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 ISTANBUL BILGI UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE OF GRADUATE PROGRAMS

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF FIGURES……………………………………………………………..iii
LIST OF TABLES……………………………………………………...……….iv
ABSTRACT............................................................................................................v
ÖZET......................................................................................................................vi
INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 1
CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND METHODOLOGY: SITES OF MEMORY AND GENIUS LOCI ..................................................... 9
1.1. MEMORY AND SITES OF MEMORY ................................................. 9
1.1.1.Distinction Between Memory and History………………………..13
1.2. GENIUS LOCI ........................................................................................ 16
1.2.1. Genius Loci in Norberg-Schulz’s theory: from Genius Loci to Place ..................................................................................................................... 18
1.3. BEYKOZ KUNDURA AS A SITE OF MEMORY AND ITS GENIUS LOCI: SCOPE AND METHODOLOGY .................................................... 21
CHAPTER 2: THE SOCIAL HISTORY of BEYKOZ: THE WORKING CLASS LEGACY ................................................................................................ 26
2.1. BEYKOZ, ITS BOUNDARIES AND LEGAL FRAMEWORK ........ 26
2.2. SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE DISTRICT: FROM THE FOUNDING OF THE TURKISH REPUBLIC TO THE PRESENT ..................................... 29
2.2.1. Beykoz in the Municipality Publications ....................................... 31
2.2.2. Worker Migration to Beykoz, Political Changes and Statistics .. 34
2.3. LABOR HISTORY IN THE DISTRICT .............................................. 40
2.3.1. The District of Factories .................................................................. 42
2.3.2. Unions, Strikes and the Resistance of the Beykoz Workers ........ 45
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2.4. SÜMERBANK AND BEYKOZ LEATHER AND SHOE FACTORY .......................................................................................................................... 48
2.4.1. Sümerbank as a State Enterprise ................................................... 48
2.4.2. History of Sümerbank and Beykoz Leather and Shoe Factory ... 49
2.4.3. Social Life in Sümerbank Leather and Shoe Factory .................. 51
CHAPTER 3: POST FACTORY PERIOD AND BEYKOZ KUNDURA ..... 56
3.1. CURRENT USES OF THE INDUSTRIAL SITE OF BEYKOZ LEATHER AND SHOE FACTORY ............................................................ 60
3.1.1. Kundura Memory Project and Kundura Cultural Heritage Preservation Association ........................................................................... 62
3.1.2. Movie Sets and Cultural Activities ................................................. 65
3.1.2.1. Stage-Kundura Sahne .............................................................. 66 3.1.2.2. Artists-in-Residence Programme (VARDİYA) ..................... 68
3.1.2.3. Remote İstanbul ....................................................................... 69
3.1.2.4. Cinema- Kundura Sinema ...................................................... 70
3.1.2.5. Festivals ................................................................................... 711
3.2. CONCLUSION FOR THE CHAPTER ................................................ 72
CHAPTER 4: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BEYKOZ KUNDURA AND THE LOCAL ............................................................................................. 75
4.1. URBAN DEINDUSTRIALISATION, NEO-LIBERAL POLICIES, GENTRIFICATION AND TRANSFORMATION OF HISTORICAL SPACES IN ISTANBUL AFTER 1980 ........................................................ 76
4.1.1. Heritagisation, Industrial Heritage and Adaptive Re-use ........... 79
4.1.2. Gentrification through Deindustrialisation ................................... 79
4.2. THE USE OF ART AND ITS PLACE IN THE PRIVATISATION PROCESS ........................................................................................................ 81
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4.3. BEYKOZ KUNDURA AND THE LOCAL COMMUNITY ............... 84
CONCLUSION .................................................................................................... 96
REFERENCES .................................................................................................. 100
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1. Beykoz district on İstanbul map. …………………...…………………26
Figure 2. Beykoz District according to municipality plans and the location of Beykoz Kundura.................................................................................................... 28
Figure 3. Factories in the Beykoz District ............................................................ 41
Figure 4. The latest addition to the factory complex, a view from the coast, from the 2010s. .............................................................................................................. 50
Figure 5. Beykoz Kundura Infographic Timeline ................................................. 57
Figure 6. Entrance of the exhibition Memory of Kundura: The Life Fits in a Factory. 2021. ...................................................................................................................... 63
Figure 7. Kundura Cinema, 2021 .......................................................................... 71
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LIST OF TABLES
Table 1. General Population Census Example of Beykoz District (1935-2000) .. 30
Table 2. The 2011 data from the Address Based Population Registration System…… ........................................................................................................... 36
Table 3. Election of Mayors of Municipalities……………………………………38
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ABSTRACT
In the study, the relationship between the past and present of the Sümerbank Leather and Shoe Factory, which was a public subsidiary when it was closed, and the building complex, which was privatized and renamed as Beykoz Kundura, has been examined in terms of its contribution to social and cultural life in the neighbourhood where the factory is located.
The term lieux de mémoire or “sites of memory” implies that there are certain places, objects, monuments that are created/recreated to build, maintain and revive the national identity of a particular society. These sites of memory are effective in constructing and consolidating a national identity, as they serve as active circuits of the collective memory of a given society. The Leather and Shoe Factory discussed in this study, under the name of Sümerbank, makes the economic presence of the "state" felt and represents national values. It also created its own social and cultural values as well as national values. Therefore, the formation of sites of memory is discussed at the scale of this factory. The tangible and intangible values that make up a structure form its sites of memory, as well as creating its genius loci. An Ancient Roman term often used in architecture and literature, genius loci refers to the spirit of a place. It constructs the spirit of the space through authenticity, historical contexts, human factors, and architectural characteristics. The most apparent difference between the two is that while sites of memory are created/produced, genius loci indicates an ongoing situation. In this study, the factory (Beykoz Kundura) is examined as an example that has been carrying out economic, social and cultural production on the same place for years and making this space a "place" via this accumulation from the past. This accumulation creates the spirit of the place with its social existence and architectural structures.
Keywords: sites of memory, genius loci, Beykoz Kundura, Sümerbank, industrial heritage
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ÖZET
Çalışmada bir kamu iştiraki iken kapatılan Sümerbank Deri ve Kundura Fabrikası ve özelleştirilerek Beykoz Kundura adını alan yapı kompleksinin, geçmişi ve bugünü arasında kurduğu ilişki, fabrikanın bulunduğu mahalle özelinde sosyal ve kültürel hayata katkısı bakımından incelenmiştir.
Hafıza mekanları lieux de memoire terimi, belirli bir toplumun ulusal kimliğini canlandırmak ve sürdürmek için yaratılan/yeniden yaratılan belirli yerler, nesneler, anıtlar olduğunu ima eder. Bu hafıza mekânları, belirli bir toplumun kolektif hafızasının etkin devreleri olarak hizmet ettikleri için, bir ulusal kimliği inşa etmede ve sağlamlaştırmada etkilidir. Bu çalışmada ele alınan Deri ve Kundura Fabrikası, Sümerbank adıyla “devletin” ekonomik varlığını hissettirmekte ve ulusal değerleri ima etmektedir. Ulusal değerlerin yanı sıra kendi sosyal ve kültürel değerlerini de yaratmıştır. Dolayısıyla hafıza mekanlarının oluşumu bu fabrika ölçeğinde ele alınacaktır. Bir yapıyı oluşturan somut ve soyut değerler oranın hafıza mekanlarını oluşturduğu gibi, genius loci’sini de oluşturur. Sıklıkla mimarlık ve edebiyatta kullanılan bir Antik Roma terimi olan genius loci yani yerin ruhunu ifade eder. Genius loci, özgünlük, tarihsel bağlamlar, insan faktörleri, mimari karakterler üzerinden mekânın ruhunu oluşturur. İkisi arasındaki en belirgin fark hafıza mekanlarının yaratılmış/üretilmiş, genius loci’nin ise süregelen bir durum olmasıdır. Bu çalışmada, Fabrika (Beykoz Kundura), ekonomik, sosyal ve kültürel üretimi yıllardır aynı mekan üzerinde sürdüren, geçmişten gelen bu birikimle burayı “yer” yapan bir örnek olarak incelenecektir. Bu birikim, sosyal varlığı ve mimari yapılarıyla yerin ruhunu var eder.
Anahtar Kelimeler: hafıza mekanları, genius loci, Beykoz Kundura, Sümerbank, endüstriyel kültür mirası
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INTRODUCTION
The 16th Istanbul Biennial featured an artwork called Post-Fordite 1 by the USA-based Polish artist Agnieszka Kurant, who used in its construction a recently discovered form of natural-artificial hybrid material – known as Fordite or Detroit Agate – made of old automotive paint. The artist explained the story behind this human-made fossilised stone as labour, capitalism and collective intelligence.1 This work inspired me to investigate the industrialisation and its residues. As a tour guide at the biennial, I constructed a narrative describing the piece. Motivated to explore my surroundings to understand and appreciate the spirit of industrial constructions, I also became aware of the industrial past of Istanbul, including that of Beykoz, where one of my family members currently resides. This brief journey forms the origin of this study.
The district and the area where Beykoz Kundura is located have been an industrial basin for nearly two hundred years. The factories established in Beykoz by the Ottoman state transformed the social, economic, and cultural environs of the district throughout the Republican period. The foundations of the paper and leather industry were laid in Beykoz before the Republican period as well as Tekel Distilleries, and Şişe-Cam factories which were also the first steps of Ottoman industrialisation. These factories operated in the region until the 2000s. They were designated as heritage and put under protection in accordance with the requirements of the Bosphorus Law adopted in 1983.2 And in the early 2000s, according to the law, they were shut down with the purpose of preservation and protection of the greenery and natural beauties of the Bosphorus region where they were located on the very shores of.
In the 1950s, migration due to employment opportunities in the factories triggered fast and disorderly urbanisation and social change. The demography of the district
1 IKSV. 2019. Guide: The Seventh Continent. İstanbul: YKY, 111.
2 Boğaziçi Kanunu (Bosphorus Law). 1983. Turkey.
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and hence the structure and nature of the neighbourhood experienced once more a transformation in 2000s with the exodus of workers after the factories were closed down and in the following years the neighbourhood received new waves of domestic migration. Following the closure of the factories in the early 2000s3, the district shifted from industry to the tourism sector, and projects toward urban transformation were initiated by the Municipality of Beykoz. While today's Beykoz carries modern features such as parks, buildings, malls, residences, it also maintains its traditional values such as neighbourliness, solidarity and so on as indicated by the oral history research conducted by the Beykoz Municipality in 2021. The rapidly gentrified Beykoz of the 2000s, has been taking on a different identity in the past two decades.
This study focuses on the case of Beykoz Kundura, an arts and cultural centre located in the Yalıköy neighbourhood of Beykoz district, in the former site of Sümerbank Leather and Shoe Factory which was established in 1933 and kept open until 1999. As one of the most concrete examples of the early Republican ideological principle of statism (devletçilik) and as a symbol of political identity in the national history, "Sümerbank" is one of the most critical institutions that had played a role in both the Turkish Republic's vision of nation-wide industrialisation and the construction of the identity and culture in Beykoz. Today as part of urban heritage, former production buildings and site are repurposed and host movie sets. Throughout the thesis, the Sümerbank Leather and Shoe Factory, where shoes and leather production had taken place will be referred to as the "Factory" (especially within the context of oral history findings). Beykoz Kundura, on the other hand, refers to the new cultural centre established on the premises after the privatisation in 2004.
The main purpose of this study is to examine the meaning of the site of Sumerbank Leather and Shoe Factory for different contemporary actors. As Beykoz went
3 Şişe-Cam was closed first in 2002, then Sümerbank in 2004 and Tekel Factory in 2006.
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through social transformations since the 1950s as a result of industrialization, deindustrialization, waves of migration, privatization and recently gentrification, the site has transformed from a site of manufacturing, labour and working-class culture to a heritage site, remembered and reconstructed for its role in the industrialization of the nation as well as to a site for cultural production and industries in Istanbul. In line with this purpose, this thesis specifically situates the site of the “Factory” in the midst of a discussion on the impact of neoliberal economic development and urban transformation.
Taking these factors into account, the research question for this study can be formulated as follows:
How does Beykoz Kundura as a new cultural institution located in the site of the old Sümerbank factory, affirm, preserve and advocate the meaning, memory and value of this urban industrial heritage and its role in social and labour history of Beykoz? How does it integrate and interpret the memory of those who have worked in the Factory and continue to live in Beykoz?
To be able to answer these questions, we need to identify existing narratives about the site of the Factory in the memory of different actors such as the families of workers who lived here, residents of Beykoz who currently live in proximity to the site but have no connection (they have not worked there nor do they have any family member who did), the municipality of Beykoz, Yıldırım Holding as the new property owner, and the non-profit Beykoz Kundura.
Narratives about a place demonstrate its meaning and value for those who remember. The questions asked above will be discussed within the framework of two concepts that have often been used to analyse the meaning of place in relation to its history and the memory of contemporary actors: site of memory (le lieu de memoire) by Nora and spirit of the place (genius loci) by Norberg-Schulz. For Nora,
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site of memory is “a symbolic element of the memorial heritage of any community” and can be tangible and intangible cultural expressions that allow consideration of both past and present contexts4. At a theoretical level, this thesis explores the ways in which the old Sümerbank Factory as a heritage site can be identified as a site of memory by 1) the local community who has worked there, 2) by the municipality that acknowledges its heritage and symbolic value for the community and 3) by Beykoz Kundura who agrees to preserve the site by recognizing its value as an industrial heritage.
The second concept, spirit of the place, by Norberg-Schulz reflects on the sense different actors have of the site and the symbolic meanings they attribute to it. On a theoretical level this thesis compares and assesses how these meanings co-exist and impact each other.
Since this work aims to examine the community's perception and relationship with the place and the link between its past and its present, as the primary methodology for data-collection oral history interviews were used. Those who resided/worked in Beykoz during the period when the industry was active and those who still reside/work in Beykoz today were chosen as interviewees. In order to confirm the data obtained from the interviews, the study also made use of social, demographic and political statistics about Beykoz, which turned into a workers' district over the years until the early 2000s.
To depict a general framework of social life in Beykoz, in addition to the demographic information, the interviewees were asked to describe aspects of social life in the district. The aim, with this information, was to create a narrative about how life in Beykoz used to be in the past and how it is today in connection with the changing social structure of the district. The interviewees who have witnessed the
4 Nora, Pierre. 1997. Realms of Memory: The Construction of the French Past. New York: Columbia University Press, XVII.
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change in Beykoz as a district "alive" within a specific historical process, were expected to provide a deeper understanding of Beykoz the way they have experienced it. The effects of industrialisation operating in the district on the lives and daily lives of those living and working here were investigated. Within this framework, the position of the new Beykoz Kundura as an actor of arts and culture in the district and its relations with the neighbourhood were examined. In order to determine the extent, impact and implications of the former Beykoz Leather and Shoe Factory, now known as Beykoz Kundura, as a "site of memory" and genius loci, oral history studies conducted by the "Kundura Memory Cultural Heritage Association" in collaboration with Tarih Vakfı (the "History Foundation") were examined. This oral history archive of approximately two hundred people (predominantly male workers and male white collars) was created between 2015-and 2018 in cooperation with Tarih Vakfı.
The sources used in this thesis are archival materials and various academic studies, including graduate theses. A search in the National Thesis Center5 reveals a total of seventy-five master's and PhD theses published in various academic fields between 1983 and 2020, displaying focal points of architectural, social, and economic shifts in forty years. Aside from the studies conducted in fields other than sociology and social sciences, fifteen studies were identified as sources related to the purposes of this research. These studies jointly address the social history, architectural heritage and industrial past of Beykoz. Furthermore, these works include suggestions for preservation of the old factory structures in the district and for their transfer to the future. Besides these, various academic works about Beykoz with references to the district’s working-class population, symposium papers and books dealing with the history of Sümerbank were used. Among them, books such as Önder Küçükerman’s Geleneksel Türk Dericilik Sanayisinden Sanayi Devrimi’ne Geçişin Boğaziçi’ndeki Temsilcisi: Beykoz Deri Ve Kundura Fabrikası6, which offers the most
5“CoHE Thesis Center | Home.” n.d. Accessed May 5, 2022. https://tez.yok.gov.tr/UlusalTezMerkezi/giris.jsp.
6 The Representative of the Transition from the Traditional Turkish Leather Industry to the Industrial Revolution in the Bosphorus: Beykoz Leather and Shoe Factory.
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comprehensive data on the history of Beykoz, Hakan Koçak's Camın İşçileri7 and Zafer Toprak's Sümerbank Holding A.Ş. were some of the key sources. The thesis also benefitted from the oral history studies and interviews conducted in a few of these works as additional sources.
Within the related literature, the two of the recent studies were especially helpful for this research in terms of the interviews and the narratives they have created through them. First is Yakut Erdine’s study titled Beykoz, Yalıkoy Emplacement, Restoration Projects of the Bakery of Hacı Alibey and the House of Mediha Yaran which discusses the development of industry and related increase in job opportunities in the region. The result of the industrial development was that the residents of Beykoz who previously had earned their living from fishing, stockbreeding, and gardening, faced with an influx of workers remarkable population increase in time. As a result, the rapid and unplanned settlement destroyed the texture of the district. With references to these developments and changes, this work also questions the possibility of restoring the architectural structures to their original state.
The second work about the region that needs to be mentioned is Ayşe Alnıaçık’s After Deindustrialization, in the Midst of Urban Transformation: the Case of Paşabahçe, which analyses the history of Paşabahçe district that experienced deindustrialisation along with notable social change and whose locals came to be in danger of displacement due to the rise of neoliberal urbanism. Through the case of Paşabahçe, Alnıaçık examines the phenomenon of employee migration that has developed in this region since the 70s, the social change of the district, the organised strikes of the working class and their changing lives as part of gentrification through her interviews, giving crucial insight into the social and cultural structure of the district's past and present demographics.
7 Glass Workers.
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Regarding the thesis outline, the first chapter will draw the theoretical framework of the thesis, and a brief account of theoretical discussions on memory will be presented. The chapter will discuss the definition of Pierre Nora's concept of "site of memory", and then the concept of genius loci (the spirit of place) with respect to the Beykoz district. Accordingly, Christian Norberg-Schulz's approach to the concept of genius loci in Genius loci: Towards A Phenomenology of Architecture8 will be reviewed. Next, together with a description of the research method, data collection, and the difficulties encountered in the research the aim and relevance of the research with respect to the topic at hand will be illustrated.
In the second chapter, the findings on the dynamics of change in Beykoz from past to present, its social history and transformations will be analysed. Here, the recent history of Beykoz will be briefly outlined, and the Beykoz district will be introduced from a broader perspective. Also, migration and political changes will be discussed in accordance with the oldest available data alongside the social and work lives of the workers. Some "memory traces" that emerged from the oral history interviews conducted for this thesis and during the research process will also be included in the text. The establishment of Sümerbank, which had an influential place in the Turkish industry in the Republican era, will also be discussed. In order to better depict the significance of the institution for the people which shows itself in the phrase "it is a privilege to be a member of Sümerbank", frequently heard throughout oral history interviews, the institution's history (both Sümerbank Factory and Beykoz Kundura) which considerably shaped the district's demography will be reviewed. This chapter will also serve as the historical background of the third chapter, revealing the social aspects of Sümerbank Leather and Shoe Factory.
The third chapter will explore the current use of the old factory campus by focusing on the specific case of "Beykoz Kundura." The information obtained from the
8 Norberg-Schulz, Christian. 1980. Genius Loci: Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture. New York: Rizzoli.
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Kundura Memory Project, oral history studies that were conducted with former workers and those living in the vicinity of the factory, recent interviews held within the framework of the study, statistical data related to the social and political changes, and the cultural activities carried out by the highly active municipality of the district to preserve the heritage here will be explained.
