regardless of how individuals occupy a place in their own world, the sacred is a social principle that holds communities together by making sense of phenomena that cannot be explained through reason and are inherently temporary and social constructs created at the moment and in that particular context. In Berci Kristin Tales from the Garbage Hills, the transitions between events are constructed through fluidity and rumors whose sources are generally unclear. “Rumor is the very thing that makes the story ‘really incomplete — or private’… always watching, predicting, and trying to connect events that are on the verge of chaos” (Berger, 2000, p. 4).
The will that creates these rumors and sets them in circulation, thus triggering changes while guiding the narrator blindly, is also the one that establishes the sacred. Unlike the limited interactions created by the instantaneous impact of rumors, long-term alliances are built upon the sacred. It is not necessary to debunk the proposition that the sacred is mystified, grounded in reality, or established and maintained by the community to protect the status quo. There is a very rational vein at the core of the sacred. Moreover, the speed at which it adapts to changing conditions is surprising. The concept of the sacred is not complete.
From the outset, the characters in The Flea Palace are connected to the sacred despite the narrative’s bewitching style. “It is possible to say that the neighborhood changes the tradition’s identity by clothing it in different garments according to its own conditions and experiences” (Arslan, 2017, p. 202). However, “traditions in this novel are invented ‘in the moment’ and according to the situation, rather than being brought by the residents’ past” (Balık, 2011, p. 74). Women are seen tying knots to the ends of their handkerchiefs and scarves while mourning their lost children, whom the wind had carried away along with the roofs (p. 8). As previously noted, settling on the garbage dump was never an option, and the possibility of returning never crossed their minds. Tying knots in the wind can be read as an attempt to reconcile with a force that cannot be overcome. The persistence in seeking such a reconciliation is proportional to the strength of the will to survive in that particular region. In fact, “with each new knot, the population becomes a little more a part of their new neighborhood; each new knot makes them a little more indigenous” (Kekeç, 2011, p. 215). Therefore, it is not important whether the wind’s path will actually be tied.
After the initial examples such as wind-binding that were not powerful enough to create a sense of community spirit, we witness Çiçektepe creating the archetype²⁷ of Güllü Baba. This self-proclaimed miracle worker is equipped with a number of clichés, from his blind eyes to his cane, tears, prayers, and prophecies. He is acknowledged for finding jobs for the unemployed and curing diseases spread from garbage. In other words, the people of Çiçektepe turn to Güllü Baba for help with problems that they cannot solve on their own. After showing empathy towards Sırma and calming her down with tears, the congregation identifies Güllü Baba as their chosen one. However, he does not solve any problems in this or subsequent examples, but is skillful in producing meaning. Whenever he is expected to explain something related to developments in Çiçektepe (such as what NATO means), the community immediately realizes that Güllü Baba’s abilities have reached their limits. Thus, the community has pushed him into a more abstract area where he is
“…re-activated with his ramblings, predictions, and advice” (p. 33).
We should note that it was the community that elevated Güllü Baba to the rank of “pirlik” and also left him alone there. Furthermore, we do not agree that Güllü Baba should be seen as “a symbol of the urbanized type trying to maintain their beliefs within urban culture against tradition, superstition against reason, and Westernization against religion” (Çavuş, 2017, p. 89). Güllü Baba’s transfer of witch-doctoring to healing only from Kibriye Ana supports our claim. Then, what happened to witch-doctoring?
When a stone with an inscription on it was discovered in Fabrikadibi, and it was rumored that it indicated a burial site, the locals banned urinating, spitting, and passing by without praying there. Later on, people were seen going there to get water from the stone. They even showed the stone what water was like, perhaps fearing that it might not understand. The emergence of “Kutsal” (the Holy) during a period when there was a water problem in Çiçektepe was certainly not a coincidence. After becoming a tomb named “Su Baba (Father Water),” people would eventually forget that they used to ask for water from him. When one of the pharmaceutical factories extended toward the tomb and left it under the raw materials section, it was believed that the workers who died there from poisoning were cursed by Su Baba’s wrath. The attempt to explain the incident in terms of a distant cause such as wrath, while a close cause like poisoning was present, was due to the fact that a distant cause would be less offensive to the community’s taste. As we can see, the role of the witch-doctor continues to be scattered but sustained in different forms as the complexity of life in Çiçektepe increases.
