The Tools of Metropolitan Unity in Turkey: A Holistic and Comparative Elaboration

Existing studies on Turkey usually fail to conceptualize the evolution of the regulations and efforts made for the administration and planning of the metropolitan regions in the country within a historical and comparative framework incorporating all forms of legal arrangements and tools pertaining to the very concept of establishment of metropolitan unity. Within this context, the aim of this study is to shed some light on the historical evolution of the problem of metropolitan unity in Turkey within a comparative and holistic perspective. For this purpose, in this paper, firstly early practices and attempts for the expansion of the administrative and planning boundaries of growing cities in the world will be reviewed together with the earlier considerations devoted to the delimitation of metropolitan regions. After elaborating the earlier attempts and considerations made for the establishment of the metropolitan municipalities and the delimitation of metropolitan regions with particular reference to the experience of the US whose metropolitan administration and planning model was dominant in Turkey in the 1980s, the tools employed for the establishment of metropolitan unity and the problems associated with the respective tools will be historically reviewed within a comparative perspective. Elaborating the tools employed for the establishment of metropolitan unity and the problems associated with the respective tools, all the efforts made and the tools employed in Turkey to secure metropolitan unity will be sketched by revealing the interconnections between the respective tools and efforts within a historical and evolutionary perspective. After examining the evolution and articulation of the tools employed for the establishment of regional unity required for the administration and planning of metropolitan regions and conurbations in Turkey, some concluding remarks will be drawn with reference to the overall framework constructed for the evolution of the tools used for the establishment of unity in metropolitan regions. What is particularly evident from this study is that pure legislative tools are not usually capable of securing metropolitan unity due to their lack of not only a communal point of view, but also a scientific point of view in the determination of the set of criteria that can be used in order to delimit metropolitan regions or secure regional integrity for a metropolitan area.