The fourth and last chapter will focus on the findings on the relationship of Beykoz Kundura with the district's inhabitants. The rising neoliberal policies in Turkey since the 1980s, and the subsequent privatisation and gentrification processes as the economic context of the emergence of Beykoz Kundura as an art and culture institution will be evaluated, and cultural and artistic activities will be discussed as the facilitator and carrier of this neoliberal transformation. The transformation of Beykoz into a valuable post-industrial area has also turned this district into an area with luxury housing stock. The privatisation of public manufacturing, the end of production in these privatised areas over time (a short period of 20 years between 1980-2000), and the emergence of gated communities due to the developing and physically growing city of Istanbul becoming the center will be the main topics of this section. At the end of the chapter, various memories connected to the Beykoz Shoe Factory area will be discussed, and the ways the new institution, former employees and the residents of the neighbourhood evaluate the old factory campus will be examined.
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CHAPTER 1
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND METHODOLOGY: SITES OF MEMORY AND GENIUS LOCI
1.1. MEMORY AND SITES OF MEMORY
In The Collective Memory9, Maurice Halbwachs states that "our physical surroundings bear our and others' imprint". Based on this, he argues that living spaces where people and groups of people live together are not like a “blackboard.” A blackboard does not care, cannot remember, cannot recall what has been written on it before. However, people's living spaces are somehow different. People leave marks on each other and where they live, and as he puts, "… the forms of surrounding objects certainly possess such a significance. (…) The group not only transforms the space into which it has been inserted but also yields and adapts to its physical surroundings."10 Halbwachs suggests that all individual memory is constructed within social structures and institutions. Accordingly, individual memory can only be understood by means of a group context. These groups may range from families and organisations to the large categories of nation-states.
Individual memory that is constructed through social structures and institutions, can only be remembered and transferred to the future through the mediation of a group. These groups can have emotional, social and economic relations with each other. "General history starts only when tradition ends, and the social memory is fading or breaking up. So long as a remembrance continues to exist, it is useless to set it
9 Halbwachs, Maurice. 1980. The Collective Memory. New York: Harper & Row.
10 ibid.130.
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down in writing or otherwise fix it in memory."11 The memories of these groups are subject to gradual erasure unless they are transferred to subsequent generations and repeated. The concept of sites of memory functions to protect the memory from this very erasure and make it possible for it to reach the future. Sites of memory, then, as will be discussed later in detail, are places in which collective memory is kept.
In Realms of Memory: The Construction of French Past, the French theoretician and historian Pierre Nora, tries to separate the entangled and contingent relationship between history and memory. In this well-known work, Nora begins by making a differentiation between real memory and history. Real memory does not exist because its creators no longer exist and cannot be remembered. However, as a constructed story, history can be recalled and manipulated by those who still remember it. Whereas "the role of the stories we tell ourselves about the past is constructing our identities in the present,"12 Pierre Nora says, "there are no longer real environments of memory… just sites of memory. We speak so much of memory because there is so little of it left."13
Sites of memory are complex and diverse structures or concepts, tangible or intangible, natural or human-made, ambiguous or straightforward in their social functions … They are "lieux — places, sites, causes — in three senses: material, symbolic, and functional."14 For instance, an archive as a material site becomes a lieu de mémoire only if imagination invests a symbolic aura into it.15 Or, a history textbook, a testament, or even a group of veterans are functional lieu that can become a lieu de mémoire when they become part of a ritual.
11 ibid. 70
12 Carter, Erica, James Donald, and Judith Squires, eds. 1993. Space&Place Theories of Identity and Location. 1st ed. London: Lawrence & Wishart, x.
13 Nora, Pierre. 1989. “Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Mémoire.” Representations 26 (April): 7–24. https://doi.org/10.2307/2928520/82272, 7.
14 Nora, Pierre. 1997. Realms of Memory: The Construction of the French Past. New York: Columbia University Press, 14.
15 This symbolic aura leads us to genius loci in the next section.
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Similar to Nora’s examples about the narratives of the French past and identity construction via shared locales of memories, and the replacement of “real memories” with those constructed by nation state-building processes can also be found in more recent examples of the history of the Turkish Republic. In his case study on Dolmabahçe and Anıtkabir as sites of memory, Avcı discusses real memory in close connection to Nora's point of view, stating that real memory "is supposed to exist in a pre-modern context, it belongs to archaic societies. On the other hand, history (or modernity) destroyed the real memory yet produced another form of memory, which is criticised in that it has become a tool of nation-state building in modern times."16
According to Nora, one significant factor in the annihilation of the real memory is the “acceleration of history.” He states that:
The acceleration of history", then, confronts us with the brutal realisation of the difference between real memory – social, unviolated, exemplified in but also retained secret of so-called primitive or archaic societies- and history, which is how our hopelessly forgetful societies, propelled by change, organise the past. […] The gulf between the two has been deepened with modern times with growing belief in a right, capacity and even a duty to change. Today this distance has been stretched to its convulsive limits.17
In modern times, there is a disconnection between the past and the present that diminishes the sense of collective unity and prior (past) experiences. Nora argues that it is rather the "sites of memory" (lieux de mémoire) rather than "real environment memory" (milieux de mémoire) associated with real memory, that rejuvenates the past as it was intended to be constructed by nation-building processes.
16 Avci, Ersan. 2019. “The Transforming and the Building Sites of Memory in Early Republican Period: The Cases of Dolmabahçe Palace and Anitkabir.” Yeditepe Üniversitesi, 10-11.
17 Nora, Pierre. 1989. “Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Mémoire.” Representations 26 (April): 7–24. https://doi.org/10.2307/2928520/82272, 8.
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Nora mentions people, places, and materials (books, anthems, drawings) as examples of sites of memory. "La Marseillaise" (France's national anthem) or the monuments to the dead of World War I found in most French villages, Fourteenth of July (Bastille Day), the well-known children's book entitled La Tour de la France18, Gaullism, Gallic ancestors of French people, Lascaux cave paintings are some of his examples for sites of memory. Based on these examples, a building, a flag, a book or built environments can be utilised as "sites of memory", performing various functions in the construction of national identity. The “buildings” in question may range from monuments to heritage sites that help define or redefine collective memories.
Within the context of this study, with its related historical functions and present/ongoing influence, the Sümerbank Leather and Shoe Factory (1933-1999) that was turned into the cultural venue known as Beykoz Kundura in 2005 is considered to be a site of memory. The factory performed the multiple functions of being a physical industrial site and after its closure, functioned as a memory-construction medium in shaping the neighbourhood’s culture and demographic properties through generations of factory workers and residents.
The role of generations in memory construction and identity-building can be identified by focusing on the particular interaction between memory and history:
What lieux de mémoire could be more abstract than the notion of a historical generation? A generation is a material in a demographic sense; functional by hypothesis since memories are crystallised in generations and passed on from one to another; and symbolic by definition since the term "generation" implies that the experience of a small number of people can be used to characterise a much larger number who did not participate in its major event or events. Lieux de mémoire is
18 He states that this book shaped the memory of millions of French boys and girls.
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created by the interaction between memory and history, and interaction resulting in a mutual overdetermination.19
As mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, as proposed by Halbwachs, memory construction means the recalling of the past by the communities, by means of which the individual’s memories are transferred to the future. The construction of sites of memory is only possible via the contribution to the memory at an individual level. The plurality of contributions by each individual in their remembrance through and about a place can lead to a subjective formation of history (commonality, standard story) and memory (specific, personal and different) of that place. In the case of the Sümerbank Factory, the oral history study conducted by Beykoz Kundura makes a similar attempt in this direction and try to 'revive' the 'blank' walls and inoperative machinery of the factory space via the memories and accounts of the individuals who worked in the factory area.
1.1.1. Distinction Between Memory and History
Nora clarifies the contrasts between memory and history that are at interplay:
… far from being synonymous, (they) appear now in fundamental opposition. Memory is life, borne by living societies founded in its name. It remains in permanent evolution, open to the dialectic of remembering and forgetting, unconscious of its successive deformation, vulnerable to manipulation and appropriation, susceptible to being long dormant and periodically revived. On the other hand, history is the reconstruction, always problematic and incomplete, of what is no longer. Memory is a perpetually actual phenomenon, a bond tying us to the eternal present; history as a representation of a past. Memory, insofar as it is affective and magical, only accommodates those facts that suit it; it nourishes recollections may be out of focus or telescopic, global or detached, particular or symbolic – responsive to each avenue of conveyance or phenomenal screen, to
19 Avci, Ersan. 2019. “The Transforming and the Building Sites of Memory in Early Republican Period: The Cases of Dolmabahçe Palace and Anitkabir.” Yeditepe Üniversitesi, 14.
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every censorship or projection. History, because it is an intellectual and secular production, calls for analysis and criticism. Memory install remembrance within sacred; history always prosaic, releases it again. Memory is blind to all but the group it binds - which is to say, as Maurice Halbwachs has said, there are as many memories as there are groups, that memory is by nature multiple yet specific; collective, plural yet individual. History, on the other hand belongs to everyone and no one, whence its claim to universal authority. Memory takes roots in the concrete, in spaces, gestures, images and objects; history binds himself strictly to temporal continuities, to progressions and to relations between things. Memory is absolute, while history can only conceive the relative.20
The quote above outlines the complex relationships between memory and history and explains clearly why memory is instrumental in forming identity. Since memory is attached to a group, there are as many memories as groups. These groups are formed in line with particular interests and relations. What groups remember is, therefore, in the direction that serves the interests that bring them together in the first place. Memory is inherently dialectical and prone to manipulation by nature. Finally, it is simultaneously 'plural, collective and yet individual'. If we look specifically at this study, there are “groups” that perform the act of remembering, such as former employees of Sümerbank Leather and Shoe Factory, employees of Beykoz Kundura and residents of the neighbourhood. In addition, each individual here has a different and singular memory too, with respect to their contribution in the factory or their relation to the factory in different ways: men, women, children, directors, workers, old, young, all have their own distinct memories.
At the same time, Nora points to the tangible sources of "the roots of memory in concrete, space, gestures, images and objects" that open the way to the "site of memory".
20 Nora, Pierre. 1989. “Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Mémoire.” Representations 26 (April): 7–24. https://doi.org/10.2307/2928520/82272, 8.
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If the expression of lieux de mémoire must have been an official definition, it should be this: a lieu de mémoire is any significant entity, whether material or non-material, which by dint of human will or the work of time has become a symbolic element of the memorial heritage of any community. [….] The narrow concept had emphasised the site: the goal was to exhume significant sites, to identify the most obvious and crucial centres of national memory, and then to reveal the existence of invisible bonds tying them all together.21
A site of memory is a tangible or non-tangible element that has been essential for the collective memory of a given local area. The idea of the site of memory, this way, underlines sources of collective memory and uncover how these places are interwoven with the collective memory of a group (in Nora’s case, a nation).
Overall, this study will take the site of memory as a type of the built environment (with the factories and housings) and the social life formed around it. It follows Nora's argumentation for the exploration of Beykoz Kundura as a site of memory constructed through the collective memory of the Beykoz district and the identification of its successes, failures, frustrations and shortcomings of this very recent layer of memory-construction. Furthermore, as Nora states, "sites of memory" are constructed or, in some cases, transformed by politics and social life.
The events, places and people that Nora gives as examples are some of the essential elements that make up the French national identity. It has been ensured that they become sites of memory by being remembered, transferred, and commemorated in specific days by the members of the nation. Sümerbank, as one of the building blocks of a young nation-state, with subsidiaries in different industries throughout the country, is an institution that can be evaluated in the context of sites of memory on its own. In addition to being a production place that manufactures affordable quality products for various needs of the country it is also a space of memory construction that reflects the values of the new republic and occupies a place in the
21 ibid. XVII.
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memory of the citizens and can be thought of as somehow reaching every household. Despite that it has been 20 years since its closure, it is still remembered through products treated as souvenirs and memories handed down through generations.
To sum up this section, sites of memory are also described as areas where community identity is built and can be transferred to the future. Since sites of memories also need to be defined on an individual level, in the following chapter, the personal accounts of the people who have worked and lived in these places will be discussed within the framework of the social history of Beykoz.
1.2. GENIUS LOCI
The other concept essential to the study is the notion of "Genius loci". Genius is the Latin word for the spirit of an independent being, and that has been frequently referred to in literature, philosophy, and architecture since Ancient Rome. The genii of Roman mythology were immanent beings that inhabited not only places but also people. They represented the spiritual existence of human beings and material objects and had the essential role of preserving them or keeping them alive. In accordance with its specific nature, the genius would also watch over a location, conferring its distinctive identity on the place.22
The notion has been discussed from different perspectives by many theorists and artists and in different fields such as philosophy, literature or architecture. In his philosophical discussions, Agamben describes genius as each man's guardian spirit23 appointed to the person at birth. He also suggests a contrast between genius and the concept of ego: while the latter moves from the individual to the impersonal,
22 Turgeon, Laurier, Gustavo Araoz, Michel Bonnette, and Conseil international des monuments et des sites. Assemblée générale. Symposium Scientifique. 2009. The Spirit of Place: Between Tangible and Intangible Heritage. Patrimoine En Mouvement. Québec, XXXIV. https://eds.s.ebscohost.com/eds/ebookviewer/ebook?sid=64e2e426-c714-4030-986c-150afe6494a8%40redis&vid=1&rid=1&format=EB.
23 Agamben, Giorgio. 2007. Profanations. New York: Zone Books, 9.
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the former moves from the impersonal to the individual. Or, in the case of literature, for instance, Goethe indirectly defines genius loci as a local character which has an influence on a person disposition, stating that "the eye is educated by the things it sees from childhood on; therefore, Venetian painters must see everything clearer and with more joy than other people."24
Obviously, the descriptions exemplified so far might seem metaphysical and unsubstantial by the nature of the concept.
Even though the expression 'spirit of place' is considered an outmoded concept, preferring more contemporary terminology such as 'memory of place' or 'significance of place', it remains a fundamental heritage concept. Often referred to but rarely defined, this notion is founded on the belief – whether true or false – that heritage landscapes, sites and monuments transcend the realm of the ordinary to touch a superior dimension, a higher, more sacred order25. The ancientness, singularity, and the profound symbolic values invested into them are considered as inhabited by a guiding supernatural force that gives them a life of their own and protects them.26
Even though the evolution of the concept might suggest an archaic-mythical perception of things and space, in terms of the impact of "genius loci" on the collective mind’s construction of social and cultural meaning in a particular space, it is clear that the metaphorical genii are present in places of our recent history,
24 Norberg-Schulz, Christian. 1980. Genius Loci: Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture. New York: Rizzoli, 18.
25 Norberg-Schulz quoted from Mircea Eliade, Romanian historian of religion, about the sacred order of genius loci: “the most primitive of the sacred places we know of constituted a microcom: a landscape of stones, water and trees” These places merely discovered by humans, however when it discovered these sacred territories understand by its characteristics for example Greeks personified them as antropomorfic gods and these properties became a manifestation of a particular god.
26 Turgeon, Laurier, Gustavo Araoz, Michel Bonnette, and Conseil international des monuments et des sites. Assemblée générale. Symposium Scientifique. 2009. The Spirit of Place: Between Tangible and Intangible Heritage. Patrimoine En Mouvement. Québec, XXXIV.
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playing a role in the construction of our recent industrial, social, cultural contexts within specific environments.
1.2.1. Genius Loci in Norberg-Schulz’s theory: from Genius Loci to Place
Discussions on the concept with respect to architectural elements are also crucial. Especially, the places where modern industrial heritage buildings are located have a decisive role in shaping the memories of a city's inhabitants. In his book Genius loci: Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture, Christian Norberg-Schulz adapts the concept to the field of architecture with a special focus on the city.27 He argues that, genius loci can also manifest itself in smaller building blocks, neighbourhoods, and buildings. Likewise, in our case, this corresponds to the condition of a genius loci, located within the body of Sümerbank factory, and shared first on the level of neighbourhood (mahalle) and by the people living there.
In his analysis, Norberg-Schulz’s approach considers the social and psychological dimensions. In determining a “spirit” for a particular city, he offers four aspects of investigation: image, space, the character and finally, genius loci. 28 “Image” refers to the way the city is viewed and defined by an outside eye. “Space” describes the location and surroundings on the map of the country where the city is located. “Character” explores the city's past, buildings, architecture and its relationship with the environment. Genius loci, on the other hand, is the impression they leave on the researcher, experiencer or just a tourist. To better understand the specific nature of places, it is necessary to categorise the elements which compose genius loci. By following Norberg-Schulz's classification, one can ‘read’ a place in depth. Since it is not easy to approach the characteristics of genius loci due to the interrelated-ness of the concepts, it might be easier to explain it via the two primary contexts: human
27 In his book, he works on cities as cases to explore genius loci.
28 Norberg-Schulz, Christian. 1980. Genius Loci: Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture. New York: Rizzoli, 75-110.
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and nature. To make it easier to understand, he divides these two contexts describing Place into three parts: phenomenon, structure (definition, silhouette, environmental harmony) and the spirit of natural/human-made place (landscapes and architecture)29. Human context is more suitable to adapt to the case in this thesis.
Human context refers to tangible and intangible elements resulting from human activities and “existence”30 within a specific place. The notion of existence in question comprises of subcategories such as historical existence, psychological, ontological and cognitive existence, and cultural and social existence.
Historical existence can be considered as one of the vital elements of genius loci. "A concrete term for the environment, is place. It is common usage to say that acts and occurrences take place. It is meaningless to imagine any happening without reference to a locality. The place is evidently an integral part of existence."31 Norberg-Schulz states that people's existence builds a history where they live by leaving various traces that could be sensed from a place:
Dwelling, therefore, implies something more than 'shelter'. It implies that the spaces where life occurs are places, in the true sense of the word. A place is a space that has a distinct character. Since ancient times, the genius loci has been recognised as the concrete reality human beings face and come to terms with within their daily lives. Architecture means to visualise the genius loci, and the architect's task is to create meaningful places, whereby he helps man to dwell.32
At this point, the question of the transformation of space to place arises. In this process of transformation Schulz positions the human interactions as central:
"Space" is certainly no new term in architectural theory. Nevertheless, space can mean many things. In current literature, we may distinguish between two uses:
29 ibid. 23-76
30 İbid. 23
31 Ibid. 6.
32 Ibid. 5.
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Space as three-dimensional geometry and space as a perceptual field. However, none of these is satisfactory, abstracting from the intuitive three-dimensional totality of everyday experience, which we may call ‘concrete space’. Concrete human actions do not take place in a homogeneous isotropic space but in a space distinguished by qualitative differences, such as "up" and "down".33
Naming a space through "… the flows of power and negotiations of social relations are rendered in the concrete form of architecture and, of course, by embodying the symbolic and imaginary investments of a population"34 makes it a place. In this respect, industrial heritage sites and structures are one of the examples of the construction of places. In terms of both the functions they have undertaken such as social function, production or architecture and their missions such as witnessing to history and representing values, they manifest their spirits to the place.
Although the genius loci have a metaphysical definition such as "spirit of the place", perhaps also due to this very reason, it is useful as a concept in the discussions of the case study of this work. For Beykoz Kundura, one way to seek and find that spirit in the light of the elements mentioned in this section, is by learning the history of the old structures for constructing its memory, interacting in various ways with the buildings under conservation, empathising with the people who lived and worked there and their feelings and thoughts about the Factory and the Factory phenomenon. Aside from these experiential aspects, the specific methodology chosen to research the genius loci in Beykoz Kundura as a site of memory will be discussed in the next section.
33 Ibid. 11.
34 Carter, Erica, James Donald, and Judith Squires, eds. 1993. Space&Place Theories of Identity and Location. 1st ed. London: Lawrence & Wishart, xii.