The mosque, the first structure built in daylight, is the harbinger of the transformation of the sacred into a temple. Thus, attachment to the ground and transformation from empty space to land begins. The built mosque is also a move towards the public declaration of attachment to the ground, as it is a branch of the community’s shared sacred. Since the mosque cannot be demolished, it is hoped that the neighborhood will not be destroyed either. However, as every sacred is also open to manipulation as a power center, it becomes a means for the neighborhood residents to establish micro powers, and their number increases over time. Additionally, it will be used by Bay Izak’s imam as a means of political direction in his favor.
Bureaucracy is another mysterious sacred that has shown both its good and bad faces many times, from the demolition workers to the spread of rumors about land distribution. So much so that when Çöp Bakkal brought up the parties during the muhtarlık race, he added the word flag. As remembered from the speech of a person in the crowd gathered in front of the municipality to demand their rights after it was declared that Çiçektepe was built on foundation land, the founding leader, party, and flag are valued as another important element for the sacred bureaucracy. The Çiçektepe community is well aware of the function of the sacred, the most sacred. And they do not hesitate to manipulate it for their own political agenda. In the eyes of the residents who have such a political agenda, Kızılbaş Dedeler (p.99), who wander around civil settlements hoping for money and gifts, are not respected and are thrown out of the doors they arrive at.
Although it is outside the context we are discussing here, we will briefly mention two other observations related to the sacred. The first is the sacrifice made by pharmaceutical workers shedding the blood of the animal they slaughtered in dedication to their union. This act, which they performed to celebrate their liberation from being called ‘nail-less,’ can be read through the concept of sacrifice. It is also interesting in terms of reflecting the connection of the socialist tradition in Turkey to culture. The second is the wider interpretation of the institution of family, which conservative society considers sacred, by the Çiçektepe community. Lado’s three divorces and four marriages are not considered a family disaster by the community. They simply do not like Lado because they think she sets a bad example for other married women in the neighborhood. It will be remembered that the same community disapproved of the Ciğerci family’s breakup and reunion due to fights. However, that disapproval did not have any other consequences than Ciğerci not being elected as muhtar. In fact, we can see this as an excuse that the community that agreed with Çöp Bakkal’s muhtarship resorted to in order to exclude Ciğerci.
As we conclude this section, we must point out that it would be incorrect, though not entirely false, to explain the influence of the sacred, which the people of Çiçektepele hold in high regard, by attributing it to their ignorance. When the common perception of the sacred is limited to superstitious beliefs or irrational traditions, it hinders any kind of critical inquiry. Given that the people of Çiçektepele, who mark the beginning of their calendar with the migration, lack sources to explain the dynamics of their second life, which they experience within the same lifespan, there is nothing inexplicable about filling these gaps with such traditions. What is interesting, however, is the existence of a common pattern in these tendencies and the fact that the narrator also accompanies (sleeps, accompanies) this pattern in the overarching structure. Thus, since myths create an illusion of a consistent structure, the agreement between the narrator and the reader that the narrative is temporarily true does not harm the contract established.
FEAR
The word ‘fear’ is used 35 times in Berci Kristin Çöp Masalları. The fear of destruction, which had turned into a kind of mass hysteria during the establishment phase, has created a driving force for mobilizing the masses (Budan, 2014, p.193). Until the concrete threat causing fear disappears, the commune leaders unite around this emotion. Similarly, the residents of the Çiçektepe community, upon hearing that there are homeless and jobless workers²⁸ in their neighborhood who would try to take over people’s homes, become preoccupied with protecting their own properties out of fear (p.89).
