Housing will be built in the assembly area!

The Istanbul Regional Directorate of Foundations' decision to open the Caferağa Disaster Coordination Area, encompassing Moda Bostanı and its surrounding area, to tender for a housing project has sparked outrage . The 11,775-square-meter area, critical for earthquake preparedness, includes the Moda Bostanı, the Caferağa Neighborhood Headman's Office, the Moda Family Health Center, the 112 Emergency Aid Station, the Kadıköy Municipality Cleaning Services Unit, Şair Nefi Children's Park, which also serves as a Disaster Assembly Area, astroturf pitches, a 300-space parking lot, and disaster stations. Local residents and advocates declared, "We will not surrender our last green space to profiteering."

Hanife Dağıstanlı, the headman of Caferağa neighborhood, recalled that the Istanbul Foundations 2nd Regional Directorate published the first tender announcement for the parcel in question, which belongs to the Ali Oğlu Hüseyin Foundation, in November 2024, and that the announcement was removed the following day. Dağıstanlı noted that she requested information from the directorate regarding the matter in December 2024. "We received a letter dated June 30, 2025, stating that the evaluation of the property was ongoing at the Foundations Council," she said. "When we examine the tender documents today, we see that the Foundations Council had already made its decision by mid-June, received the Ministry's approval, and initiated the process."

CONTRARY TO PROCEDURE

Dağıstanlı emphasized that the last green space of Caferağa Neighborhood, which is within the 3rd degree urban and archaeological site, is intended to be transformed into a luxury housing complex with the tender announced on August 25, and continued as follows:

To our knowledge, no opinions were received from the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, the Kadıköy Municipality, or the Istanbul No. 5 Cultural Heritage Preservation Board prior to the tender. It is clear that there is no plan that would permit such a development, nor is there an approved preliminary project. In fact, when the tender documents are examined, it is clear that even the commercial interests of the Foundation, the owner of the property that wants to build in our last green space in exchange for flats, were not taken into consideration. In short, we believe that this tender is illegal. We are calling on the General Directorate of Foundations. We demand that the only open space where all disaster coordination will be carried out in Caferağa Neighborhood, where 84% of the building stock dates back to before 2000 and where structural transformation has not progressed for various reasons, be preserved in accordance with the public interest. The Kadıköy Municipality's investigation into the tender is ongoing. We, the residents of Caferağa Neighborhood, will defend our rights in this area, both physically and legally, to the end. We are following the process. We are protecting our last green space, our public services, our disaster gathering and coordination areas, in short, our blood and our lives. "We are not giving up. We do not accept what is imposed on us."

Üzeyir Uludağ from Kadıköy City Solidarity said:

This is the last remaining green space in Moda's Caferağa neighborhood, and it shouldn't be surrendered to profiteering. It needs to be protected. But from what we've seen, they're trying to exploit it for profiteering. They're calling for a housing tender, but we believe they won't just build four 50-unit residences on such a large site; they could operate it commercially. This profiteering approach completely encroaches on these areas. This situation also threatens the destruction of public spaces. As Kadıköy City Solidarity and the people of Kadıköy, we want this area to remain a public space and retain its current functions. We're fighting for this and are also working on legal challenges. The ruling party's institutions, instead of recognizing these spaces as public spaces, are treating them as areas for profiteering, and thus, they're clearly trying to encroach on these spaces.

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NO TENDER CAN BE MADE IN A PLACE WITHOUT DEVELOPMENT

Kadıköy Mayor Mesut Kösedağı reacted to the Istanbul Regional Directorate of Foundations' decision to open a 12-acre site in the Caferağa neighborhood of Moda, Kadıköy, to tender for a luxury housing project, saying, "This is an archaeological and urban protected area with no zoning plan. A tender cannot be held on a site without zoning. We demand that the General Directorate of Foundations immediately reverse this decision. Caferağa needs adequate space to breathe. As the Kadıköy Municipality, we leased this area from the General Directorate of Foundations, but we were not informed of the tender. We learned about the process while it was on hold."

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STOP THE LOOT AND PLUNDERING

CHP Deputy Chairman Gökan Zeybek, in a statement on social media, said, "Stop your greed for concrete. Think about the people for once. Reverse this mindset." Zeybek summarized his remarks as follows: "Give up the 'I did it, it's done' mentality! Stop plundering the people's breathing spaces and earthquake gathering areas. Hands off! This isn't just any land; it's an area with no zoning plan and protected and registered trees."