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1.3. BEYKOZ KUNDURA AS A SITE OF MEMORY AND ITS GENIUS LOCI: SCOPE AND METHODOLOGY
In order to focus on a portrayal of the social and political history of Beykoz through various sources, especially the data provided by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) were used. During the study, data were frequently obtained from TÜİK, regarding especially during the access to migration to Beykoz, migration rate, and local election results. However, the difficulty of researching the TÜİK database and the lack of regular metadata created difficulties. The fact that the migration statistics before the year 2000 were not obtained from the local governments and not yet processed as national data caused the inability to obtain comprehensive information about where the factory workers migrated from.
Beykoz Municipality, the library of the Beykoz Directorate of Agriculture and the web sources were also reviewed for a thorough investigation of the district's past from multiple angles. Academic studies on Beykoz, published resources on the history of the factories in the district, union’s websites and master and PhD theses were also reviewed. In addition, oral history interviews were held with the past and present residents of Beykoz, and fieldwork was conducted.
In order to determine the extent, impact and implications of the former Beykoz Leather and Shoe Factory, now known as Beykoz Kundura, as a "site of memory" and genius loci, oral history studies conducted by the "Kundura Memory Cultural Heritage Association" in cooperation with the "History Foundation" were examined. While listening and watching these interviews, attention was paid to individual stories. While in general employees’ approach to and perception of the factory structure was very similar, the production complex was also creating different stories for each one. As the starting points in the meetings held by the History Foundation and Beykoz Kundura were the social life and production processes in the factory, it was possible to clearly examine the value that people attribute to the place and to each other. Additionally, oral history studies published
22
in 2021 by Beykoz Municipality as a video series were also reviewed in order to learn the relations of the locals of Beykoz district with the factory. Out of a total of 169 video recordings of this study, 120 were watched and evaluated within the study.
In order to reach more detailed information, a separate oral history study was carried out within the framework of this study. In particular, the residents of the Yalıköy neighbourhood, where Beykoz Kundura is located, were interviewed using the snowball sampling method. Although it is possible to meet people in the central gathering areas of the Yalıköy neighborhood such as parks, tea gardens and cafes, it would not be easy to find out whether each of them has a relationship with the Sümerbank Factory, especially in the days when the Covid-19 epidemic continued. For this reason, open-air interviews were conducted using the guidance and reference of a few people who were contacted. The use of oral history interviews as data necessitated the use of discourse analysis method which enables us to better understand how people think, interact, produce, and reproduce ideas, societies, and cultures. With discourse analysis, instead of giving definite answers to a specific question, the aim was to expand existing knowledge, thought and emotion, and to evaluate the existence and message of discourses that determine beliefs, attitudes and actions in a historical and social context.
Based on Pierre Nora's definition, the oral history studies were carried out with the awareness that memory is 'plural, collective and yet individual', and oral history interviews were conducted with six individuals (who are Beykoz residents and Beykoz Kundura employees) and a group of seven former factory workers who are still living in the neighbourhood. The interviewees were asked certain pre-determined questions. Since each narrative is different, it was not necessary to ask the same questions to all of them. The questions and some reminders to keep the conversation flowing are as follows:
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• What comes to your mind when you think of Beykoz Kundura?
• With its new social and cultural dynamics, Beykoz Kundura has made changes in the economy of the district, which was idle compared to being a production center in the past.
• Do you think that there is a socio-cultural and economic change in the region?
• Does Beykoz Kundura provide job opportunities?
• Are the surrounding businesses and villages contacted for the needs of Beykoz Kundura? Fresh food, meat and dairy products, newspapers-magazines etc. and in the context of its interaction with schools.
• Has Beykoz Kundura fulfilled your expectations in this field as of its current situation?
• Do you think it contributes to the integration of Beykoz with the "city centre"? Has it contribute an improvement in public transportation?
• Does it provide space for the students of the surrounding schools (Turkish-German University, Bezm-i Alem Vakıf University, primary and secondary schools) to spend time? Are special tour opportunities provided or event invitations made to these schools?
The qualifications of the six interviewees are as follows:
• Since she is both the heir and one of the founders of the place, Beykoz Kundura’s Managing Artistic Director was interviewed. It is predicted that due to her position that shapes the vision of the institution, the insight she could provide would be crucial. Furthermore, the fact that she lived in Beykoz Kundura for a while in her youth due to her family stayed here during the restoration processes, she also lived in the lodge prepared here for about eight years in her youth. She was considered as a significant information related to her singular interaction with the Factory.The interviews were conducted by establishing direct communication. (I-1)
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• Executive Associate, who deals with the general coordination of the Kundura Memory project and works on collecting and classifying archival and oral history materials, was chosen due to her professional position and being a resident of Beykoz. The interviews were conducted by establishing direct communication. (I-2)
• Yalıköy muhtarı, born in 1962. He was chosen because of his knowledge about the demographic structure and that he is a native of the Yalıköy neighbourhood. He witnessed the factory’s active period (from 1984 to today) and its closing, traded here and has been in contact with former employees for many years. The interviews were conducted by establishing direct communication. (I-3)
• The retired jeweller of the neighbourhood is a family member who has lived in Beykoz for four generations and worked in various professions. His passed father worked as a revision foreman at the Sümerbank Factory in the 1950s-60s, and he met his mother while working at the factory. Father left his job in 1965 and opened a jewellery store in the Yalıköy neighbourhood. On the other hand, the interviewee himself who also worked at the Sümerbank Factory for three years. During the fieldwork, the interviews were conducted by establishing direct communication. (I-4)
• Son of the previous interviewee who took over the the jeweller’s business. Born in 1978, he remembers his childhood times when the Sümerbank Factory was actively working as an industrial site. He was chosen due to his knowledge about and relations with the current neighbourhood and esnaf structure. (I-5)
• Paşabahçe Şişe-Cam retired worker residing in Yalıköy. He was contacted and reached through the headman. He was chosen because of his interaction with the neighbourhoods where the two factories are located. (I-6)
The interviews amounted to a total of 259 minutes, corresponding to an average of 40 minutes per interviewee. The longest interview time was 75 minutes, while the shortest one took 20 minutes. Apart from these, since the group meeting of 7 people
25
developed spontaneously in a café on the seaside side of the neighbourhood in Yalıköy, the interview was held for about 40 minutes by taking notes and opinions of the interviewees about Beykoz, Yalıköy, Sümerbank Factory and Beykoz Kundura were maintained as the focal point. One of the interviewees who is employed in Beykoz Kundura was born and grew up in the Beykoz district and continues to reside there, while the other has resided here for a particular part of her life. All the other interviewees are Beykoz residents.
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CHAPTER 2
THE SOCIAL HISTORY of BEYKOZ: THE WORKING CLASS LEGACY
In this chapter, the dynamics of change in Beykoz district from past to present, its social history and the transformations are stated. The recent history of Beykoz will be briefly touched upon, and the district will be introduced from a broader perspective. The cultural activities that Beykoz Municipality framed based on the history of the district will also be mentioned here. Finally, migration and political changes will be discussed with the oldest available data alongside the social and work lives of the workers.
2.1. BEYKOZ, ITS BOUNDARIES AND LEGAL FRAMEWORK
Beykoz district is a coastal settlement located in the North of the Bosphorus, between Anadolu Kavağı and Paşabahçe districts on the Asian side and opposite to Tarabya and Yeniköy districts on the European side. (see Figure 1)
Figure 1. Beykoz district on İstanbul map. Source: Beykoz Istanbul Highlight – MapSof.net (no date). Available at: https://www.mapsof.net/istanbul/beykoz-istanbul-highlight?image=full (Accessed: April 19 2022).
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Beykoz has been an industrial area of Istanbul for almost two centuries.35 The district and its surroundings, a significant recreation area mentioned in literary narratives with its natural beauties, silence and greenery until the beginning of the 19th century, became one of the first places where the efforts initiated by the Ottoman state after the Tanzimat. Factories that would produce many essential products needed at that time such as paper, leather, burlap, candles, and glass, were established in this region. Thanks to these “Fabrika-i Hümayun,” Beykoz and its surroundings became one of the first industrial areas of the Ottoman Empire.36 Most of these factories37 in the district were state enterprises. From the time of establishment until the 2000s, the region hosted factories and many workers working there.
Beykoz Kundura is located in the Yalıköy neighbourhood, which is in the 22nd plan of the Beykoz district (see Figure 2, its location can be seen in the district and on the Bosphorus with the blue Beykoz Kundura logo). This plan, which covers a long coastline in Beykoz, refers to the natural and historic site on the Bosphorus. The 22nd plan of the Beykoz district gained admission in 1984, which the ‘Bosphorus Master Plan’38 determined following the adoption of the Bosphorus Law. Bosphorus Protected Areas are also described within the framework of the same law and specified as “the coastline from Ortaköy to Rumeli Feneri on the European side and from Üsküdar to Anadolu Feneri on the Anatolian side”.
35 In 1804, Beykoz Paper Factory was established on the current seacoast. In 1810, a tannery was opened next to the Paper Factory. In 1813, this production complex began to produce shoes, boots and harnesses for the army.
36 Factories of state
37 One of the most significant factories, Paşabahçe Şişe-Cam was not a state enterprise.
38 Boğaziçi Nazım İmar Planı. Boğaziçi Kanunu (Bosphorus Law). 1983. Turkey.
28
Figure 2. Beykoz District according to municipality plans and the location of Beykoz Kundura. Source: BEYKOZ İLÇESİ | Şehir Planlama Müdürlüğü (no date). Available at: https://sehirplanlama.ibb.istanbul/beykoz-ilcesi/#calisilanplanlar (Accessed: 19 April 2022).
The Bosphorus Law, requires the removal of industrial areas from the Bosphorus area, the use of these zones as tourism areas, and forbids the construction of any facility that will increase the population density. The Bosphorus area is reserved for recreation, tourism, and residential use, and an increase in population density in this area is not desired. It is expressed in the provisions of the plan that any facility and equipment on an urban scale that could cause an increase in population density would not be allowed. The facilities will be open these protected areas and the shores in the Bosphorus Area can only be used for public benefit. Again, according to the Bosphorus Law, the industrial and storage facilities vacated in the Bosphorus area can be used as tourism facilities.
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2.2. SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE DISTRICT: FROM THE FOUNDING OF THE TURKISH REPUBLIC TO THE PRESENT
The geographical distribution of the population in Beykoz seems to have been affected significantly by the irregular form of the seashore. The Bosphorus coast, suitable for settlement, is more populated than the Black Sea coast. Even though historical settlements in this situation are undeniable, transportation, , and proximity to the Bosphorus played an active role in determining the last two centuries of settlements. However, the narrowness of the flat band on the Anatolian coast has been an essential factor in the distribution of the population, causing the populace to gather around the coast.
Although the Bosphorus shore of Beykoz is more densely populated, the coastal areas on the west side of the district are also inhabited. However, the lands in the north of the district are not suitable for settlement as their slope reaches 60%.39 Since these lands are not suitable for agriculture, they constitute the most sparsely populated areas of Beykoz.
Historically, domestic migration has had a significant impact on the rapid increase in the population of Beykoz. The main reasons for migration were the high job opportunities in Istanbul and the prospect of working in the industry, besides the financial difficulties experienced in rural settlements. Beykoz got its share of this situation and became a more crowded area through the course of industrialisation and urbanisation processes in Turkey.
The district which grew with the internal migration because of the proliferation of factories under the influence of industrial-oriented works since the Republic’s first years, has generally been the settlement preferred by the workers. However, in
39 Salman, Yıldız. 2004. “Boğaziçi Tarihi Sit Alanının Yok Olma Süreci ve Kalan Sınırlı Değerlerin Korunma Olasılıkları.” İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi, 14.
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recent years it has also been in high demand from the upper-income level because of the gated communities and luxury estates built here. This situation also contributes to the population increase in Beykoz.
The first population census in the Republican Era was carried out in 1927. However, since Beykoz is connected to the Üsküdar district, there is no detailed population of villages and neighborhoods. It was only in 1930 that Beykoz gained its own legal status as a local district. During these years, there were three sub-districts in Beykoz district. There were neighborhoods connected to Beykoz Center, Mahmutşevketpaşa and Anadoluhisarı sub-districts. There were six villages in Beykoz Center, twelve villages in Mahmutşevketpaşa and four neighbourhoods in Anadoluhisarı. Now, there are fourty-five neighbourhoods in Beykoz. When an assessment is made in this context, it is possible to reach the most reliable information about the population of Beykoz with the 1935 general census.40 In the table below (Table 1), we can observe the population change in Beykoz during the general census:
YEAR
URBAN POPULATION
RURAL POPULATION
1935
15,103
6,205
1940
31,236
10,256
1945
25,611
7,494
1950
29,658
11,973
1955
36,859
12,638
1960
45,679
16,069
1965
51,689
15,179
1970
61,206
15,179
1975
76,804
15,963
1980
94,101
20,711
1985
118,697
17,366
1990
142,075
21,711
1995
170,560
21,990
2000
188,044
22,788
Table 1. General Population Census Example of Beykoz District (1935-2000)
40 “TÜİK - Veri Portalı.” n.d. Accessed June 1, 2022. https://data.tuik.gov.tr/Kategori/GetKategori?p=nufus-ve-demografi-109&dil=1.
31
Since Beykoz was an industrial area since the first years of the Republic, it is a settlement that has been inhabited by workers. However, today it draws attention more as a region preferred by the middle- and upper-income groups. Industrialisation, which was the main reason for migration to the region, has left its place to the service sector over time. Since the 2000s, serious steps have been taken in the education sector in the region. There are a total of five universities, two state universities and three private universities (Turkish-German University, Bezm-i Alem Vakıf University, Medipol University, Beykoz University, Marmara University Faculty of Sport Sciences), located within the borders of Beykoz. In the light of this information, it is possible to say that the demand for housing in the district and the economic and cultural development are inevitable.
2.2.1. Beykoz in the Municipality Publications
Many publications and studies documented two centuries of settlement, production and working culture and social life in Beykoz. Apart from the oral history studies by Kundura Hafıza41 that will be explained further below, which were limited to former factory employees42, there are many oral history studies that Beykoz Municipality supported and published. However, it is observed that these studies aim to document social life exclusively. For instance, Beykoz Municipality published Yüzyıllık Beykoz Hikayeleri43 in 2008, a work that includes accounts of football championships, defeats, transfers, strikes, diving, fishing, boats, swimming and rowing races, football, basketball, volleyball, boxing matches, and a hundred years of oral history of Beykoz from 1908 to 2008. Again, as the second book of
41 Kundura Memory.
42 There are two hundred of them so far and further details can be read in the following section of Kundura Memory Poroject and Association fort he Conservation of Industrial Heritage.
43 Alpman, Nazım. 2008. Yüzyıllık Beykoz Hikayeleri: Beykoz Sözlü Tarihi. İstanbul: Beykoz Belediyesi Yayınları.
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the series, an oral history photo album named Evvel Zaman İçinde Beykoz44 was released in 2009 by the same publishing house and author.
In 2016, thirty-three oral history interviews were conducted by Bilim ve Sanat Vakfı (BİSAV)45, with the support of the İstanbul Development Agency (IDA)46, under the title of “Oral History Research Database and Application Examples Project for the Spatial and Cultural Diversity of Istanbul”47. The interviews included narratives of those who migrated to Beykoz from different cities of Turkey to work or from different districts of Istanbul for marriage-related purposes.
As yet another example, the documentary, Sözlü Tarih: Beykoz48 which was also produced with the support of Beykoz Municipality in 2017, features the narratives of older adults born in the 1930s and 1940s. The interviewees were selected from twenty-five families residing in the twenty-five districts of Beykoz. The elders, each of whom has a living history of Beykoz, explain the district’s past and its customs and traditions, which are still maintained today but also in danger of being forgotten, and ensure that they are recorded. The natural and historical landmarks of Beykoz which represent poverty, beauty, cooperation, honesty, decency, morality, cleanliness, neighbourly relations, friendship, and love, are also mentioned in the documentary. While the documentation of these conversations is indeed significant, the documentary also suffers from a lack of context, as well as an unclear research question and over repetitive content.
44 Once Upon a Time in Beykoz.
45 The Foundation of Science and Art (BISAV) is a foundation founded in 1986, among the founders of which are conservative figures such as Mustafa Özel and Ahmet Davutoğlu. It is the founding foundation of Istanbul Şehir University. An oral history database was also created with the cooperation of the same university. Upon the suspension of the activities of Istanbul Şehir University, of which he was the founder, a trustee was appointed by the General Directorate of Foundations on January 21, 2020.
46 İstanbul Kalkınma Ajansı (İSTKA).
47 "Sözlü Tarih Araştırmaları Veritabanı ve İstanbul'un Mekansal ve Kültürel Çeşitliliğine Yönelik Uygulama Örnekleri Projesi"
48 Oral History: Beykoz
33
In 2019, a symposium series49 organised again by Beykoz Municipality was designed in cooperation with the scientific community50 in order to develop local government services, inform the residents of Beykoz about the historical and contemporary developments in their district, to identify the potential opportunities for the development of Beykoz, and to shed light on the policies and practices to be carried out by the Municipality. In the first of the series, Beykoz 2019 Symposium, which was held on 6-8 December 2019, the natural, cultural and social history of Beykoz, its development since the earliest periods of its history, the industrialisation process and the sociological structure and characteristics of Beykoz and its surroundings during the Republican period were discussed. At Beykoz 2020 Symposium, held online on 27-29 November 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the focus was on Beykoz's history and geography, morphology, urban clusters, sociological and demographic characteristics, forest texture and agricultural activities and economic, cultural, historical potential of Beykoz. Beykoz 2021 Symposium, designed as the third and last of the series, was held on 19-21 November 2021. Topics such as the Beykoz-Bosphorus relationship, the Bosphorus as a waterway, the Bosphorus of Beykoz, and the culture of the Bosphorus were discussed as the central themes. All papers sent to the symposiums can be accessed online via the website of Beykoz Municipality library. The symposium series can be seen as a valuable attempt in that it brings together academics, public employees, students and volunteers working on/in Beykoz. In line with the results of the declarations and meetings here, works for Beykoz’s self-renewal and development will start as soon as possible.
In 2021, as a continuation of the documentary mentioned above, 169 oral history videos, each approximately 15 minutes long, were broadcast on the Beykoz
49 “SEMPOZYUM HAKKINDA – Beykoz 2021 Sempozyumu.” n.d. Accessed May 5, 2022. http://www.beykozsempozyumu.com/sempozyum-hakkinda/.
50 The scientific committee is a twenty-member committee consisting of sixteen academics, independent architects and archaeologists, who are professors at Istanbul University, Istanbul Technical University, Marmara University, Istanbul Commerce University, Haliç University and Nişantaşı University.
34
Municipality’s “Beykoz Culture-Art” Youtube channel51. Although the themes of the previous project, such as neighbourhood culture, cooperation, and the natural beauties of the district, came to the fore in these interviews, the interviewees also discussed transformations in economic, political and social life. The interviewees, primarily born in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, migrated to Beykoz from different cities to work. During these decades, as workplaces there were predominantly factories and agricultural lands in the district. Since accommodation and infrastructure was insufficient, the immigrants had to build their own houses which were called gecekondus (slums, “built at night”). The state and the city’s overview of the slums will be mentioned in the following section Labor History in the District.
2.2.2. Worker Migration to Beykoz, Political Changes and Statistics
The rapid urbanisation and unplanned settlement in Beykoz as mentioned before, naturally gave result to the filling of the coasts with buildings in time. The development of industrial facilities around the coast were another reason for the construction race. The district received rapid employment-related immigration especially due to the Paşabahçe Şişe-Cam (Glass-Bottle) (1935-2002), Sümerbank Leather and Shoe Factory52 (1933-2004), and Tekel Distilleries Factory (1930-2006) established in Beykoz, and gradually became more populated. Most of the immigrants had also brought their families with them.53
51 “(27) Sözlü Tarih Beykoz - YouTube.” n.d. Accessed April 13, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvqiNAOC3XYuOE1cr6sQh_SaOfZtzdr7T.