The manager of Bay Izak’s factory is afraid to say “good luck” to the workers during inspections, knowing that he must control his behavior so as not to disrupt the hierarchical system based on virtual agreements among them. Even though he sympathizes with or feels a class affinity for the workers, as he also works as a paid employee regardless of his status, he does what he needs to do as fear reminds him. On the other hand, when Bay Izak expands his factory over the cemetery and the garbage hills are covered with dry skulls and bones, the people of Çiçektepe spread anger and fear towards him. To prevent this fear from triggering an unfavorable alliance, Bay Izak gathers the community leaders to clear his name. As a factory owner who understands the power of fear, he knows he must manage it.
The moments when fear is most intensely felt in the dramatic plot are during the resistance initiated by Gülbey Usta. Bay Izak fears for his factory, its production, and its future, while all the workers are mobilized in front of the factory, ready to respond to the intervention trucks. The non-unionized workers fear the unionized workers, and the unionized workers fear Gülbey Usta’s leadership style and Bay Izak’s screams. During this time, chaos ensues since no one is managing the fear.
It is observed that some political ideologies are associated with fear. Hınık Alhas’ statement that the arrival of communism would disrupt unity and harmony in Çiçektepe is met with fear by the community, who believe that the current unity also contains harmony. On the other hand, some rumors with probable origins from capitalists are associated with fear of anarchy.
“Long before the name Çiçektepe was written on the map of garbage hills, a fear that lay beneath the anarchist talk grew and thrived, yet unknown to the houses.” (p. 108)
The rumor of an anarchist within the community, whose identity is unknown, creates a social paranoia. In addition to the many restrictive effects on everyday life, the conditions for adopting such ideologies make it impossible for those who have no prior knowledge about them to understand them. This reveals that the conservative mindset is constructed through fears and negations. A similar example can be seen when the muezzin Hacı Hasan, who encouraged his daughter to provide scary news from the afterlife in a spectacular scene staged in their home, with a screen and wax mixed with honey applied to her arm and leg, in an attempt to control women who opened their arms and legs after the cinema came to Çiçektepe (p. 114–115). However, as observed in many similar situations, when the conditions that give rise to fear disappear, the very thing that is being restrained by fear emerges even more strongly. Indeed, after the muezzin was arrested by the police and his daughter eloped, the women of Çiçektepe who experienced a crisis of faith will open their arms and legs even more.
Finally, let us end this section by discussing three different situations where fear dominates. The first is Kibriye Ana’s attempt to instill fear in people’s hearts by saying that thirst will dry up the teams inside a person. This is a time when she took over the healer role from Güllü Baba and was successful in supporting her actions and words with a convincing argument. We believe that she resorted to this method to prevent objections from those who might question the validity of her argument. When the news that the drummer was cursed was heard, the Alevis who were not Kızılbaş were surrounded by Çiçektepelis, and they were filled with deep fear for their lives. However, since they were not together at that moment, fear did not have a unifying effect on the Kızılbaş community. The third situation is the cries of fear from the children as Lado beat his wife. In addition to the long-term social effects of such childhood traumas, there is another striking effect. A very strong emotional bond is formed between the mother and children who experience violence. This makes it easier to tolerate some problems for the sake of the other person. Fear and solace from the unseen!
POWER RELATIONS
In the minds of immigrants who consider the consequences of an irreversible journey to unknown lands, a suitable environment for the establishment of power begins to form before they even set out. The motif of the displacement of those who move to the city in stories of migration emerges with the interpretation by those affected of the reaction of the city’s settled population to the attitudes and behaviors of immigrants that are not considered appropriate to the norms of urban life. The domination of urban culture over conflicting cultures endows the urban population with power that invites immigrants to behave appropriately. The predominance of urban culture can be explained by reasons such as having been there earlier, being numerically superior to minorities, possessing social codes that the immigrant group cannot establish and resolve, and relying on similar advantages, usually inherited through inheritance.
