The emergence and development of a satellite industrial town at the edge of the Istanbul metropolitan area: Çerkezköy

Abstract

This study examines the transformation process of Çerkezköy, a small town in Tekirdağ province, into an industrial city from the 1970s to the present day as a result of the decentralization of the manufacturing industry in Istanbul. In the study, why Istanbul industry chose Çerkezköy for settlement and how the industrial zone and urban space developed is explained by examining the spatial strategies of the state institutions, the industrialists, and the local actors. The theoretical framework of the study was formed by using two different literatures: First, that of industrial decentralization and second, that of local entrepreneurialism. The main body of the data used in the study is comprised of news and articles from local newspaper archives, documents from The Çerkezköy Industrialists‟ Association archive, and information obtained from in-depth interviews. As the result of the study, it was found that local initiatives developed by different actors in different periods have played a determining role in Çerkezköy‟s becoming one of the biggest industrial zones in Turkey. These local initiatives, backing the support of the central state authorities, have led to rapid industrialization and urban growth in the district. Within this period, while the industrial corporations, the headquarters of which are generally located in Istanbul, were making profits, the peasants who were dispossessed by those industrialists, the workers, most of whom left their hometowns and settled down in Çerkezköy, and also all the living things that were exposed to the intense environmental pollution have paid the heavy cost for the industrial and urban growth.