52 The name of the Sümerbank Leather and Shoe Factory was Dabakhane-i Klevehane-i Amire in the days of Ottoman Empire from Edirne, Yakut. 2008. “Beykoz Yalıköy Yerleşı̇mı̇, Hacı Alı̇bey Fırını ve Medı̇ha Yaran Evı̇ Restorasyon Projesı̇.” Yıldız Teknik Üniversitesi, 4.
In 1933, the factory was renamed as Sümerbank Deri ve Kundura Sanayii Müessesesi and transformed to be state economic enterprise.
53 Kancan, Sema. 2009. Unutulmuş Bir Boğaziçi Yerleşimi: Beykoz. İstanbul: Heyamola Yayınları, 13.
35
Since the TÜİK did not keep the internal migration data on a district basis before 2000, it is not possible to directly access the demographic data of the workers who came to the factories to work and the people who migrated to the Beykoz district for other reasons before this date. However, there are some information about this period of migration in the oral history studies conducted by Beykoz Municipality, Kundura Memory, and the interviews explicitly held within the framework of this study, as well as within the articles and theses prepared in relation to the topic. Furthermore, the 2011 data from the “Address Based Population Registration System” as can be seen in the table below, supports such previous studies (see Table 2 on the next page). Beykoz has received massive immigration from the cities in the Black Sea region for many years. The 2011 data on the table seem to prove this, and it can be seen that the migration still continues. In her book, Unutulmuş Bir Boğaziçi Yerleşimi: Beykoz54, Sema Kancan argues that the politically left-wing demographic structure here was intended to be changed by means of migrations from Anatolia. This argument parallels the discourse used in the interviewees of this study and previous oral history studies. The data we have (especially regarding the presence of political parties) also supports this claim, by showing that the district have mostly been ruled by right-wing political parties.
54 A Forgotten Bosphorus Settlement: Beykoz
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Distribution of the Population of Beykoz by Place of Origin in 2011
Province of Registered Population
Population
Province of Registered Population
Population
Province of Registered Population
Population
Province of Registered Population
Population
İstanbul
79.937
Ankara
1.276
Ağrı
697
Aydın
377
Giresun
24.494
Bursa
1.253
Gaziantep
696
Muş
333
Ordu
19.034
Balıkesir
1.217
Yozgat
677
Osmaniye
316
Kastamonu
18.759
Bartın
1.158
Mersin
670
Kırşehir
301
Rize
11.854
Konya
1.154
Siirt
670
Yalova
291
Trabzon
9.048
Zonguldak
1.127
Şanlıurfa
626
Iğdır
272
Ardahan
8.820
Diyarbakır
1.110
Edirne
610
Bilecik
265
Sivas
5.387
Kocaeli
1.059
Eskişehir
602
Kütahya
255
Samsun
5.331
Van
1.051
Bayburt
587
Denizli
239
Sinop
3.771
Kayseri
1.004
Isparta
566
Uşak
233
Tokat
3.227
Tekirdağ
989
Nevşehir
560
Batman
203
Çorum
3.023
Çanakkale
980
Bolu
545
Kilis
182
Erzurum
2.810
İzmir
948
Mardin
545
Kırıkkale
172
Malatya
2.235
Adana
940
Bingöl
516
Muğla
161
Sakarya
2.189
Kırklareli
900
Bitlis
467
Karaman
153
Amasya
2.006
Niğde
892
Tunceli
464
Burdur
135
Erzincan
1.721
Düzce
826
Afyonkarahisar
438
Şırnak
122
Artvin
1.664
Elazığ
813
Manisa
426
Hakkari
60
Çankırı
1.573
Hatay
794
Adıyaman
411
Gümüşhane
1.420
Karabük
754
Antalya
391
Kars
1.360
Kahramanmaraş
728
Aksaray
385
Table 2. The 2011 data from the Address Based Population Registration System. Source: Şahin, V. (2013) ‘Nüfus Coğrafyası Açısından Bir Değerlendirme: Beykoz’da Nüfus Artışının Seyri ve Mekansal Dağılışı’, Marmara Coğrafya Dergisi, 28(Temmuz).
It should be noted that Beykoz received not only domestic but also transnational migration. For example, there has been significant migration from Afghanistan5556
55 Açıkgöz, Sümeyye. 2018. “Metropol Kentlerde Düzensiz Göçmenlerin Mekânsal Kümelenme Dinamikleri: Beykoz-Yenimahalle Afganistanlılar Örneği.” İstanbul Ticaret Üniversitesi.
56 This migration did not occur in 2021 when the Taliban took over the administration of Afghanistan. During the fieldwork of this thesis, according to both the residents and the immigrant Afghans living in the neighbourhood, there was no dramatic increase in the number of immigrants after this event.
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to work in the surrounding neighbourhoods and districts. In the İncirköy neighbourhood, where the former Paşabahçe Şişe-Cam Factory is located (which is an old workers’ neighbourhood built with irregular slums from the coast to the hill), there is a small quarter of Afghan immigrants. During the fieldwork of this study, it was also possible to observe and get a closer look at the dynamics of this transnational aspect of spatial migration, whose class characteristics are symbolised by small markets, where products from Afghanistan are sold, and tiny and neglected houses where crowded families live.
In the 1950s when the multi-party period had started, in Beykoz, a workers’ basin, the Demokrat Parti57 (DP) had the majority of votes.58 Koçak summarises this orientation in his thesis as follows: “…although the villagers are at the centre of DP policies, workers in the cities that developed rapidly during the 50s gradually became an effective social force both for the DP and in terms of the political conflict between the DP and the CHP.”59
Since TÜİK did not publish the results of the elections until 1961 based on districts and ballot boxes, unlike later on (today), it was not possible to present the voter preferences of the district of the related time period with precise data. The oldest local elections archive results that can be accessed in the library of the TÜIK date back to 1963. The table below shows the increasing population of the Beykoz district since 1963 and the corresponding political atmosphere. The increase in the adult population at the age of vote can also be observed. When we consider the data through a comparison between the political trend of the district and the general political trend of the country, we see a parallel between the local and national levels
57 The Democratic Party is a right-wing political party that was dissolved in 1960.
58 Koçak, Hakan. 2009. “Paşabahçe Semtinde İşçi Sınıfının Oluşumu Cam İşçi Hareketinin Gelişimi ve Yönelimleri.” Marmara Üniversitesi, 195.
59 ibid. 194.
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in terms of the influence of the ruling parties.
In order to grasp the sociopolitical situation of the district, the historical backgrounds of the related parties, the results of the local elections as it may represent the dominant view (can be seen in the Table 2 below), various theses and book studies on the district were examined. It can be clearly seen from this table that in the years following the closure of the factories, the political change in Beykoz district turned towards the right wing.
While the rate of participation in the elections varies between 40-60%60 over the years, historically the political parties that won the mayorship in Beykoz are predominantly right-wing parties and these are generally the national governments
60 From the local election publications of TÜİK and the State Institute of Statistics.
The Results of Elections of Local Administrations: Beykoz Election of Mayors of Municipalities
Year
Number of polling units
Number of registered voters
Number of actual votes cast
Number of valid votes
Mayor’sParty
Vote Rate
1963
75
21644
14367
12188
AP
%43,98
1968
86
25975
14113
10634
AP
%54,44
1973
118
34676
17739
14434
CHP
%50,97
1984
172
54168
47707
44952
ANAP
%47,81
1989
249
80015
60598
57257
SHP
%30,6
1994
308
94594
77963
76531
RP
%41,8
1999
516
113713
97193
91904
DSP
%27,5
2004
488
139003
102309
97322
AKP
%43,74
2009
507
155451
129621
124016
AKP
%36,71
2014
597
181749
164985
156338
AKP
%44,61
2019
550
182454
157173
152173
AKP
%49,15
Table 3. Election of Mayors of Municipalities (Türkiye İstatistik Kurumu (TÜİK) (no date). Available at: https://www.TÜİK.gov.tr/ (Accessed: March 9 2022).)
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of the same period. It can be said that the right-wing politics have maintained their influence until today. However, in this district, which is mainly made up of the working class, political organisations such as the Workers’ Party, the Communist Party of Turkey and the Workers’ Party of Turkey were also voted, albeit at low rates.
In Beykoz, eleven local elections were held from 1963 to 2019 and the Workers’ Party and the Workers’ Party of Turkey could not (or) participate in four of these elections. In others, the parties performed poorly. As a well-organised worker and industrial district, votes received by these political parties in the local election results were surprisingly low. Despite the culturally transformative majority of workers (factory workers and their families, the social presence of factories beyond production), the Labor Party did not appear to gain as much majority as anticipated here. The unionisation was so high in the district that it could be considered examplary throughout the city and the country. For instance, the workers were able to put pressure on the factories in line with their rights which in return met their demands, cultivating their hospital, school, transportation, and infrastructure needs.61 Nevertheless, during the fieldwork it was observed that there had been a dramatic difference between the district’s political stand and its social life. The sites of memory of the factory workers and those who lived in the region and did agriculture-livestock farming until the factories closed seem to have changed with economy-oriented discourses.
61 Koçak, Hakan. 2009. “Paşabahçe Semtinde İşçi Sınıfının Oluşumu Cam İşçi Hareketinin Gelişimi ve Yönelimleri.” Marmara Üniversitesi, 187-190.
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2.3. LABOR HISTORY IN THE DISTRICT
Together with the young republic, the industrialization density in different regions in Istanbul is striking. In this section, the development process of Beykoz’s industry and the neighbourhoods around it will be discussed in terms of production and workforce. The factories in Beykoz, whose locations are specified in the figure 3 stayed active until the privatization process. On the campus of the Paşabahçe Tekel Distilleries Factory located in this region, Paşabahçe İspermeçet Mumu Fabrikası62 (1858-1922), Modiano Cam Fabrikası63 (1899-1922), and İspirto ve Alkol Fabrikası64 (1922-193?) were excluded as they were opened before the Republic period. The factories are located close to the neighbourhood centres as seen on the map in the Figure 3.
As the perception of time in Beykoz was shaped by the whistles of the factories at the beginning and end of the working hours, the crucial role in and the contribution of the working class to the life in Beykoz, needs to be explained.
62 Whaleoil Candle Factory
63 Modiano Glass Factory
64 Spirit and Alcohol Factory, the sources are not certain about this factory’s shut down date.
41
Figure 3. Factories in the Beykoz District
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2.3.1. The District of Factories
Beykoz witnessed a specific “working-class district” that had a special, and in some aspects remarkable history.
Although Şişe-Cam was not a state65 enterprise:
…it was associated with the other two factories since all of these factories were included and directed in the first industrial plan of 1933. So the place resembled a rooted industrial basin. Furthermore, its fate was bounded to the fate of the working class. Correspondingly, Beykoz became a blue-collar workers’ basin after the factories were founded in the district and enlarged their production volume; they populated the district with workers, mainly migrants from rural areas.66
The workers’ neighbourhoods were made up of gecekondus. As a matter of fact, Hakan Koçak, in his article titled “İstanbul Emeksizleştirilirken,”67 states that the housing problem of the increasing population due to immigration in Istanbul had been handled as a typical working-class problem for years. “Factory dormitories for single workers and single hostels were enough to solve the problem temporarily to some extent, but for married workers, there was no other option but to build slums and settle their families here. Thus, the Paşabahçe-Beykoz line became the first
65 Although Turkey Şişe ve Cam Fabrikaları Anonim Şirketi (Şişe-Cam) was established by the Council of Ministers on 17 February 1934 according to the duties and privileges given to İşbank, it is not a state institution. The company was established under the name of Turkey Şişe ve Cam Fabrikaları Anonim Sosyetesi with a capital of 1 million TL. Şişe-cam is not a family business or a boss company, but a holding company owned by Türkiye İş Bankası, managed by professionals. Çelik, A. and Aydın, Z. (2006) Paşabahçe 1966 Gelenek Yaratan Grev. İstanbul: TÜSTAV. 16.
66 Alnıaçık, Ayşe. 2008. “After Deindustrializatiıon, In The Midst of Urban Transformation: The Case of Paşabahçe.” Boğaziçi Üniversitesi.
67 Koçak, Hakan. 2011. “İstanbul ‘Emeksizleştirilirken.’” İ.Ü. Siyasal Bilgiler Fakültesi Dergisi, no. 44: 41–48.
43
slum area of Istanbul.”68 This statement concerns the 1950s. Sümerbank Leather and Shoe Factory had similar problems. Onur Yerlitaş describes the problem of housing and the search for solution as follows:
…In an archival document from 1935, the Beykoz Deri Kundura Fabrikası İstihlak Kooperatifi69 was established with a capital of 500 Lira to help those working at the factory. With this cooperative, the needs of the employees were tried to be met, and they wanted to be supported. In addition, an archive document from 1950 mentions the ‘Hudutlu Sorumlu Beykoz Deri Kundura Fabrikası İçişleri Yapı Kooperatifi’70, which was allowed to be established for 30 years and with a capital of at least 3500 Turkish Liras in order to build houses and workplaces for its partners. This cooperative will also meet the household needs of the workers, and over time, slum-type houses will increase around the factory. The aim is to try to prevent the workers from working temporarily by solving the housing problems of the workers.71
In this way, solidarity among the employees was ensured, and qualified workers’ loyalty to the factory was increased. However, how gecekondus were handled changed over the years. Migrant workers who settled in the city in the 1950s began to organise in the 1960s and turned into an organized working-class force in the 1970s. While workers were transforming Istanbul into a labour capital, the labour force in the city had a negative narrative, as quoted from Koçak’s article: “A black crowd filling Istanbul and spoiling it with its slums.”72 This discourse, which emerged aggressively from the neo-liberal perspective of the 1980s, became the basis for the systematic urban transformation since the beginning of the 2000s.
68 Koçak, Hakan. 2009. “Paşabahçe Semtinde İşçi Sınıfının Oluşumu Cam İşçi Hareketinin Gelişimi ve Yönelimleri.” Marmara Üniversitesi, 188-189.
69 Beykoz Leather Shoe Factory Retail Cooperative
70 Limited Responsible Beykoz Leather Shoe Factory Interior Construction Cooperative
71 Yerlitaş, Onur. 2013. “Osmanlı’dan Cumhuriyet’e Sümerbank Beykoz Deri Kundura Fabrikası.” Marmara Üniversitesi, 76.
72 Koçak, Hakan. 2011. “İstanbul ‘Emeksizleştirilirken.’” İ.Ü. Siyasal Bilgiler Fakültesi Dergisi, no. 44, 44.
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Thus, with the closing of the factories in the early 2000s, Beykoz started to fill up with luxury estates, especially in its heights preferred by the upper class.
Since workers, their spouses and their children had all worked in the same factories for years, they were named ‘factory families’. These families needed professional medical care and schooling. While it was a local demand expressed on a daily basis through personal complaints and petitions for a long time, it became the subject of their visits to Ankara with committees formed through the unions in the region in the following years. As a result of the strong organisation of workers and trade unions, Paşabahçe State Hospital and Ferit İnal Highschool were built. Moreover, “in local elections, they selected their representative as muhtars (“neighbourhood headmen”) from former factory workers. Since Paşabahçe’s space was reshaped like a working-class area, the population came together at the moments of popular movements focused on workers’ interests.”73
To sum it, in line with the workers’ central position in this “place” and their corresponding experiences of factory work, with its political, social, and economic dimensions, the district has been called a ‘working-class neighbourhood’ since the time the industrial production started until today when it is entirely over.
73 Alnıaçık, Ayşe. 2008. “After Deindustrializatiıon, In The Midst of Urban Transformation: The Case of Paşabahçe.” Boğaziçi Üniversitesi, 21.
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2.3.2. Unions, Strikes and the Resistance of the Beykoz Workers
In line with the increasing needs after the opening of the factories mentioned before, the workers started to get organized in Beykoz in the early 1950s. Despite the increasing population in the district, it should be mentioned that workers’ movements had a role in making this place a liveable environment. The worker’s experience was marked by a lack of infrastructure, hospitals, schools and so on. These deficiencies can be said to have a prominent role in the formation of today’s Beykoz. One of the points frequently emphasised by oral history interviewees is the lack of infrastructure in the district. Most of the workers who once lived in slums say that they used to meet their needs in their homes by using gas oil for lighting and by drilling water wells in their gardens for water with personal participation. They often remember the post-1980 period, in their own words, the “Turgut Özal period” with their own houses being connected to the electricity and water network.
The workers working in the Paşabahçe Şişe-Cam factory and organised in the Cam-İş Union left the union after the union signed a highly unfair contract with the employer and moved to the Kristal-İş Union74. The strike of 2400 workers on January 31, 1966, is not only a symbol but also a turning point in the history of the Turkish labour movement. The two main demands of the strike were about wages and job security. The unions75 in Turkey formed a committee to support the strike and ensured it lasted until April 1966. After that, the strike was postponed for one month by the decision of the Council of Ministers. In the meantime, and after the strike, the labour unions were sentenced to dismissal from membership of Türkiye İşçi Sendikaları Konfederasyonu (Türk-İş). The unions demanded new agreements as they were not satisfied with the agreements made by Türk-İş with the employers
74 “Tarihçe | Kristal-İş Sendikası.” n.d. Accessed April 15, 2022. https://www.kristalis.org.tr/hakkimizda/tarihce/.
75 “Petrol-İş, Maden-İş,Lastik-İş,Teksif, Deniz-İş,B asın-İş, Ulaş-İş, Enerji-İş, Kimya-İş, DYF-İş,Şoför-İş, Ar-İş,Tez Büro-İş, Karayolları Sendikası, Oleyis, Sağlık-İş, Harp-İş, Gıda-İş ve Tekstil sendikaları” Çelik, Aziz, and Zafer Aydın. 2006. Paşabahçe 1966 Gelenek Yaratan Grev. İstanbul: TÜSTAV, 109.
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prior to this strike. The dismissed unions were among those which made an official application for the establishment of Türkiye Devrimci İşçi Sendikaları Konfederasyonu (DİSK) a year later, in 1967.76
The influence of the strike of 1966 was not only limited to Şişe-Cam and became a symbol of the working-class solidarity that encompassed the entire Beykoz. Afterwards, strikes and resistance became inseparable parts of Beykoz’s daily life.
In 1970, a bill amending the Labor Law and the Trade Unions Law, which regulates working life and basic union legislation, was passed first by the National Assembly and then by the Senate with the cooperation of Adalet Partisi (AP) and Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi (CHP). The amendment significantly restricted the freedom of workers to choose unions and made it difficult to change unions. The draft law was enacted by the president on June 11, 1970. The draft bill mainly aimed to prevent the flow of workers from Türk-İş to DİSK, which took place as mentioned in the previous paragraphs. DISK and its affiliated unions reacted to the new law. The reactions of DİSK unionists and administrators entered a new phase when they marched towards the main centers of Istanbul on the morning of June 15, 1970. Around 75,000 workers from many factories took part in the marches. Although the reaction came mainly from DİSK member workers, many Türk-İş workers joined the marches en masse. On the evening of the first day of the events, the Council of Ministers declared a 60-day martial law. Many of the executives of DİSK and its affiliated unions were arrested and tried by martial law courts. In the events that took place in Kadıköy, 2 workers, 1 policeman and 1 tradesman lost their lives. On 16 June, minor incidents took place in Ankara, Adana, Bursa and İzmir77.