The will to establish a place that emerged with eight shanties built overnight on a garbage dump is perceived by nature and the bureaucracy that embodies the destroyers as an unauthorized intervention in their fields of power. Since the existence of squatters does not have a quality that can be negotiated through rules from the perspective of established authorities, the intervention to eliminate squatters is the first solution that comes to mind. Thus, it is seen as “the intervention of the law to the illegal through bulldozers and demolition officials” (Dişçi, 2017, p. 235). They face a masculine supreme power that is represented by motorized forces. The attempts to throw away the squatters, which began with the winds, turned into a violence repeated by the destroyers. The squatters who were exposed to this violence cannot develop an action beyond avoiding the blows directed at them because of their lack of signs. Whenever the threat disappears, the will to establish a place reappears without losing any of its strength. As long as the power does not feel threatened by questioning its existence through an interrogation, it reproduces its existence by strengthening its presence with each repetition of violence. The recognition of the settlement right of squatters 37 demolitions later is a good example of how law creates exceptions to keep the power constant. When the information that Kurdish Cemal “parcelled the garbage hills” before Çiçektepe was established is considered, it can be said that this exception regime was consciously applied. During the village headman elections, Çöp Bakkal propagandizes with the Çiçektepe settlement plans printed on purple paper as evidence for his promises (p.55). It is understood that the bureaucracy works systematically to create the groundwork for this legal exception regime with its planned preparation of the opposite direction of the intention revealed in the staged agenda.
In Çiçektepe, as the settled area expands, the power of nature, established by the wind, diminishes. In time, it will be seen that the problem of drinking water is also overcome. However, the power felt through bureaucracy will always be felt in different contexts and different forms. Because it is striking, let’s take a closer look at the struggles of the neighborhood with power and their naming practices for space. When the settlement is completed, Konducular name their living area Savaştepe. It is understandable that they gave this name to the hill, which is constantly a field of struggle. However, the “SAVAŞTEPE (WAR HILL)” sign they wrote on a piece of wood with coal and hung on a wall at the entrance to the garbage road is removed a month later by two formally dressed men, and this sign is replaced by a blue sign that says “ÇİÇEKTEPE (FLOWER HILL)”. The power that does not want to leave the power of naming²⁹ to the residents accomplishes something else with this move. Although it cannot completely eliminate the memory that represents events that have taken place in the collective memory of the neighborhood, it breaks the link between memory and space by replacing it with a name that is a candidate for reprogramming. In this way, the neighborhood is associated with a positivity that it never had: it is purified, and its trauma is suppressed without giving a chance for reckoning. However, it will be seen that the residents of Çiçektepe insist on calling the road named Nato Caddesi by official authorities “Çöp Yolu” (Garbage Road). They do not even allow the blue sign to hang on the wall at the entrance of the road. There is also a story in the neighborhood’s memory about Don Yolu, which is also named by Çiçektepeliler. However, since it is harmless from the perspective of power, it is not subject to any debate.
We will not revisit the persuasive and coercive tactics employed by Mr. Izak, the Garbage Muhtar, trade unions, charismatic socialist leaders, male members within the family, etc., which were discussed in previous sections, to avoid repetition. However, the withdrawal of Mr. Izak and Kurdish Cemal from the scene, as dictated by the prevailing conditions, has created an expanding effect on their hegemonic spheres. After being elected to the municipal council, it appears that Mr. Izak has added to his existing power by establishing a cinema and other auxiliary channels, in addition to using his armed gangs (p. 57) to protect his illegal territory, while simultaneously expanding his legitimate power. He has also broadened his power base by increasing his capital and power in tandem with his factory’s production capacity. On the other hand, an interaction between the existing power structures and micro-powers, such as Lado, who subsequently established himself, is evident. This creates a network of power.
The Çiçektepelis have many examples of power struggles among themselves, as evidenced by their efforts to create status indicators. Objects and positions such as the roof, door, bank account, muhtarship, liquor set, bank account booklet, book, suit, refrigerator, and red tulle curtains become symbols of superiority in their race to establish dominance. The fact that the Garbage Muhtar’s car is white, which is in contrast to the nature of his dirty work, gives him a status that he could not have easily achieved otherwise.
