Turkey’s president looks at northern Syria and sees what others don’t: a massive real estate project.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose army is attempting to clear 5,000 square kilometers in northern Syria of Islamic State, talks about building entire cities when his soldiers’ work is done. In regular addresses, he describes a future in which refugees return home to Turkish-built apartment blocks supplemented by Turkish-built schools and social facilities.
— Bloomberg
That may be the only way to get some of the nearly 3 million Syrians in Turkey to return home and begin reconstructing their country, he says.
For more on the Syrian conflict, check out past coverage:
2 Comments
Lets see if it will work out. On the paper, and idea yes but in realty, it is not that easy.
Luis Doporto Alejandre, I concur. However, it is not the capability of Turkish construction industry that is hard, but the political support Turkey would get from its allies. It is a very legitimate project and I am a little disappointed by the disrespectful and arrogant title of the Bloomberg article.
Turkey has done 10 times more for Syrian refugees than all of Europe and US are combined. To see it as a real estate prospect for Turkey is a very good indication of how the conservative capital and their media voice see things. It is the sound of the same mentality who look at middle east as if it is a property and its people as disposable, like the way they looked at oil supply and profits, the real reason for all the brutal and barbaric military moves so far since 1990's. I don't think we should expect otherwise.
EU hasn't paid anything to Turkey yet. It was agreed to help share the cost of feeding and housing Turkey's 3 million+ Syrian refugees in exchange for stopping the refugee flooding to EU. Europe and US are not doing anything that would significantly impact the crisis in a positive way. In fact, they are doing everything in their own domestic policies to stop helping the refugees. It's very much a humanitarian bankruptcy.
Also, I want to mention this while on the subject, the naive, opportunistic and useless biennales and art exhibitions on the crises are mostly embarrassing fiascos that don't benefit the victims much. They do nothing more than normalizing the situation in public realm. In short, the artist painted exploitations are just as arrogant.
Back to Turkish government's plan to build cities in northern Syria, it has several very clear major goals that have nothing to do with real estate, I'll name three of them here. First, find a way to resettle Syrian refugees within their own country. Second, create a war-free zone in its southern border. And third, stop the establishment of Kurdish breakaway government that is hostile to Turkey and who's recent actions included devastating suicide bombings targeting the civilian population in Turkish cities.
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.