Despite the strong worker organizations in the unions, the union laws were amended by the government. Despite the rivalry between Kristal-İş and Hür cam-İş unions,
76 “15-16 Haziran Büyük İşçi Direnişi.” n.d. Accessed April 15, 2022. http://yeniemek.org/15-16-haziran-buyuk-isci-direnisi/
77 ibid
47
the two unions went on a strike together in 1971 in Paşabahçe and Çayırova Workplaces, which lasted for 58 days.78. Since the 12 March 1971 memorandum, in which the Turkish Armed Forces demanded the resignation of the 32nd Government of Turkey, the martial law continued. Istanbul martial law commander of the period often pressured the unions to stop the strike which was effective in ending them.
The unions represented in the factories in this region carried out 12 strikes and four major resistances in the last 50 years. They made their first strike in 1966 in Paşabahçe with 2400 workers and went on a strike in 1970, 1980, 1989, 1991, 1995, 2001, 2003 and 2004. Unions carried out four significant resistances in 1991 and 2002 in Paşabahçe, also in 2003 in Eskişehir, and in 2012 in Topkapı. On 20 June 201479, 5800 Şişecam workers, members of the Kristal-İş Union, went on the tenth strike at ten factories. Two more strikes followed in 2017 and 2019, which resulted in further gains for the workers.
78 ibid
79 “Camın ve Grevin Ustaları Haklarını Arıyor | Kristal-İş Sendikası.” n.d. Accessed April 15, 2022. https://www.kristalis.org.tr/2014/06/25/camin-ve-grevin-ustalari-haklarini-ariyor/.
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2.4. SÜMERBANK AND BEYKOZ LEATHER AND SHOE FACTORY
2.4.1. Sümerbank as a State Enterprise
Sümerbank was established by the law of July 11, 1933,80 as a state economic enterprise and a bank.
There were some specific duties assigned to Sümerbank by the founding law:
-It would operate the factories it had taken over from the State Industry Office and manage state partnerships with private companies. In addition, it would prepare, establish and manage the projects of institutions established with the state capital.
- It would train the necessary experts and workers both for its own factories and for other factories in the country. For this purpose, Sümerbank would also open schools and educate students at home and abroad. 81
Some of the public investments managed by the state were transferred to Sümerbank. The Sümerbank enterprise took over seven82 factories: Bakırköy Cloth Factory, Defterdar (Feshane), Hereke, Beykoz Leather and Shoe Factory, Uşak Sugar Factory, Tosya Rice Factory and Unkapanı Mill.
The phrase “being a member of Sümerbank is a privilege” that is frequently repeated in the interviews and in previous studies can be reminded here again. In addition to its commercial and economic subsidiaries, Sümerbank is likely to make individuals feel more privileged than belonging to any other business due to its crucial role in the education of its employees, and as a government institution allowing them to work for many years and retire from the same workplace. What
80 Toprak, Zafer. 1988. Sümerbank Holding A.Ş. İstanbul: Creative Yayıncılık, 31.
81 Compiled from this source: Koraltürk, Murat. n.d. Sümerbank : Türkiye Ekonomisinde Bir Öncü. Edited by Osman S. Arolat. İstanbul: Creative Yayıncılık.
82 ibid. 31.
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distinguishes Beykoz Leather and Shoe Factory from other factories in the region is that it is a part of Sümerbank.
2.4.2. History of Sümerbank and Beykoz Leather and Shoe Factory
The area where Beykoz Kundura is located has been providing service in different areas of the industry for more than two centuries. In 180483, with the initiatives of the Ottoman Sultan, Selim III, Beykoz Paper Factory was established on the current seacoast. In 1810, a tannery was founded next to the Paper Factory. In 1813, this production complex began to produce shoes, boots and harnesses for the army. Then its name was changed to Beykoz Military Equipment Factory. During the reign of Abdülhamit II, in 1893, the Hamidiye Paper Factory was opened on the same region. By 1912, in the Leather Factory 1000 pairs of shoes were produced per day.
Shortly after the proclamation of the Republic of Turkey in 1933, the leather factory was transferred to Sümerbank, and ten years later, the Factory started to distribute free shoes to all civil servants in Turkey.84
The unionisation in the Factory began in 1947.85 Thanks to unionisation, the Factory became more than a production center and turned into an area where social life flourished. For example, the kindergarten, clubs and cafeteria were earned and developed thanks to the union, thus creating a sense of belonging of the employees and the “identity” that is embraced even today.
83 Küçükerman, Önder. 2020. Beykoz Deri ve Kundura Fabrikası Geleneksel Türk Dericilik Sanayisinden Sanayi Devrimi’ne Geçişin Boğaziçi’ndeki Temsilcisi, 887-892.
84 Kundura Memory archive.
85 İbid.
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To “encourage training in the field” which was among the founding missions of Sümerbank, the factory employees visited Czechoslovakia in 1947, where they got acquainted with new techniques and machines that would increase the technical capabilities of the Factory. Then, groups of workers, designers, and engineers from both countries made mutual visits. Later, they supported constructing a more functional building that expanded the production in the Kundura factory campus with a building project.86
In 1958, to increase the Factory’s efficiency a new building was built by the sea (see Figure 4).
Figure 4. The latest addition to the factory complex, a view from the coast, from the 2010s. Retrieved from the website of Beykoz Kundura
In 1964, the production line system was established, and a rubber mill was added. Workers unionised in 1947 and established cooperatives to own a house. According
86 Küçükerman, Önder. 1988. Geleneksel Türk Dericilik Sanayi ve Beykoz Fabrikası. Ankara: Sümerbank, 153.
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to the data transmitted by Kundura Memory, in 1986 the Factory started to lose money. Subsequently Sümerbank was privatized in 1999, while 1826 workers and 102 white collars were still employed87 in Beykoz Leather and Shoe Factory that year. Due to the pollution of the environment and the Bosphorus, first, the leather section was closed in 1993, and in 1999 the Factory was shut down entirely. Sümerbank stores which offered a wide variety of products ranging from shoes to textiles were closed in 2002. Finally, the Factory was purchased by Yıldırım Holding in 2005.
2.4.3. Social Life in Sümerbank Leather and Shoe Factory
Although the Factory was a production area, it was not only the machines that created it but also the employees and their families. As discussed in the first chapter, places and communities have an impact on each other. The history of a concrete structure alone does not constitute its memory. Therefore, this section will focus on the meaning of Sümerbank Leather and Shoe Factory for its employees and the neighbourhood, and the way it touched their lives. The information in this section has been compiled based on the oral history interviews, the Kundura Memory meetings held by the History Foundation for Beykoz Kundura, and the information in the booklet of the exhibition held by Kundura Memory.
During the periods when the industrial production was still going on, most of the special days and holidays, like the New Year’s Eve, national and religious holidays, or the foundation anniversary of Sümerbank, were celebrated together at the Factory. Employees were given commendations and unique gifts during their 20th, 25th and 30th years of service. Retirement and farewell parties and dinners for boosting morale were organised in the officer’s club,88 and famous musicians took
87 Küçükerman, Önder. 2020. Beykoz Deri ve Kundura Fabrikası Geleneksel Türk Dericilik Sanayisinden Sanayi Devrimi’ne Geçişin Boğaziçi’ndeki Temsilcisi, 362.
88 Memur lokali.
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the stage. One of the oral history interviewees, aged 44, stated that he got to know many Turkish Classical Music singers, whom he loved very much, for the first time at these events when he was a child.
Many factory workers met and married their spouses at the Factory. Workers could use the workers’ club, known as the canteen, for free for wedding and engagement celebrations. Relatives and neighbours of the workers, on the other hand, could get permission from the Factory through the Union and organise a wedding for a small price. In addition, the union would provide wedding aid to the workers who got married.
The kindergarten in the Factory provided free care to the children of the workers and civil servants during working hours. Employees would bring their children to the kindergarten at the Factory entrance and return to their work, and in the evening, their clothes would be changed and bathed. In addition, the Sümerbank Leather and Shoe Factory and the Union allowances covered the clothing and food expenses of the children, brought their daily milk from the dairy in Tokatköy, and foster mothers made daily pudding and yoghurt. Working mothers were also given half an hour breastfeeding leave in the morning and afternoon during working hours. There was a teacher graduated from a vocational high school, two nurses, five foster mothers, and about 50-60 children in the nursery. Birthdays, April 23rd, May 19th holidays were celebrated in the nursery or on the terrace of the nursery with the participation of families and factory workers. Performances were organised, and gifts were distributed to children on these special days.
In the cafeteria area, approximately 2300 workers could eat simultaneously. Besides being a dining area, it was a socialising and meeting place where workers came together. Assemblies were held in this area, and the Union used to gather workers in the cafeteria in case of emergency.
In the oral history study of Kundura Memory, the sense of prosperity mentioned by the workers appears as an essential element of the Factory’s relationship with the
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neighbourhood. The Factory provided food aid to the surrounding primary schools from time to time. The workersshared all the chicken that was distributed to them once a week and their Saturday food packages with their families.
At least three kinds of meals were served in the cafeteria every day. The union created the meal menu according to the daily calorie intake of the worker, and the factory doctor and the social services chief controlled it. The fresh vegetables, fruits, and milk were coming from the villages of Beykoz to both the Factory and the neighbourhood.
The cafeteria area also hosted Turkish and foreign film screenings which were open to the people of Beykoz several evenings a week during the winter months.
According to the personal accounts, the sound of the factory whistle was heard even in Tarabya and echoed all over the neighbourhood. Little children returning from school were told “not to stay until the whistle blows” so that they would not get lost in the crowd. In addition, the social rights gained in the Factory were reflected in the neighbourhood—events in the worker’s club, concerts, and movie screenings that became indispensable over time.
Beykoz Çayırı activities, whose past is difficult to imagine with its current concrete-enclosed and limited green space, were also significant examples of the Factory and the neighbourhood relationship. Beykoz Çayırı was between the road and shore that comes from Paşabahçe and extended to Anadolukavağı and the Sümerbank Factory, and it was a vast green area, as the locals recalled it. Every year, with the union’s support, the Factory held circumcision ceremonies and weddings in Çayır. These ceremonies were open to all the families in the neighbourhood and even in the district. Sometimes, film screenings were made with the projector belonging to the Factory as well. People from Beykoz and Yalıköy talk quite positively about the time they spent in Çayır. In contrast with the insecure feeling of the current city, they could have fun and spend time in this area, where everyone knew each other, until the first light of the morning.
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The Factory also shaped the economic life of the surrounding area. An interviewee from the oral history interviews conducted for this study, who has resided in Yalıköy for several generations and left the Factory in the 1980s and opened a jewellery store in the neighbourhood, enthusiastically describes the paydays of the Factory: “Workers and officials would come to the jeweller and take their gold for investment, weddings, and sometimes just for gifts.” Learning the know-how at the Factory some workers also established their own sweatshops and sold shoes in the neighbourhood.
Employees built their own houses in the surrounding area with their earned wages. The circulation of building materials that could be needed in these houses contributed to the economic activity in the region.
All in all, the change in the number of employees at the Sümerbank factory, the increase in the worker population and the resident population in the region created dynamic conditions of socialization in the place. The shared life in the factory, which engendered its own culture, spilled over into the neighbourhood.
After the Factory was closed, the events described above also started to end. The residents of the neighbourhood began to lose the social activities they could access for free or minimal amounts. However, it should be noted that the privatisation of the structure is not the only reason in this. The economic crisis in 2001,89 the rapid construction in the district, and the employment problem were among the critical challenges of the period. One of the interviewees offers his interpretation of this breaking point:
In the 1999 earthquake, Beykoz and Sarıyer turned out to be very solid in terms of ground and turned into a rent area over time. They aimed to remove people from this place completely and bring the richer segment. They started to build villas like Acarkent, and Hisar Houses, which overlook the Bosphorus. That is why they closed the factories here little by little, sent the remaining workers to
89 During the interviews, one of the former workers and Beykoz Kundura Managing Artistic Director jointly pointed out the 2001 crisis.
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other factories, and encouraged those who did not go to retire. The contractors offered high prices for their houses, causing them to leave. (I-5)
These social losses can be hypothesised as one of the reasons for the current disconnection between the neighbourhood and the Factory.
Based on the narrative and data in this section, it can be seen that there are three different memories formed in this area: those who have never worked here, those who currently work in Beykoz Kundura, and those who are former employees (blue and white-collar workers). When we take a look at the expectations of people who lived in the neighborhood but did not work in the factory, we see that they point to their former production-oriented existence. On the other hand, those who used to work in the factory (retirees) prefer to seek and commemorate the social life and the financial stability of the period when they still worked. “Sümerbank Shoe Factory,” therefore, stands as a significant site of memory for these people.
As for what they expect from the future, former workers and their descendents hope that the new institution that comes after the closure of the factory will revive their past social life. The neighbourhood has demands such as interacting with the activities of Beykoz Kundura individually. Of course, they also seek job opportunities for their children and grandchildren.
On the other hand, Beykoz Kundura creates its own memory with a mission that will be explained in detail in the following chapter. While creating this new identity, they make use of the memories of previous workers, the production identity of the factory, and the existence of workers and laborers. By using the character and visuals of this factory campus, they believe that they protect the cultural heritage and determine the framework of their cultural production via the site’s genius loci.
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CHAPTER 3
POST FACTORY PERIOD AND BEYKOZ KUNDURA
Following its closure in 1999, the Factory was acquired by new owners in 2004. The new owner Yıldırım Holding is a group of companies operating in the sectors of metal and mining, coal and coke, port management, fertiliser, chemistry and shipping. When the corporation acquired the Beykoz Kundura factory, it could not continue the production, which had already stopped in 1999. It could have been a suitable port for transportation to the inner city by the sea, in line with the Holding's fields of activity. Since there were too many monumental buildings and trees on the campus, the company preferred to use it in its original form. As the next step in the process, "Yıldırım Beykoz Kundura Turizm İnşaat ve Yatırım A.Ş." was established, and Beykoz Kundura’s management was handed over to this company. The current registered brand name of the institution is "Beykoz Kundura."90 Because the Factory was located in a protected area, the existing structures were preserved and became part of the identity of today's Beykoz Kundura.
The new owners of Beykoz Kundura carried out research and studies to protect and renovate the buildings. In line with the protection and re-evaluation of industrial heritage sites, international cases were examined. As of 2005, the place was started to serve as a film plateau for film and TV series. After that, the factory campus was decided to be used as an arts and culture complex. While trying to learn the functions and working principles of the old buildings and machines correctly for conservation the company reached the old workers and as a result organically
90 Küçükerman, Önder. 2020. Beykoz Deri ve Kundura Fabrikası Geleneksel Türk Dericilik Sanayisinden Sanayi Devrimi’ne Geçişin Boğaziçi’ndeki Temsilcisi, 362.
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started an oral history study. As they learned about the social life and culture of the place, Beykoz Kundura shaped its own identity.
Figure 5. Beykoz Kundura Infographic Timeline
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While the place is operated via a separate institution, it is possible to trace Beykoz Kundura in the corporate identity of the Yıldırım Holding. The company’s official website consists a part dedicated to Beykoz Kundura. For example, in an entry published from their account it says: “As part of the Yıldırım family, we team together with @beykozkundura, a precious industrial, cultural heritage icon of Turkey, to host culture and arts activities.”91
Besides being a profitable investment and estate for the Holding, Beykoz Kundura provides services by creating its own economic model. The increasing value of the lands on the Bosphorus, recently opened universities, luxury residences, schools and touristic facilities in Beykoz district after the 2000s reflected on the value of the old Factory campus, even where it stands. Moreover, according to a report made in 2015, its value increaedabout eleven times even before it reached its current capacity. This raises the question of whether it can be incorporated into the site of memory, the genius loci of this space, due to the positive accumulation carried over from the past in this old factory campus. The existence of a non-profit organization (Kundura Cultural Heritage Preservation Association92) opened in one of the branches of a company can be another topic of discussion due to tax exemptions, assets that the company and association may have, and similar legal disputes.
In the 70s, in its most crowded state, a total of 300093 people worked in the Factory. Together with the families of these people, this amounted to a group of 5-6 thousand people. This number constituted one-third of the population of Beykoz at that time. In Beykoz Kundura, around 120 people are employed today, organised as units of Arts and Culture, Kundura Memory, Kundura Cinema, Kundura Stage, Field Operations Staff, Human Resources and Security Team. In addition, Beykoz
91“Industries-Beykoz Kundura.” n.d. Accessed May 9, 2022. https://www.yildirimgroup.com/Home/Industries/13.
92 Kundura Kültürel Mirası Koruma Derneği
93 Küçükerman, Önder. 2020. Beykoz Deri ve Kundura Fabrikası Geleneksel Türk Dericilik Sanayisinden Sanayi Devrimi’ne Geçişin Boğaziçi’ndeki Temsilcisi, 364.
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Kundura's team can expand from time to time with event-based temporary workers and volunteer employees.
This chapter explores the current use of the old factory campus by Beykoz Kundura. At the same time, through the Kundura Memory Project, oral history studies that were conducted with former workers and those living in the vicinity of the Factory, information obtained from other recent interviews, statistical changes, and findings on the relationship of Beykoz Kundura with district inhabitants are evaluated.
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3.1. CURRENT USES OF THE INDUSTRIAL SITE OF BEYKOZ LEATHER AND SHOE FACTORY
Since the privatisation of the Sümerbank Leather and Shoe Factory in 2004, and the foundation of Beykoz Kundura in 2005, another history is being written for nearly 20 years in addition to its former proletarian history. The legal registrations94 of some of the buildings in the factory area were made by Yıldırım Holding. A total of 25 buildings were registered as cultural assets to be protected, and 11 trees were registered as monumental trees95.
At first, the factory area was only used as a movie set, and thanks to the filming activities, it gained an economic value in addition to its aesthetic value. Restoration and re-functioning initiatives also started with an awareness of this fact. The company worked together with architects and experts on cultural heritage. The Yıldırım family and the architects who worked in the first project period consider this place as industrial heritage and aim to advance the conservation process by closely examining the "good"96 transformations in Europe, such as Essen and Zollverein.97 They convey that their goal is to preserve and repurpose the existing structures and use them without changing their original texture.
As the conservation and restoration processes began, the company realised that the area had its own stories and the physical transformation of the place could not be done independently of the social accumulation there. Conservation of documents (machine drawings and architectural projects, management documents, posters,
94“Envanter.Gov.Tr - Envanter Arşivi.” n.d. Accessed April 18, 2022. http://envanter.gov.tr/anit/kentsel/detay/39427.
95 Küçükerman, Önder. 2020. Beykoz Deri ve Kundura Fabrikası Geleneksel Türk Dericilik Sanayisinden Sanayi Devrimi’ne Geçişin Boğaziçi’ndeki Temsilcisi, 362. 96 From the interview with the former Executive Associate of Kundura Hafıza.
97 The fact that Managing Director of Arts and Culture, who is from the Yıldırım family, received her higher education in Germany, is effective in setting an example for the transformations in Germany in this field.
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graphic design works) in the warehouses began. Architects who came for the conservation project did not know how the machines work; they decided to learn how the original functions of the spaces from the former employees and initiated communication. This communication formed the core of the Kundura Memory archive. So far, within the framework of the project 200 people have been interviewed with video and audio recordings. There are also photographs, documents and objects they brought. Reminiscences in the former workers’ memory also gain a physical presence in the current exhibition of Kundura Memory. The project also expands the scope of oral history studies by reaching out to the children of the workers' families, those who used the nursery there and are now adults, the shopkeepers living in the neighbourhood, and the workers who worked there before.
With regard to the use of the buildings, filming activities (movies, clips, commercials, tv-series etc.), open-air festival/film screenings, and memory projects continue. The area where the boiler room existed is has been converted into a movie theatre. The private initiative in this field has evolved into a non-governmental organisation with the Kundura Cultural Heritage Preservation Association. Most of the current structures in the Beykoz Kundura venue are named after their past functions and have been restored in accordance with their original form. For example, Demirane, which served as an iron forging workshop, is now a restaurant serving visitors and employees. The building which previously served as Kazan Dairesi98 has been allocated to KunduraCinema and KunduraStage units; structures such as Deri Dolapları99, Lastik Atölyesi100, Çek Evi101, Yağhane102 were also restored, and maintained their previous names.