CONCLUSION
With this thesis, I will have completed my undergraduate studies in Urban and Regional Planning. I am in the school building in the hot July of 2019, making the final adjustments. It seemed like it would never end. Interesting. Until now, I have had to listen to the dreams of people who were tired of city life and wanted to live a quiet life in coastal towns. Since I have always found city life interesting, I never had such dreams. Although I still maintain this view, I think I now have a better understanding of how city life can tire a person in certain aspects.
The shantytown where I was born and raised was very close to the city center. In my earliest childhood memories, the city comes to life as a living subject as much as the people. Since my parents’ village was completely evacuated due to the civil war, the people had to migrate from Eleşkirt to Kayseri a few years before I was born. I could claim that I experienced almost all the clichés of Turkish urbanization in my short life. That’s why I have to admit that I often looked down on those who praised the shantytown or talked nostalgically about the neighborhood in class.
According to Orhan Pamuk’s distinction between pure and thoughtful novelists, it can be said that Latife Tekin is a pure novelist. The dynamism of Çiçektepe, as reflected in the narrative, is due to the fact that the structure depicted in the story corresponds to the reality at certain critical points. The author, having abstracted a real shantytown life, built Çiçektepe with whatever was left over, with very little filtering. The characters, which are widely accepted in the literature as lacking in number and depth, are sufficient to allow us to perceive Çiçektepe as a cosmos. All the evaluations in this thesis are based on the assumption that Çiçektepe depicted in Berci Kristin Trash Tales actually exists. Every section that does not contain opposition to Turkey’s experience of urbanization after intense migration was thought in relation to the context in which this experience was established. In sections that contain opposition, attempts were made to explain where the reality differed from the description in the narrative, within the limits of possibility. Thus, the literary originality that the narrative has by attempting to create an alternative world by eliminating certain truths was sacrificed due to this inevitable utilitarian attitude. The alienation it provides makes it possible to take a new and more distant look at the shantytown phenomenon³⁰. This also helped me to face the fact that knowledge obtained through experience does not necessarily stand in a very different place than the underestimated opinions. I will continue to insist that literature is an inevitable source³¹ for anyone who thinks about the city.
In addition to attempting to analyze facts within their own reality, another task I aimed to accomplish — but was unsuccessful in doing so, I believe — was to question concepts. It seems naive to me to expect the Turkish equivalents for concepts created within the historical context of Western civilization to be useful in explaining our own reality. The written Turkish equivalents can be misleading, as the confusion it creates in our own mental world may go unnoticed, as it always reminds us of the relationships within the source language. The problem of how to name the togetherness of Çiçektepe residents can serve as an example of this. Initially, the term “community” came to mind when referring to social unity in Çiçektepe. However, this term was insensitive to the political aspect of the population living there. Then, when I realized that I meant to refer to a “gemeinschaft”-like community, I preferred to use this concept. However, I later discovered that the concept of “cemaat” had the necessary depth to describe the togetherness of Çiçektepe residents in every aspect, while also providing a historical foundation. When deciding to use this concept, I took into account the misleading connotations the word has gained in everyday Turkish politics. In future studies, being sensitive to these two points will contribute to the development of a solid and useful set of concepts to be used in the field of urban planning.
Especially in the final jury, I tried to apply the framework proposed by Tuğçe Tezer, which she had concretized. However, it was not possible to meet the expectation that the duty would be supported by urban planning literature. Firstly, the text flow did not allow for such an intervention. Eclectic paragraphs bothered me. Secondly, I did not want to miss the opportunity to test whether I could make a narration on concepts without referring to urban planning literature. After all, in a text that nobody will probably ever read, I could not miss the opportunity to see how far I could go with the motivation provided by the obligation to complete the text. Thirdly, while working on a different discipline such as literature, I cared about behaving according to its rules. It was an undiscovered field for me, and I could not choose to repeat what I already knew rather than the possibility of learning something new.
