ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the response to the neo-liberal urbanisation process in Turkey as a political tool for the government to gain and protect power. It discusses the resistance against authoritarian urbanisation and the strategies of the struggling groups by reclaiming urban land, and public sphere. The chapter describes the shift in the urban restructuring of Turkey and introduces the urban resistance movements in a repressive environment and solidarity amongst the organisations that wage struggles against the neo-liberal and authoritarian urban change. It also presents the nature of urban resistance networks and the challenges they face. The chapter explains Turkey’s urbanisation experience before and after 2002 through the government’s strategy of transforming public space. It focuses on the evolution of urban resistance movements formed against urban projects that have been particularly implemented to foster the execution of the ‘New Turkey’ vision.