98 Boiler Room
99 Leather Cabinets
100 Tire Factory
101 Czech House
102 Oil Shop
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Before explaining the activities held in Beykoz Kundura in detail, it should be noted that visits to the working areas and sets and plateaus inside the factory buildings are not allowed for security reasons. Visitors are only allowed to the areas outside the sets and plateaus in ticketed culture & arts, and entertainment organizations.
3.1.1. Kundura Memory Project and Kundura Cultural Heritage Preservation Association
Kundura Memory follows different methods to understand the historical development of the Factory as a production and living space. The archive of Kundura Hafıza is composed of approximately two thousand images and written documents that highlight both the Factory's and Istanbul's industrial and cultural heritage.103 In addition, apart from the written and visual materials, an oral history archive of approximately two hundred people (predominantly male workers and male white collars) was created between 2015 and 2018 in cooperation with Tarih Vakfı.104 On behalf of Tarih Vakfı, an oral history study was carried out by the project teams of expert researchers, Gülay Kayacan and Hakan Koçak. 105
Kundura Cultural Heritage Preservation Association was established in 2021 by the creators of the Kundura Memory Archive, which set out with the motto "Research, preserve, trace, collect, remember and remind"106 in 2015.
103 “Beykoz Kundura.” n.d. Accessed January 14, 2022. https://beykozkundura.com/about-us.
104 History Foundation
105 “Tarih Vakfı > Projeler > Kurum ve Sektör Tarihi Projeleri.” n.d. Accessed May 9, 2022. https://tarihvakfi.org.tr/proje/kurum-ve-sektor-tarihi-projeleri/.
106 “Beykoz Kundura-Kundura Memory.” n.d. Accessed July 4, 2022. https://www.beykozkundura.com/kundura-memory.
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The association designed “The Memory of Kundura: The Life Fits in a Factory”107 as a permanent exhibition in 2021 after nearly seven years of archiving and oral history work. The exhibition takes place inside the Marangozhane building, located in the old factory area and served as part of the Paper Factory in the 1800s (before it became the Leather-Kundura Factory).
Figure 6. Entrance of the Memory of Kundura: The Life Fits in a Factory. 2021. from the thesis author's photo archive.
The exhibition was inspired by the intertwining of daily life and production activities in the Factory, which was an integral part of the life of workers, officials and families. It describes Beykoz Kundura as a living space, blending it with selected archive materials and oral history narratives. The exhibition is constructed
107 Kundura’nın Hafızası: Bir Fabrikaya Sığan Dünya
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under six titles and parts: the Factory's history, samples of the products produced, the equipment and moulds used in production, production in the Factory, daily life in the Factory, and a video room where Sümerbank advertisement videos from the past to present are screened. In the history of the Factory, the establishment of the Leather and Shoe Factory from 1804 to 2018, its privatisation process is explained chronologically. “Samples of the products” section is designed as a typical Sümerbank retail store, including shoes, boots, bags, gift wraps, cash register and souvenirs of the exhibition. Production and daily life in the factory sections are supported with oral history videos, photographs and Sümerbank products acquired from former factory workers.
As the effects of the pandemic ease, Kundura Hafıza aims to continue with oral history interviews. At this stage, in order not to repeat the content, they classify and digitise the Kundura Memory oral history archive using keywords. Afterwards, the digital archive will be opened to researchers upon application as it is now. After a classification has been made, missing information will be determined, and future interviews will be held to fill these gaps. They aim to increase the number of interviews with female employees, who are generally either afraid to talk or accept to come to the interview only if there is an acquaintance with them. The Memory Exhibition helps identify new oral history interviewees. If the interviewee does not have any health problems, they prefer to conduct their oral history interviews in Beykoz Kundura. It can be said that for the interviewee this would be beneficial in terms of experiencing the spirit of the place and its evocative qualities.
As it will be explained in more detail in the section The Relationship between Beykoz Kundura and the Local, the first target of Kundura Memory in its oral history studies was to ensure “the correct transformation and protection”108 of the factory area. As a result of their work, they expand their archives and draw inspiration for curating events.
108 From the interview with the Managing Director of Arts and Culture.
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3.1.2. Movie Sets and Cultural Activities
The old Factory was oriented toward different cultural purposes with the suggestions made by the leading names in the movie industry to Yıldırım Holding in 2005. The first was the transformation of large historical venues into a film set that serves the cinema and TV series (“dizi") industries.
After the factory has been purchased, the conservation committee was first consulted about how the area could be evaluated. However, bureaucratic procedures of the board's registration and research processes took some time. Meanwhile, the Turkish film director Mustafa Altıoklar requested to use the idle structures of the factory for the movie 'Beyza'nın Kadınları' back in 2006. Afterwards, as the demands for shooting increased gradually, Beykoz Kundura turned into a film plateau rented to production companies. Apart from serving professional producers, they also provided free sets to students.
Since then, extensive movie settings and props have been built, and many projects have been realised with its Greenbox and technological infrastructure amid an ambience remaining of an inactive factory.109 Some of the TV series that have been shot at Beykoz Kundura up until now are as follows: Hatırla Sevgili (Remember Darling), Öyle Bir Geçer Zaman Ki (Time Goes By), Karadayı (The Uncle in Black), Arka Sokaklar (Back Streets), Poyraz Karayel, İstanbullu Gelin (Bride from Istanbul), Vatanım Sensin (Wounded Love).
While shoes and leather produced in the factory used to appeal to the public in general and could reach everyone's home, Beykoz Kundura is now turning into an area of cultural production which again enters everyone's home through televisions and entertainment platforms. This is also a relief for the former workers:
109 Kundura, Beykoz. n.d. “Mekan Kataloğu.”
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When we come across retired factory workers, they say that they get excited and feel relief when they see old buildings in TV series. Even if they can’t come and visit the television turns into an important tool for them to connect with the place.110
Beykoz Kundura hosts events from different fields such as exhibitions, cinemas, concerts, theatres, festivals, workshops, and artists-in-residence in the former factory campus.
3.1.2.1. Stage-Kundura Sahne
The restoration of the Kazan Dairesi buildings, which used to be the energy-producing part of the Factory, was completed in 2019. The former Kazan Dairesi now hosts the “Kundura Sahne”, which can be used for various purposes as a theatre stage or concert and performance hall. Beykoz Kundura uses these phrases when describing Kundura Sahne:
Kundura Sahne features experience-oriented practices to its guests using an integrative approach. It ensures that the knowledge and the spirit contained in the preserved memory of this unique structure of cultural heritage are felt and remembered. Within its institutional framework, it creates its authentic community around a certain sense of belonging along with artists and art & culture goers. It believes that mutual empathy and shared feelings can create a basis for distinctive and genuine artistic practices.111
The text above is in the "About Us" section of Beykoz Kundura’s official website. The section containing this text is in English only. Unfortunately, it is not possible to see definitions such as “empathy” and “authentic community” in Turkish, which will raise a question mark in Turkish definitions and make comparisons. Therefore, 110 From the interview with the Executive Associate of Kundura Memory, however, this statement has not been confirmed by former workers.
111 “Beykoz Kundura- About Us.” n.d. Accessed May 11, 2022. https://www.beykozkundura.com/about-us.
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it would only be an estimation to say that the “authentic community” here refers to former factory workers. Although there is no definition of “authentic community” in this regard, the following excerpt from the page about Kundura Sahne may also be appropriate for inference: It is inspired by oral historical narrations of Kundura Hafıza for designing the curation, starting with transformation and memory of the venues. It rediscovers the sense of belonging created by old factory workers and performative forms of their daily lives. In this journey, Kundura Sahne explores the relation between place and body in performativity and carries on searching while being inspired by their life stories.112 With the focus of being a performing arts centre, Kundura Sahne “aims to create a new space of encounter for dynamic and pioneering interdisciplinary works of art based on the concept of ‘reality’ in contemporary theatre, dance, and performance arts.” Kundura Sahne states that they are moving forward based on the memory they are trying to preserve. However, locals may not be attracted to this area as an audience, considering the neighbourhood’s demographic and socio-cultural structure.113 However, as in recent years the number of theatres, plays and audience has decreased,114 such an institution can branch out Beykoz and Beykoz Kundura to the city at large (and internationally) as a cultural heritage. 112 “Beykoz Kundura.” n.d. Accessed May 29, 2022. https://www.beykozkundura.com/kundura-stage. Turkish for the quote: “Programını tasarlarken Kundura Hafıza’daki sözlü tarih anlatılarından ilham alır, mekânların dönüşümünden ve belleğinden yola çıkar. Fabrikanın eski çalışanlarının kurduğu aidiyetliğe, gündelik yaşamlarına dair performatif öğeleri yeniden keşfeder. Bu yolculukta Kundura Sahne performans alanında mekân ve beden ilişkisini sorgular, yaşam öykülerinden beslenerek bir arayış sürdürür” 113 In order to make a clear comment on this issue, a comprehensive survey study should be conducted and the current status of population surveys in the district should be examined.
114 TÜİK. n.d. “Sinema, Tiyatro, Opera, Bale, Orkestra, Koro ve Topluluk İstatistikleri, 2020.” Accessed May 10, 2022. https://data.tuik.gov.tr/Bulten/Index?p=Sinema,-Tiyatro,-Opera,-Bale,-Orkestra,-Koro-ve-Topluluk-Istatistikleri-2020-37205.
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3.1.2.2. Artists-in-Residence Programme (VARDİYA)
Through its artist-in-residence program called VARDIYA115, created and implemented in collaboration with Kundura Hafıza, the institution aims to generate new ideas with an interdisciplinary approach in terms of the concepts of archive and performance: in line with an approach that pursues local wisdom of Kundura Hafıza and preserves elements that would otherwise be lost. It plans a working cycle with the artists, which protects, conserve, and guards the archive. Kundura Hafıza entrusts the archive to the artist who takes over. It creates a field of research through art practice and provides participation and access to the archive by granting the artist the power of interpretation within the context of the main collecting and compiling principle of the archive.116
VARDIYA is a program that keeps sites of memory in its name, an essential part of the factory. Artists are invited to work in Vardiya for a certain period of time in certain times of the year. The process is based on the idea that the artist whose shift ends is replaced by another artist who will again take over the archive. In this creative shift, the artists themselves decide what this work period will be like. The concepts and practical formations that emerged in these shiftsand research system are presented in a program open to the audience. It is possible to access the labour process and product produced by the artist here. For this reason, keeping the shift alive with such an event and conveying the character of production can be argued to contribute to an understanding of the genius loci that exists on the campus.
115 Shift.
116 “Beykoz Kundura.” n.d. Accessed May 29, 2022. https://www.beykozkundura.com/vardiya-EN.
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3.1.2.3. Remote İstanbul
Remote Istanbul is a play realised with the cooperation of Rimini Protokoll117 and Beykoz Kundura. In Remote Istanbul, a group of city dwellers wear headphones and go on a journey in Istanbul and are guided by a synthetic voice. This particular project of Rimini Protokoll for each city was adapted to that city’s texture, agenda, and local culture and presented to the audience. Since 2013, it has met with audiences in over 50 different cities.
Remote Istanbul is an event that enriches Beykoz Kundura’s interaction with Istanbul. Although it is prepared in cooperation with Beykoz Kundura, it is not in a relationship with the neighbourhood where this institution is located and the local people. Although it is currently curated abroad, Remote Istanbul tends to narrate the locals in the cities it reaches. We see that a series hosting in Beykoz has not been realized yet. Making a Beykoz adaptation within the Remote concept might also increase the institution’s communication with its environment and local people and its visibility in this region. Staying in touch with the locals will enable the institution to revive by repeating the experience if they continue with the awareness of preserving this place as a cultural heritage. In this respect, this collaboration with Remote will be possible to reconstruct the site of memory narrative in this place and introduce the audience to the genius loci with the history and social interaction of Beykoz Kundura.
117 Rimini Protokoll is an alternative theater team founded in 2000. “Work by work they have expanded the means of the theatre to create new perspectives on reality. They often develop their stage-works, interventions, performative installations and audio plays together with experts who have gained their knowledge and skills beyond the theatre.” “About Rimini Protokoll - Rimini Protokoll.” n.d. Accessed May 3, 2022. https://www.rimini-protokoll.de/website/en/about.
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3.1.2.4. Cinema- Kundura Sinema
Since 2018, Kundura Sinema has welcomed its guests as an authentic venue that discusses and elaborates on films through its original curatorial contents, thematic programs and side events, and offers an alternative perspective to the cinema.
As mentioned before, there were film screenings in the Factory, which were carried out before with the participation of both the factory workers and the people of Beykoz. While the Factory was active, Turkish and foreign films were shown weekly in the workers’ cafeteria during winter months and in the open-air cinema, which was set up in the factory garden in summer evenings. In addition, by hanging posters at the factory entrance, they would invite the neighbourhood people and show the popular movies of the period with affordable tickets. The oral history studies also inform us about that even though none of their families worked in the Factory back then, children from Beykoz primary school students used to be introduced to the Sümerbank Leather and Shoe Factory via trips organised by their teachers to attend screenings.
These screenings inspired the present day; a section of the Kazan Dairesi was transformed into a cinema hall to maintain this tradition of the venue. (see Figure 7.)
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Figure 7. Kundura Cinema, 2021, retrieved from https://beykozkundura.com/
Both in the past and today, movie screenings seem to be the most frequent and main event for the Factory campus and the neighbourhood interaction. It is also the most popular form of event in the neighbourhood since Beykoz Kundura’s movie screenings started.
3.1.2.5. Festivals
Beykoz Kundura has created a culture-oriented meeting space that grows over time with the structure that nourishes itself with different disciplines within Bir Yaz Gecesi Festivali, organised since the summer of 2017. Preserving the festival’s spirit and ensuring its sustainability are some of the critical issues at this point. “The core values of authenticity and commodification that make visitors feel attracted to the site should not be sacrificed. Keeping this spirit alive would offer a bond between visitors/audience and residents in cultural discourse.”118 From this point of view, it can be observed that Beykoz Kundura uses the unique qualities of its location. They draw on the old traditions of the factory campus to revive the genius
118 Kladou, Stella. 2011. “Kültür Festivalleri: Genel Bir Bakış.” In İstanbul’un Festivalleri, edited by Serhan Ada, 1st ed., 27–52. İstanbul: İstanbul Bilgi üniversitesi Yayınları, 51.
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loci, the symbolic aura of the local population between space, identity and cultural events. Bir Yaz Gecesi Festivali is an annual event that brings back to life the practice of showing films in the open air on summer nights at the Factory.
In addition to this festival organisation, Beykoz Kundura also hosts long-term festivals (IKSV119 Music and Theater Festival), concerts, and national and foreign theatre and performance groups in Istanbul.
3.2. CONCLUSION FOR THE CHAPTER
This section focused on the research question of this thesis, “How does Beykoz Kundura affirm, preserve and advocate the meaning, memory and value of this urban industrial heritage and its role in the social and labour history of Beykoz?” To this end the motivations of Beykoz Kundura, which has turned into an arts and culture complex, were examined. Beykoz Kundura often uses the framework of the industrial heritage into which they are embedded in determining the contents, themes and materials of all these artistic and cultural activities. In cinema and theatre event themes they approach the industry from different perspectives, such as worker, labour, nostalgia and production. Nevertheless, former factory employees are absent in all of these events. Many factors are at play for their absence such as age, interest, and in some cases ticket prices. Furthermore, it is worth noting that the audience that Beykoz Kundura targets for itself is a much younger age group than retired factory workers, and it is the young working group who will spend their free time in paid or unpaid cultural activities. For this reason, Beykoz Kundura does not make promotions that will draw the locals’ attention during these activities. Instead, the institution prefers to attract viewers from different parts of the city through social media channels. The use of social media primarily for making announcements inevitably excludes many potential audiences from the neighbourhood who use the traditional media.
119 İstanbul Kültür ve Sanat Vakfı
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In the process of Beykoz Kundura’s construction of history and identity, we can say that the idea of Fabrika’s defining the neighbourhood/neighbourhood’s identity has perhaps gone a little too far because this form of communication shows that the neighbourhood and the institution have been cut off in a short time.
Another point that should be mentioned is that in the narrative of the 2021 exhibition, which emerged as a result of oral history interviews and archival studies, we see that there is a predominantly male representation in the documentation of memories. For this reason, in the meeting with the Executive Associate, it is aimed to give more place to retired female workers in the oral history studies that are planned to continue in the near future. When this issue was mentioned in the interviews, the following response was received:
The participations of women are not much. The number of female workers interviewed is also very few in our opinion. If anyone was with them, they would come to oral history interviews and they would not open up much.120 (I-2)
Although the General Director of Beykoz Kundura, Managing Director of Arts and Culture and the coordinators of Kundura Memory are women, they have not yet been able to highlight the image of the working woman in the factory in Beykoz Kundura discourses. However, it is possible to say that they are willing to do so as the interviews indicate.
In the Kundura Memory oral history studies, the rhetoric often use the pronoun "we." "Our retirees who worked at Sümerbank Leather and Shoe Factory"121 use inclusive discourses such as "we reminisced about the past days."122 Especially in social media, the "we" discourse is dominant. These examples point at the existence
120 Ezer, Meltem, and Kundura Memory Executive Associate I-2. Oral History on Beykoz Kundura. Personal, April 26, 2022.
121“Sümerbank Deri ve Kundura Fabrikası’nda çalışmış emeklilerimiz” from the Instagram account of Kundura Hafıza
“Instagram’da Kundura Hafıza: ‘Hafıza’dan Bir Yakın Geçmiş Arşivi? #tb Geçtiğimiz Hafta Eski Sümerbank Deri ve Kundura Fabrikası’nda Çalışmış Olan Emeklilerimizle….’” n.d. Accessed June 23, 2022. https://www.instagram.com/p/Cds_wy3IrXL/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y%3D.
122 “Geçmiş günleri beraber yad ettik”ibid.
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of a site of memory that Beykoz Kundura continue to transmit in this area, especially the oral history archive they have is an indication that the institution wants to keep this site of memory alive.On the other hand, it can be said that the company tries to legitimise and base their new corporate presence in this neighbourhood and the factory campus via the image of a safeguard of the past of this place by registering and preserving (perhaps having to protect) as can be seen in claims such as “pursuing local wisdom”123 and “protecting the lost.”124
123 yerel bilgeliğin peşinde
124 yitirilenleri koruyan
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CHAPTER 4
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BEYKOZ KUNDURA AND THE LOCAL
Cities in Turkey have been undergoing a change and transformation, especially since 1980, with the effect of the neo-liberal approach on the government. At the forefront of this is the incorporation of local and central governments and the privatisation of public enterprises. Furthermore, due to the displacement of the production areas and the increase in the real estate value of urban space, investments have changed direction. This is particularly evident with the introduction of privatisation and reuse proposals for areas within the city that no longer carry out industrial production.
In this chapter, the relationship of Beykoz Kundura with the locals will be discussed based on different memories identified during the research and fieldwork.
How does Beykoz Kundura, as a new cultural institution located on the site of the old Sumerbank factory, affirm, preserve and advocate the meaning, memory and value of this urban industrial heritage and its role in the preservation and dissemination of social and labour history of Beykoz? How does it integrate and interpret the memory of those who have worked in the Factory and continue to live in Beykoz?