Finally, I am grateful to my thesis advisor, Dr. Besime Şen, for encouraging me to prepare such a homework assignment, which I think has taught me a lot. On the other hand, I was rarely bored while working on it. Now I understand how accurate the suggestion to remove crowded subtitles was. In the previous term, when I faced Mr. Tansel Erbil with the homework proposal form, I had prepared many arguments about how literature could be used as a meaningful input for planning because I knew I would have a hard time convincing him. He said that the relationship I established between planning and literature was forced and that a discussion through the city could be equally satisfying. In the end, everything was related to the city in some way… When I embraced the liberating power of this proposal, I had to be warned repeatedly not to deviate from the course. But I did not start it. Please know that I ruthlessly removed many paragraphs and passages from the homework assignment inspired by it. I thank dear Tuğçe Tezer not only because she accepted my proposal from the first question, but also because she has sparked two long and beautiful conversations with her action. I design my own convincing strategy to have her on the homework jury. We will meet in other lives.
NOTES
¹ The narrative of Berci Kristin Çöp Masalları that we have examined in this assignment can also be considered as one of these examples. We know that before starting to write the book, Latife Tekin conducted interviews with young women workers in Gültepe and Zeytinburnu, as mentioned in Özer (2005, pp. 64–65). There are also numerous studies about the many stories she tells that refer to real-life events.
² I believe David Harvey’s Paris, Capital of Modernity, which looks at the present of the city through the narratives of writers such as Balzac, Baudelaire, Flaubert, and Zola, can be considered the most striking example in this regard.
³ In Besime Şen and Şükrü Aslan’s article “Representative Spaces of Political Identity: Çayan Mahallesi,” which they wrote about the story of Çayan Mahallesi, many events based on witness accounts parallel those in the narrative we have examined (2011). For instance, a revolutionary named Gülbey who organizes workers is transformed into a character named Gülbey Usta in the narrative.
⁴ The 1995 edition of the book published by Metis Yayınları was used during the examination.
⁵ In Armenian, “venk” means monastery. See: (Nişanyan, accessed June 4, 2019).
⁶ For a detailed justification, see: Gümüş, Semih Acar (1985), “Bir Uzun Anlatı Olarak Berci Kristin Çöp Masalları,” Yarın 44.
⁷ The transition from Newtonian physics to modern physics beginning with Einstein is a sharp breaking point.
⁸ Anatolian rock music, which experienced a golden age during these years, can be clearly seen to reflect this. In addition, epic sagas pioneered by Yaşar Kemal in literature have also caused quite a stir.
⁹ The discourse proposed by Yalçın Küçük in his “Küfür Romanları” (Profanity Novels) has had many recipients. It implies being nourished by the revolutionary tradition, but abandoning class reflexes for fame.
¹⁰ After the 1980s, it seems interesting to define a pattern where female writers, such as Latife Tekin’s Berci Kristin Çöp Masalları, Elif Şafak’s Bit Palas, Şebnem İşigüzel’s Çöplük, and Oya Baydar’s Çöplüğün Generali, have widely used the garbage metaphor in their narratives. See: (Güntekin, 2011, p. 2).
¹¹ The expression “Sırma o gece amcasının evinde kaldıkları günlerde yaşadığı bir dolu şeyi daha düşündü” (p. 14) also raises doubts about this.
¹² In other words, a “knowledge production process based on interpretation” (n.d.).
¹³ From Berci to Kristin…
¹⁴ In Aslan and Şen’s article “Representative Spaces of Political Identity: Çayan Mahallesi,” we came across parallel stories to those told in the novel in some sections where they report the testimonies of neighborhood residents. Aside from the similarities in infrastructure, school, and housing construction processes, a rare name like Gülbey is even given to a character in the novel. See: (Aslan & Şen, 2011, p. 122).
¹⁵ In the entry for “mahalle” (neighborhood) in the Islamic Encyclopedia, it can be seen that this word is used in the meanings of “descending, settling, and inhabiting” a place. The second meaning of the word can indicate such a connection. see: https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/mahalle (access date: 12.05.19)
¹⁶ They are never described directly in this way. It is not expected to be referred to or defined by the original element’s name. It is natural that it has the monopoly of defining the non-self.