The previous chapters aimed to provide answers to questions and an effort was made to draw a theoretical framework for the questions above. Based on the difference in history and memory, the historical narratives of Beykoz Kundura and Sümerbank institutions were given. This section will discuss different Sümerbank Factory narratives in different memories. In doing so, it will make use of the concept
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of sites of memory by Nora which underlines the narrative difference between history and memory. In this case, the site of memory, which can refer to an institution, a physical structure or a person, was created by the workers who lived and worked here in the place of Beykoz Kundura. Their personal experiences, memories of factory life, and narratives on being a member of Sümerbank also supported the starting point of this theory. Their individual and collective memories supply the main material for a reconstruction of the images of the past.
Genius loci was another concept used in the study, and aspects related to it such as “image,” “space,” and “character” were explained briefly. Beykoz Kundura has been shown to be benefitting from the spirit of the place here in the construction of the narrative of its newly formed identity. As explained in the previous section, the buildings they took under protection due to some bureaucratic necessities created the opportunity to preserve the “image” of the old campus which has a significant role in defining and preserving the genius loci. At the same time, Beykoz Kundura tried to preserve the “character” of the place by making it a part of a different production. These cultural heritage structures, which can be seen as the main actors of history and memory narratives, were preserved without being destroyed, ensuring that the spirit of the place (and space itself) was transferred to the present day.
4.1. URBAN DEINDUSTRIALISATION, NEO-LIBERAL POLICIES, GENTRIFICATION AND TRANSFORMATION OF HISTORICAL SPACES IN ISTANBUL AFTER 1980
This section will make an Istanbul-focused evaluation of the neo-liberal policies that have emerged since the 1980s. This context will help us locate Beykoz Kundura within the ongoing urban development relations in Istanbul.
For capitalist countries, Lefebvre states that they use neo-liberalism and neo-dirigisme strategies to change the public administration approach, which includes
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the new state structuring, to increase real estate investments and privatisations on an urban scale.125
Zeynep Ergen and Neşe Gürallar examine the two aspects of these strategies with the example of Kayseri: the structural change of city administrations and the reflection of ideology on urban space. The case of Kayseri is considered a significant one in that it includes the privatisation of the areas actively used by the public. Similarly, Beykoz Kundura was a public property and its was perceived as a public building, although it was not entirely open to the public as it was a production area. The reflection of ideology on urban space has been discussed in the previous parts of this study on the Beykoz scale. Significant ideological changes in local governments are also noticeable in this district.
İclal Dinçer evaluates these ideological changes based on the touristic-oriented renewal of historical areas in the city space. While focusing on the entrepreneurial municipalities and the operation of these municipalities like private companies, she analyses these changes in ten-year periods, from the 1970s to the 2000s.126
Neo-liberal policies advocated for the expansion of privatisation to support the state-owned companies. This resulted in the privatisation of public factories and their closure depending on their location. One of these requirements of the the privatisation process of Sümerbank was the closure of the leather shoe factory. As mentioned in the previous sections, besides making a loss for the bank, the factory was polluting the protected Bosphorus shores. Therefore, the company that bought this place did not have the opportunity to continue the industrial production. In all these aspects, the transformation of the factory area presents a micro-scale example
125 Ergen, Zeynep. 2021. “Neo-Liberal Policies in Kayseri After 2000: Transformation of Public Lands into Large Scale Urban Projects.” MEGARON / Yıldız Technical University, Faculty of Architecture E-Journal 16 (3): 543–58. https://doi.org/10.14744/megaron.2021.02525, 544.
126 Dinçer, İclal. 2011. “The Impact of Neoliberal Policies on Historic Urban Space: Areas of Urban Renewal in Istanbul.” International Planning Studies 16 (1): 43–60. https://doi.org/10.1080/13563475.2011.552474.
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of the diffusion of the new economic model. This is even more striking when we think that while, as a public subsidiary, the factory was a production area where its employees could work, regardless of their level, for decades until retirement, after the privatisation in 2004, it now hosts an institution that provides project-based job opportunities.
The labour unions established here in the 1960s attempted to have housing units built so that the workers could come seasonally and then return to their hometowns and work for a long time. It is possible to find traces of the inevitable transformation in Beykoz Kundura in the book The Corrosion of Character,127 written by Richard Sennett based on his narrative in The New Capitalism128. As explained in the section titled “Sümerbank as a State Enterprise”, in addition to its commercial and economic subsidiaries, Sümerbank is likely to make individuals feel more privileged than any other business due to its essential role in the education of its employees, and as a government institution with job security.
As they say, the best years of our lives were spent here… Our life was spent here.129
The change in the working culture that Sennett summarises in The Corrosion of the Character, from a father to his son, can be observed between Sümerbank Shoe Factory and Beykoz Kundura with a similar generational difference. Moreover, in the oral history studies conducted for this work and those conducted by Kundura Memory, people who witnessed the times when the factory was still operating often remember this place with its social benefits. Therefore, it is not surprising that they made similar demands from Beykoz Kundura based on the memories created by this sense of belonging and security in the past.
127 Sennett, Richard. 1998. The Corrosion of Character : The Personal Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism. 1st ed. New York: Norton.
128 Sennett, Richard. 2006. The Culture of The New Capitalism. Yale University Press.
129 “Hani derler ya ömrümüzün baharı burada geçti… Bizim ömrümüz burada geçti.” Kundura’nın Hafızası sergisinden (2021)
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4.1.1. Heritagisation, Industrial Heritage and Adaptive Re-use
In the 20th century, with the increase in the population of the cities and the shift of job opportunities from production to the service sector, isolated production areas in the cities started to move around the city in some cases and abroad in others. This process is described as the deindustrialisation of cities. In this regard, as economists Colin Clark and Jean Fourastie predicted in the 1930s, industrial societies have transformed into post-industrial societies, and started a process where people work on people rather than human-material interaction. Furthermore, these post-industrial societies began to transform in the knowledge-based economy as information societies. In this process, production has shifted towards less wealthy and politically weaker countries.130
4.1.2. Gentrification through Deindustrialisation
With its classical definition, gentrification is a residential rehabilitation process in which the middle classes settle and renovate historical residences in and around the city, where the working classes and other lower-income groups lived until that time131
In the article “New Representations of Wealth in Space: Gated Communities in Istanbul”132 Jean-François Perouse and A. Didem Danış give examples of the gated communities as one of the reflections of the rapid spatial segregation experienced in Istanbul since the 1990s. Göktürk-Kemerburgaz, Bahçeşehir-Büyükçekmece and Beykoz are among the areas of social and spatial transformations. According to the study, gated communities have spread to the city by taking advantage of the
130 Harrison, Rodney. 2013. Heritage: Critical Approaches. New York: Routledge, 79-80.
131 İslam, Tolga. 2006. “Merkezin Dışında: İstanbul’da Soylulaşma.” In İstanbul’da Soylulaşma: Eski Kentin Yeni Sahipleri, edited by Tolga İslam and David Behar, 1st ed., 43–58. İstanbul: İstanbul Bilgi üniversitesi Yayınları, 44. 132 Perouse, Jean-François, and A. Didem Danış. 2005. “Zenginliğin Mekânda Yeni Yansımaları: İstanbul’da Güvenlikli Siteler.” Toplum ve Bilim 104: 92–123.
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administrative and legal gaps in local governments. Cultural, social and physical differences are cited as reasons for the gradual increase in these housing stocks.
Another factor Perouse points out that feeds this spread of gated communities is the demonization of the city centre. There has been a strong anti-urban rhetoric that represented it as a dangerous, uninhabitable, and irredeemable place. The same discourse is observed in the advertisement brochures of the sites, mentioning the noise in the city centre, traffic, threats to the safety of property and life such as the risk of earthquakes. In some of these brochures the dangers of the city centre are presented by a cartoon, and new 'islets of happiness, peace and order' on the periphery are suggested as the opposite alternative. Some state institutions, like some companies affiliated with the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM), have also adopted this rhetoric renouncing one of the most fundamental duties of local governments and promoting the developing real estate products on the periphery. IMM and other local authorities, who need to revalue and revitalize these areas by investing in the mostly run-down housing stock in the centre, participate in this process of urban sprawl, escape and fragmentation. It is enough to look at the advertisements of KİPTAŞ133 and even TOKİ134 to see how this anti-urban discourse has been enthusiastically adopted by some public actors who should, in fact, be supportive of urban integration. The luxury residences built by KİPTAŞ in Sarıyer seem to have nothing short of gated communities built by private companies around them.
Considering the rapid transformation projects, the ongoing urban transformation in Istanbul has begun in the Tokatköy neigbourhood in Beykoz district, which has 133 KİPTAŞ was established in 1987 with the name of İMAR WEIDLEPLAN to make zoning plans and architectural projects with foreign capital partnership. KİPTAŞ, which is a subsidiary of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, completed its establishment on March 8, 1995 and became Istanbul Konut İmar Plan Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş. and was restructured by taking the title.
“Hakkımızda.” n.d. Accessed June 1, 2022. https://www.kiptas.istanbul/hakkmzda. 134 With the instructions of the 8th President Turgut Özal and the Mass Housing Law No. 2985, which came into force in 1984, it was established under the name of the Toplu Konut ve Kamu Ortaklığı İdaresi Başkanlığı, which has an autonomous Mass Housing Fund, apart from the General Administration.
“TOKİ.” n.d. Accessed June 4, 2022. http://www.toki.gov.tr/kurulus-ve-tarihce.
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provided food to the central neighbourhoods in Beykoz for decades. According to the web news of Beykoz Municipality,135 the "first" urban transformation project in the Beykoz district is being launched in this area. It can be predicted that this "transformation” is very likely to spread to different districts within a short time and to demolish the sites of memory we seek in the memories of the local people.
4.2. THE USE OF ART AND ITS PLACE IN THE PRIVATISATION PROCESS
Arts and culture have an ambiguous relationship with urban development and gentrification in Istanbul. While "the project of globalising Istanbul has been on the agenda since the 1980s the implementation of this process “accelerated exponentially after the Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi [Justice and Development Party] started to lead both the national government and the municipality of Istanbul after 2002."136 Ayşe Erek and Ayşe Köksal, discuss the displacement of art in Istanbul in accordance with this transformation. They argue that contemporary art advances by being inspired by and simultaneously directing the city. This situation has positive aspects, such as the recognition of the Istanbul Biennial among international art events and the opening of the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art. On the other hand, the destruction of the old city under the cover of transforming the city for tourism and art should not be overlooked (as in the examples of the pedestrianisation of Istiklal Street, the construction of the road to manage the traffic flow here,
135“T.C. Beykoz Belediyesi Resmi Web Sitesi.” n.d. Accessed April 19, 2022. https://beykoz.bel.tr/icerik/detay/-tokatkoy-kentsel-donusum-projesi-basladi/1/n555.
136 “The neoliberal reconfiguration in Turkey is usually conceptualized in three different stages: the liberalization phase in the 1980s; the implementation of neoliberal reforms in the post-1990 period; and, after the year 2000, configuring a new, market-friendly, coordinated state and abandoning the institutions of the old state”. Erek, Ayşe N., and Ayşe H. Köksal. 2014. “Relocating the Arts in the New Istanbul: Urban Imaginary as a Contested Zone.” Visual Resources 30 (4), 313. https://doi.org/10.1080/01973762.2014.964653.313.
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destroying many historical buildings in Tarlabaşı, and the loss of the multicultural Pera identity).
More than merely fabricating and promoting the city's global image, they also provide access to a certain set of global relationships and networks. Nevertheless, while these institutions are often criticised as implicated in the rebranding process, they are also important as sites where the city can be deconstructed and reconstructed and alternative images enacted.137
In the context of the privatised use of art, Ceren Mert-Travlos' article focusing on Bomontiada also presents an example close to the case of Beykoz Kundura. In both examples the transformation and artistic production of space can be evaluated in the context of cultural and creative industries.
The previously easily accessible creative clusters have been replaced by more securitised hubs such as Bomontiada or Zorlu PSM. At the same time these new venues bring mainstream and non-mainstream indie musicians/performers/artists into Istanbul. … This transformation, while its enhanced accessibility and exposure for artists, degraded accessibility for large swatches of the public, especially socio-economic groups that were not affluent.138
Another similarity of Bomontiada to Beykoz Kundura is that they are both cultural hubs with secure entrances. Especially in Beykoz Kundura, to have your name on an event list or to have an event ticket is required for entrance. In the interviews conducted by Mert-Travlos, it is said that this is not true for Bomontiada, and that its doors are open to anyone who comes to spend time inside. Even the use of a
137 Erek, Ayşe N., and Köksal, Ayşe H. 2014. “Relocating the Arts in the New Istanbul: Urban Imaginary as a Contested Zone.” Visual Resources 30 (4), 313. https://doi.org/10.1080/01973762.2014.964653.313.
138 Mert-Travlos, Ceren. 2021. “The Duality of Creative Hubs in Non-Western Contexts: The Case of Bomontiada.” Cultural Trends 30 (2), 114. https://doi.org/10.1080/09548963.2021.1877994.
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rhetoric of inside and outside dichotomy stands as a symptom of the fact that these transformed culture-art spaces are gentrified and purified spaces.
The case of Bomontiada shows that urban policies directing neighbourhood regeneration will be enacted differently in various locales due to the heterogeneous publics involved. Likewise, even those urban policy programmes which try to involve local communities, because of a linear way of planning, eventually will get captured by partner corporations during the implementation phase.139
Concerts and artists-in-residence programs organised by Beykoz Kundura are very similar to the events held in Bomontiada. However, although the Bomontiada example is more qualified in its harmony with its local environment due to its proximity to the city centre and public transportation, the increasing number of housing units around it, newly opened university campuses and student dormitories, the target groups determined by the two institutions for their activities are different in terms of the socio-economic and socio-cultural features.
Creativity has become one way to enhance the exchange value of cities and neighbourhoods and tangible and intangible commodities for consumption.140
139 Mert-Travlos, Ceren. 2021. “The Duality of Creative Hubs in Non-Western Contexts: The Case of Bomontiada.” Cultural Trends 30 (2), 100. https://doi.org/10.1080/09548963.2021.1877994.
140 İbid, 116.
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4.3. BEYKOZ KUNDURA AND THE LOCAL COMMUNITY
Beykoz Shoe Factory continues to produce value in the abstract sense, 'as a story factory', even if the tools and materials they produce or use change.141
The above quote from one of the promotional news of the "Kundura's Memory: The World Fitting in a Factory" exhibition emphasizes the producer/production character of the factory. What is meant by the production of value in an abstract sense is the archive made primarily from oral history studies, the social and cultural activities (exhibition, workshop, festival, film screenings, performances...) shaped by this archive, and the productions in the film-TV series sector.
This section mainly consists of evaluations on the field study findings and research process. During the fieldwork, short conversations were made in the encounters with the locals, but extended interviews were not possible to carry on. The first meeting was held with the headman of the Yalıköy neighbourhood at two intervals, and thanks to him, all the interviewees were reached except for the two people in Beykoz Kundura.
In the interviews with the locals in Yalıköy, the district where Beykoz Kundura is located, it was observed that the "site of memory" formed by this area has gradually changed, and the transformation of the memory mentioned in the chapter two, Social Change in The District: From The Founding Of The Turkish Republic To The Present section is also reflected here. Nevertheless, this industrial heritage area,
141 Turkish: Beykoz Kundura fabrikası, ürettikleri ya da kullandığı araçlar ve malzemeler değişse de ‘bir hikaye fabrikası olarak’ soyut anlamda değer üretmeye devam ediyor.
“ ‘Kundura’nın Hafızası: Bir Fabrikaya Sığan Dünya’ Sergisi Açıldı - ‘Beykoz Kundura Fabrikası, Üretmeye Devam Ediyor’ - Medyascope.” n.d. Accessed April 15, 2022. https://medyascope.tv/2021/06/19/kunduranin-hafizasi-bir-fabrikaya-sigan-dunya-sergisi-acildi-beykoz-kundura-fabrikasi-uretmeye-devam-ediyor/.
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which has lost its blue-collar employees after its leather and shoe production ended, perseveres with what is left in the memories of the locals. Beykoz Kundura uses these phrases when describing the institution: This industrial space which had been active from the Ottoman era to the Republic, is a cultural heritage with undisputed value due to its contribution to the Turkish economy. Acting as a melting pot where creative ideas are formed while being inspired by the nostalgia of the former factory space set up in a land of 183 acres, Beykoz Kundura maintains its majestic existence on the Bosporus by expanding its historic and cultural values with new ones thanks to its team that is driven with the idea to preserve this heritage.142 Being aware of the cultural heritage value of the area Beykoz Kundura designs its activities accordingly. The institution has seen itself as an intangible and tangible cultural heritage since its establishment, and while doing this, it benefits from the genius loci implicitly. The Managing Artistic Director defined their goals and motivations to conserve the heritage in our interview as follows:
From the beginning, we aim to preserve this memory and pass it on to young people. Motivation in conservation is our mission, and if you are involved in such a project, you should realise that it has value. It would be best if you strived to convey it correctly and protect it. We knew that the field had to transform somehow when we started memory. We adopted a system where the transformation is not from the top down but from the bottom up. We had to learn the history and background of the Sümerbank factory and reuse it accordingly. We had limited Sümerbank data in library research. We could not create a discourse
142 “Beykoz Kundura- About Us.” n.d. Accessed May 11, 2022. https://www.beykozkundura.com/about-us.
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specific to the Factory and could not reach people's social life (what they did, what they ate, what they drank) through this data. Maybe we had to determine the cultural heritage conservation strategies that local governments should do. The building complex we are in is sold for tourism purposes, but you have to define how to fill tourism. This is not just about building multi-star hotels; cultural tourism is also a part of it. 143
The current target audience of Beykoz Kundura includes young professionals, those with economic independence, and a social segment that allocates a budget for a weekend event. In addition, while the content creates its audience in the field of arts and culture, Kundura Memory acts with a bit more nostalgia. They state that the audience has become even younger during the COVID-19 Pandemic, while the average age was higher before. Before the Pandemic, the attendees were mainly composed of the 60+ age group partially due to the screening of old/classic films at Kundura Cinema. (It is stated that these people are primarily former employees of the Factory residing in the region and visiting this area is their habit.) As the screenings shifted to the digital space and diversity in genres multiplied, the number of young people in the audience increased.
Newly opened universities in the district (Turkish-German University, Bezm-i Alem Vakıf University, Medipol University, Beykoz University, Marmara University Faculty of Sport Sciences) attract university staff and students to live in Beykoz. Beykoz Kundura sees itself as a on option that can meet their social and cultural activity demands. Therefore, the relationship of these campuses with Beykoz Kundura is likely to gain importance in the coming years with the changing demographics.
During the fieldwork (November 2021-April 2022), it was observed that despite the pandemic measures many activities such as movie screenings and theatre plays
143 From the interview dated April 26, 2022
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were held in Beykoz Kundura. During this time the Kundura's Memory exhibition was also open to visitors free of charge. However, there was no promotion that would attract the locals to Beykoz Kundura in Yalıköy and its nearby districts.
In addition to oral history interviews, I realised that instant encounters with the neighbourhood are valuable in obtaining information. For example, I met two old ladies from Yalıköy who visited Elmalıköy144 to harvest some vegetables. We met just at the entrance door of Beykoz Kundura, and I asked them if they were aware of the activities inside. They stated that they knew that movies and TV series were shot here often and that they saw this on television because they were familiar to the architectural structures. Retired factory workers say that they get excited and feel relief when they see the old buildings of the Factory in TV series. Whether they visited the Factory or not, the television seems to be an essential medium in connecting with the place.145 As mentioned in the "1.3. Beykoz Kundura as a Site of Memory and Its Genius Loci" section of this work, the genius loci consisted of more than one aspect: image, space and character. In the light of this information, it can be said that “relief” in question also interprets these aspects from what they see, even though they do not experience them in the actual space. The spirit of the place refers to an "intact physical structure" for some retired factory workers.
Beykoz Kundura seems unable to create an interactive bridge between the neighbourhood and itself in line with its current functions mentioned in the previous section. For example, “the Memory of Kundura: The Life Fits in a Factory”146 exhibition, which was opened in 2021, was shown in the surrounding schools, but this relationship could not be maintained continuously with workshops, shows and different concepts tours.
144 It is a small district located on the hills of Yalıköy, mostly engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry. 145 From the interview with the Executive Associate of Kundura Memory.
146 Kundura’nın Hafızası: Bir Fabrikaya Sığan Dünya
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According to the Managing Artistic Director, when Beykoz Kundura started its events in this peripheral area, its first aim was to involve the population of Beykoz in the activities. At its establishment, young people with blogs and newspapers in Beykoz were invited to show the new Beykoz Kundura. However, they did not receive much feedback, and could not keep in touch with the participants. The communication-related undertakings of Beykoz Kundura are obviously much weaker than the condition of the Factory (and all the former factories in the region) in the past which, as explained before, ranged from large-scale events covering the entire neighbourhood to those held within the organization with a specific audience.
Changing the practice of transportation is also said to be decisive in attracting the audience. Beykoz Kundura has shuttles from Kadıköy and Taksim to Beykoz, trying to attract the audience who are already interested in the events in these districts. Transportation is a significant problem for locals who have to be on the road to work in different regions of the city and participate in events. One of the interviewees, muhtar, said, “There is as much traffic here as there is in the centre of Istanbul; since we do not have a metro connection, it takes a long time to go to the surrounding districts.”
During the interviews while talking about personal lives, the subject frequently shifted to the economy, perhaps due to the spirit of the time. The locals hope that the new Beykoz Kundura structure should provide employment to its surroundings and, as before, cover the neighbourhood and neighbouring districts with activities that will appeal to the whole environment. During the research, a group meeting took place randomly in a tea shop on the coast of Yalıköy when I came across former Paşabahçe employees. Four out of six people in this group immigrated to Beykoz in the 1970s through their acquaintances working in the glass factory. In addition to reflecting their general views on the district, these former employees also talked about the strikes at Şişe-Cam and Kundura Factory and their relations with the employees of the factories in the Golden Horn during the strikes through
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unions (especially Silahtarağa Power Plant). A former Paşabahçe worker/retiree said in the interviews:
My prediction after the factories closed was that there would be more job opportunities in the new institution. For example, our friends working there (Sümerbank Factory) would tell us about the 12 leather wells there; the leather would absorb water for a year, then shoes were made, and those shoes would never absorb water while using. The Şişe-Cam factory had a fire that should never go out, and they put it out. (I-6)
While discussing issues such as job security and social rights, the worker organisations that existed in the county and the country in the past were mentioned. The period referred to as "the past" during the interviews, corresponds to the years between 1970 and 1990 when the retirees interviewed worked. Here, the two interesting statements from this meeting is worth mentioning: "Little Moscow" and "Turkey's Germany."
Knotter's article titled "Little Moscows" in Western Europe: The Ecology of Small-Place Communism147, in a report of Time Magazine on the dissolution of the communist-run city council in the 1950s, describes Finsterwolde, a village of 3250 inhabitants in the northeast of the Netherlands. The magazine defined it as "Little Moscow." Again in 1951, Life Magazine referred to Saint-Junien, a small industrial city of 10,645 inhabitants of Limousin, near Limoges, in France, as "Little Moscow." In Great Britain, the nickname "Little Moscow" was used in an insulting manner, often for the less populated areas ruled by Communist Parties. "Turkey's Germany" has often been mentioned in the literature for Zonguldak iron companies in the 1990s regarding the employees' working style and the accumulation of their earnings. While these two terms can be found in some interviews held by
147 Knotter, Ad. 2011. “" Little Moscows " in Western Europe : The Ecology of Small-Place Communism.” International Review of Social History 56 (3): 475–510. http://www.jstor.com/stable/44583840.
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researchers such as Alnıaçık,148 it is noteworthy that they are not typical usage in oral history interviews I have done. However, I find the two terms appealing for my work because of the density of workers here, unionization, and their contribution to the site of memory. Little Moscow, Turkey’s Germany and "Being a member of Sümerbank is a privilege" created a resonance together as a part of the site of memory and met the symbolic value of this place.
On employment needs, an interviewee who operates a jewellery store in Yalıköy said:
There was a plan to build a Millet Bahçesi in Çayır for a while, and I found it ridiculous. Instead, at least build a shopping mall in a spot that is not within the beauties of the coast in Beykoz, but only employ people from Beykoz as a condition. People should work here instead of going to other districts in such a difficult situation. I would also like my child to learn a craft; as a Beykoz native, I would prefer the factory to continue working. (I-5)
As I mentioned above, one of the most prominent issues voiced was economic needs. Although Beykoz Kundura claims to "produce abstract values", the local community have concrete expectations for work, production and employment. Although it would not be very appropriate to compare the way a factory operates with the employment that Beykoz Kundura can provide, it still seems to be an issue that locals often question. For example, as the muhtar conveyed during our interview:
There were workers' houses built by the factory; they gave houses, bonuses, and clothes. I came from Trabzon through an acquaintance in 1984, and I have been here since then. I ran a grocery store for 17 years. While the factory was open and chain markets were not yet opened in the district, our business was very good.
148 Alnıaçık, Ayşe. 2008. “After Deindustrializatiıon, In The Midst of Urban Transformation: The Case of Paşabahçe.” Boğaziçi Üniversitesi.
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Factory means work; employment means the welfare of the people. It is challenging to live without income. When the factories were open, the foremen would turn people off the road and say, 'come and work here'. Now unemployment is one of our most important problems. (I-3)
Indeed, a rare phenomenon that I encounter in the oral history study of Kundura Memory and the texts on Şişe-Cam Factory is “turning off the road and hiring workers.” A similar anecdote was told in another interview:
My father was a revision foreman at the Shoe Factory. Since we lived in Beykoz, he would eat lunch at home and return to the factory. One day, he met a young boy in the park on the way back. Because he did not have a job, he grabbed his arm, brought him to the factory, and handed it over to the master next to him, saying, 'Take and teach.' We should not be dependent on foreign sources. (I-4)
In the development of Beykoz Kundura, the style of restoration from European cases such as Zollverein in Essen was taken as an example on the axis of the protection of industrial structures, not the form of transformation. As they stated during the interview, they realised that these areas had no interaction with their former employees, who were already very few in the environment. Therefore, they conveyed that they acted with an additional effort of establishing a structure that included the environment and former employees. This example of transformation was criticised as a colourless place, where there is no life after the end of the working hours, as a district with nothing to do with the old factory structure and has become gentrified with increasing rents. The transformation in Zollverein, Essen is considered one of the critical examples of the conservation of industrial heritage and has also been included in the UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001.149 From this point of view, it may not be suitable to expect the Beykoz Kundura structure,
149 “Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex in Essen - UNESCO World Heritage Centre.” n.d. Accessed February 10, 2022. http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/975.
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which is a private institution, to transform in a similar way to this area. Nevertheless, it is not difficult to foresee that the rapidly developing housing, the increasing population in Istanbul, the increasing construction of luxury residences in the forested hills of Beykoz, and the urban transformation policies mentioned will make this place gentrified as well, in a short time.
This is perhaps one of the most concrete points in the relationship between the factories and the neighbourhood in the past. Currently the site and the building is still there, but this relationship cannot continue. This is one of the ties that broke between the neighbourhood and Beykoz Kundura.
The residents are uncomfortable that the current factory area is closed and no entries are allowed, but this was never a public area that could be visited freely. Although it was a public space (public owned but not open to the public), it was dirty, smelly and dangerous as a production area because of the tannery. The people of the neighbourhood interviewed have a very direct relationship with the state, and the "if it belongs to public, it is our place" phrase prevails. While the public used affordable products produced in Sümerbank, the Factory was privatised suddenly and operated under a different economic model that inevitably feels alien to the public.
The institution and the neighbourhood can be said to have conflict interest due to the different perceptions as mentioned above. The vision and mission of the factory, whose production continues on a cultural basis does not necessarily overlap with the reality of the neighbourhood. Although there is an institutional discourse claiming to be inclusive of the local community, it has been observed that the expectations of the surrounding community that are largely about employment have not been/cannot be met. And while Beykoz Kundura is constructing an identity for itself out of the historical material and memories of past prosperity of the area, the residents of the neighbourhood are longing for the site of memory they have constructed here for generations.
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When we look at the site of memory formed in today's Beykoz Kundura, it can be said that as briefly described by Pierre Nora, the institution has brought its material, functional and symbolic values from the past to the present. An archive was created preserving the old production tools, factory buildings, company documents, and Sümerbank products. These protected tangible assets were re-functionalised by following the traces of the past. In this way, the material value of the site of memory was carried to the present day. Retired workers and their families worked in the Leather and Shoe Factory, Workers' houses and unions established in the district represent its functional value. The sentence "Being a member of Sümerbank is a privilege", which will carry the site of memory created by this factory campus, from the past to the present, meets the symbolic value of this place. This sentence can also be considered as a summary of all the traces (social, economic, political) that the old Factory left on its employees, their families and the neighbourhood.
While the concept of sites of memory was helpful for the examination of the Factory, when I interacted with the oral history interviews, I realised that genius loci was a phenomenon that almost every interviewee talked about, implicitly. These interviewees include former factory workers, current Beykoz Kundura employees and managers, and neighbourhood residents. When asked what Beykoz Kundura meant to these people and about their bond with Factory, I realised that there was something they could not define concretely. First of all, the area was nostalgic for everyone in different ways. Some of the interviewees saw this place as part of their family because they had started a family at the Factory. For some, the social activities held here left beautiful traces in their youth. Another is the phenomenon that the people in the Factory call yatır150 and the people in Beykoz Kundura call Kundura’nın Ruhu, which express similar ideas for similar purposes.
150 The tomb or the place where such a tomb is found, in which a saint is believed to have supernatural power and to help people if he wishes. Former factory workers attribute the extraordinary events experienced here to the martyrdom on the backs of the Campus.
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Although this is not equal to a sense of genius loci, it imagines a protective spirit whose presence can be felt by most people who work or spend time on this campus.
At a theoretical level, this thesis explores the ways in which the old Sümerbank Factory as a heritage site can be identified as a site of memory by 1) the local community who has worked there, 2) by the municipality that acknowledges its heritage and symbolic value for the community and 3) by Beykoz Kundura which agrees to preserve the site by recognising its value as an industrial heritage. Although the memories that each of these actors adopt are close to each other, it is clear that they are selective in their own constructions.
Based on the narratives, the three approaches to the site of memory can be summarised as follows: When we take a look at the expectations of people who used to work in the factory/retirees they long for and commemorate the social life of the period when they worked, with an emphasis on financial benefits. We can identify the site of memory of this place in the memory of these people as mainly based on "Sümerbank Shoe Factory." Their mentioned expectations from the new institution after the factory's closure reflect a desire for the revival of this past expressed in demands such as the interaction of the neighbourhood and the institution or individual interaction with the activities of Beykoz Kundura.
On the other hand, Beykoz Kundura creates its own memory with a mission that were explained in detail in the previous chapter. While creating this new identity, they use the memories of previous white- and blue-collar workers, and the identity of the factory. By using the character and architectural structures of the factory campus, they believe that they conserve a cultural heritage and drawing the framework of their current cultural production via the genius loci.
In the two approaches above, the Yalıköy neighbourhood and the memories of the Sümerbank Factory are specifically mentioned. Beykoz Municipality's perspective is slightly different; the municipality considers the closed factories in this district primarily as industrial structures that were found within the district's boundaries.
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The municipality's approach is perhaps the most straightforward presentation of the distinction between history and memory. Although symposiums, events and oral history studies are organised, some parts of their content such as unions, strikes, the existence of left-wing parties are left out. At this point, it should be emphasised that as an official institution, the municipality should take an inclusive attitude towards everyone. However, while emphasizing the district's beauty, neighbourliness and other values, the changes in question here are ignored. For example, when the history of Beykoz is mentioned in the oral history studies of 2021 prepared by the municipality, it is told that any part of the district is no different from a typical Anatolian town which is a statement erasing the long and peculiar history of labour movements, migration waves, infrastructure, and demographic changes witness by these people. In the oral history interviews referred to in the Beykoz Municipality section, it can be seen that the breaking points work differently for everyone. The rising neo-liberalisation after 1980, and the Bosphorus Law, which came into force in 1983, initiated a process to eliminate the (public) industrial structures in Beykoz. Finally, we encounter a period when only touristic facility construction and green space conservation are supported by administrators, which meant the end of industrial activity in Beykoz and the privatisation of public affiliates and their transferral to private companies. However, the same period also witnessed solving of the infrastructure problems of the irregular slums in Beykoz and people’s accesss to the electricity, water and better sanitary conditions.
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CONCLUSION
While this study was in progress, I knew that I would not be able to reach definite and concrete results neither in the site of memory nor in the genius loci. On one level, both concepts are based on factual data and then create their narrative with them. Moreover, it is necessary to support them both with the ideas of the locals in this case. For this reason, in the second and third chapters, the interviewees' voices were frequently resorted to. Thus, instead of just conveying a historical narrative, the work also aimed to convey the memory.
The following research questions guided this research:
How does Beykoz Kundura, as a new cultural institution located on the site of the old Sumerbank factory, affirm, preserve and advocate the meaning, memory and value of this urban industrial heritage and its role in the preservation and dissemination of social and labour history of Beykoz? How does it integrate and interpret the memory of those who have worked in the Factory and continue to live in Beykoz?
Beykoz Kundura safeguards this public space, and has transformed it into a private property with the identity it has constructed in the past twenty years. In order to do this, they researched the institution's past and physical parts. They collected, documented and recorded the workers' memories of the Sümerbank Leather and Shoe Factory. The institution defines itself as a protector based on the collection of these memories and archival of the documents. They state that although the archive will be available to those who request access, the data will not be open access (such as a website or an online platform). We see that this can preserve the history of Beykoz Kundura rather than preserving the social and labour history of Beykoz. For other factories described in the text, different archival studies need to be done in order to identify and preserve the sites of memory on those factory campuses.
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In the first chapter, based on Pierre Nora's theory of sites of memory and Norberg-Schulz's definition of genius loci, this thesis introduced a theoretical framework to examine the components of social history that made up the memory and spirit of Beykoz. Second chapter explained the social structure established over time through the factories in the district and the workers' struggle for their rights. Following the information about the historical and social aspects of the districts provided in the second chapter, the third chapter explained the process of the construction of the new Beykoz Kundura’s identity. Beykoz Kundura's relationship with the locals formed the main point with respect to the research question of this thesis. While the second chapter focused on the people of Beykoz and the employees of Sümerbank Leather and Shoe Factory, in the third chapter, the attention was on the narratives of the employees and the owners of Beykoz Kundura. The last chapter discussed the privatisation process of Beykoz Kundura and its development after Sümerbank, its current activities in arts and culture, and its documentation and representation of historical issues that it attaches importance to and continues to keep alive.
Regarding the oral history and the nature of the interviews, it can be said that while talking about the interviewees’ own lives, the subject constantly shifted to the topics of economy, perhaps due to the spirit of the time. The interviews also gave the impression that the Beykoz Kundura employees are more emotional with respect to the place than the locals - even those who have emotional ties to Sümerbank – who mainly expect an economic contribution. The locals hope that the new Beykoz Kundura structure provides employment to its surroundings and, as before, offers appealing activities to the neighbourhood and the neighbouring districts. As discussed in the section “Beykoz Kundura and the Local Community,” employment and social benefits were the anchor of the relationship between the factories and the neighbourhood in the past. Even though the site and the building are still there, due to the absence of employment the relationship cannot continue as it used to be in the past. This is one of the ties that were severed between the neighbourhood and
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Beykoz Kundura, and may not be possible to re-establish, by novel efforts of preservation of memories and establishing social connections.
Consequently, the construction of a site of memory can be considered as a communal act, yet these sites of memory are as temporary as the groups of people who create and maintain them. Nevertheless, people come together repeatedly at certain places, in front of specific memory spaces, to construct meanings out of the significant past events related to these places and try to relate them to their own bonds in social life. On this very topic, Winter makes the following comment in his article:
These associations are bound to dissolve, replaced by other forms, with other needs, and other histories. At that point, the characteristic trajectory of sites of memory, bounded by their creation, institutionalization, and decomposition, comes to an end.151
Therefore, to interpret it precisely for this case: I find it noticeable that a private company has benefited from memory space for its corporate identity. However, unless the memory space here remains public, there will be an unfilled gap between the owners of Beykoz Kundura and the expectations of the local people. As mentioned in the sites of memory section, this is a site of memory in a functional, symbolic and material sense. While its former employees help it perpetuate this status, the condition will inevitably change unless there is someone who remembers and commemorates the place in time.
In future studies, researchers who want to study the phenomenon of migration, in particular, can focus on the rapidly moving population and their problems. The condition, expressed in Sema Kancan’s words, as "Paşabahçe is the only place where workers and retirees can reside by the Bosphorus"152, is undergoing a rapid
151 Winter, Jay. 2009. “Historians and Sites of Memory.” In Memory in Mind and Culture, edited by Pascal Boyer and James Wertsch, 252–69. Cambridge University Press, 268.
152 Kancan, Sema. 2009. Unutulmuş Bir Boğaziçi Yerleşimi: Beykoz. İstanbul: Heyamola Yayınları, 57.
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transformation. The passion for creating luxury residential areas, which has increased rapidly after the 2000s, erases the memory areas in this region. The spirit of the place, which is formed by the workers and factories, is subject to a transformation together with new structures and new neighbours. The identity and sense of belonging created by each of these concepts (genius loci and site of memory) are fluid and open to change, as the literature suggests as the values (such as production, industry, neighbourliness etc.) attributed to these sites vary according to the period.
One of the research questions that I find essential for future studies concerns the reasons for the inactive (not being utilised) condition of the other industrial structures in the region. In these areas protected by the Bosphorus Law, can only be used for touristic purposes, the coastal structures such as Paşabahçe Şişe-Cam (whose current owner is İş Bankası), and Tekel Distilleries Factory have potential to create new values for Beykoz. This, on the other hand, leads us to the issues related to environmental risks such as asbestos that may arise in these structures, as in the case of Haliç Shipyard.153
153 “‘Türkiye’nin Çernobili’: Aslı Odman Ile Asbest, Halk Sağlığı ve İstanbul’da Kentsel Yenileme Üzerine - İşçi Sağlığı ve İş Güvenliği Meclisi.” n.d. Accessed May 3, 2022. http://isigmeclisi.org/20281-turkiye-nin-cernobili-asli-odman-ile-asbest-halk-sagligi-ve-istanbul.
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BOOKS and ARTICLES
Açıkgöz, Sümeyye. 2018. “Metropol Kentlerde Düzensiz Göçmenlerin Mekânsal Kümelenme Dinamikleri: Beykoz-Yenimahalle Afganistanlılar Örneği.” İstanbul Ticaret Üniversitesi.
Agamben, Giorgio. 2007. Profanations. New York: Zone Books.
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INTERVIEWS
Ezer, Meltem, and Kundura Memory Executive Associate I-2. Oral History on Beykoz Kundura. Personal, April 26, 2022.
Ezer, Meltem, and Managing Artistic Director of BK I-1. Oral History on Beykoz Kundura. Personal, April 26, 2022.
Ezer, Meltem, and Yalıköy Muhtarı I-3. Oral History on Beykoz Kundura. Personal, December 2, 2021.
Ezer, Meltem, Kuyumcu I-4. Oral History on Beykoz Kundura. Personal, December 2, 2021.
Ezer, Meltem, Kuyumcunun Oğlu I-5. Oral History on Beykoz Kundura. Personal, March 26, 2022.
Ezer, Meltem, Şişe-Cam Emeklisi I-6. Oral History on Beykoz Kundura. Personal, March 26, 2022.