¹⁷ As we shared in a previous footnote, Aslan and Şen’s research revealed an important detail. The founders of the Çayan neighborhood, which was mostly inhabited by Alevis, never thought of building a place of worship. This is undoubtedly an important detail that cannot be explained simply.
¹⁸ “For the neighborhood to be legally established, after the necessary documents and reports have been prepared by the municipality upon the application of the selectors, mayor, municipal council members, or the civil authority of that place, the affirmative decision of the municipal council and the neighborhood administrative board and the approval of the governor are required” (Aysu, 2002).
¹⁹ “The young men of the Vakıf Çiçektepe who were careful about the names of the women in the shop houses called Deli Gönül ‘Kristin’” (BKÇM, p. 123).
²⁰ A quote from Hayrettin Erkmen, who served as the Minister of Labor during the second Democrat Party government: “The hostility of the worker who owns property to the institution of property and the social and political dangers that may arise from this are eliminated. The point to be taken into account in the construction of worker’s houses should be scattered in various neighborhoods of the cities instead of large and independent worker sites. In this way, the worker citizen feels every day in his consciousness that society embraces him and does not perceive him as separate and inferior and is freed from running behind a consciousness separate from citizenship. I would like to mention immediately and gratefully that the Turkish worker is far from falling into such a complex and his citizenship is above all.” (Erkmen, H. (1954) İşçi Meskenleri Politikası, Akis, 31 July 1954, Page: 4. https://docplayer.biz.tr/8268218-Sevgili-akis-okuyuculari-s.html)
²¹ An abbreviation invented by other workers to denigrate regular workers. Here, regular workers refer to workers who do not have a class affiliation, who side with the employer for small interests, and whose speech is generated over them to worsen their working conditions and who are cited as examples.
²² For a detailed compilation, see: (Atik, 2012, pp. 195–196)
²³ Coffeehouses serve as a public space specific to men. On the other hand, as in the examples of the garbage grocer calling men to gather at the grocer (p. 49) or gathering in the cells on various occasions, men’s definition of public space is actually wider.
²⁴ Just as Bay Izak’s manager lacks an independent name, the wife of the Garbage Merchant also depends on the Garbage Merchant’s proximity to exist.
²⁵ Bay İzak’s mosque, built next to the factory, undoubtedly aimed at the use of workers. The sermons of the imam in this mosque serve as an ideological apparatus used to break down the class identity among workers (p. 76).
²⁶ Before this dialectical interaction, there was undoubtedly an identity that these communities expressed themselves with. However, as Açıkyol aptly pointed out, they encountered a new situation that contradicted the homogeneous structure they grew up in before the establishment of Çiçektepe. “They want to maintain the wholeness they have in their village lives in the outskirts of the big city they came to,” (Açıkyol, 2017, p. 45). See also: (Arslan, 2017, p. 204).
²⁷ For a detailed analysis, see: Archetype.
²⁸ See: Işık, O.; Pınarcıoğlu, M. M. (2001). Nöbetleşe Yoksulluk, Gecekondulaşma ve Kent Yoksulları: Sultanbeyli Örneği, İletişim Yayınları.
²⁹ To name is to establish power. “And unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee” (16) … “And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living” (20) (Old Testament, Genesis) — emphasis added -. See also: Robinson-Cuma.
³⁰ Ateş wrote the following just after the publication of Berci Kristin Çöp Masalları: “Without a doubt, Trash Tales will be translated into foreign languages tomorrow, and will give very serious clues to those who want to understand the social change of Turkey in the last thirty years” [quoted in: (Turgut, 2003, p. 57)].
³¹ Harvey’s work in Paris: Capital of Modernity is very important to me in terms of demonstrating the success of literature in reflecting the truth of the times. This book, which I mentioned when I started preparing this assignment, has been a guide.
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