In recent decades, forced migration has become a globally salient issue for both developed and developing countries. As a developing country, Turkey is a significant destination for forced migration, with more than 3.6 million Syrian immigrants. This study concentrates on the socio-spatial impacts of forced migration in Turkish cities where Syrian immigrants have been concentrated and aims to answer the question: “Does forced migration produce an urban crisis in such cities?” The study leads to a prescription about new qualities of urban planning for coping with the urban crisis through a resilience strategy.

Turkey, officially the Republic of Turkey, is a transcontinental country located in Europe and Asia. It is surrounded by eight countries and three seas. It has borders with Greece and Bulgaria to the northwest; Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Iran to the east; Iraq to the southeast; and Syria to the south. There is the Black Sea in the north; the Aegean Sea to the west; and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Its size is 783,562 km 2 . With this size, it is the 36 th biggest country in the world. Its population is 84.7 million people 1 which makes Turkey the 18 th most populated country in the year 2021 (World Population Review, 2022). Ankara is the capital city with a provincial population of approximately 5.7 million people. However, the economic centre of the country is İstanbul with a population of approximately 15.8 million people (TURKSTAT, 2022a).1 Turkey hosts approximately 5.5 million immigrants, the largest group of which is the Syrians under temporary protection with a population of 3,561,833 people (08.12.2022) (PoMM, 2022).

In the year 1999, a high-intensity earthquake hit Turkey and caused massive damage and destruction. After this earthquake, the stakeholders of urban development realized the fact that the possibilities for such losses in Turkish cities are relatively high due to the low physical qualities of building stock. Depending on a broad consensus, urban regeneration appeared as the strongest option by replacing unqualified buildings with the qualified ones, which increased the numbers of both theoretical studies focusing on urban regeneration and urban regeneration projects. The dominance of urban regeneration on urban planning, however, does not mean that they are problem-free in Turkish case. There is a theoretical ambiguity about the definition, input-output, and processes of urban regeneration which causes certain problems related to the economic and social dimensions of cities. With reference to many cases, it can be easily said that the costs of these problems are more than the benefits of urban regeneration projects. In this respect, this study aims to concentrate on the problems of urban regeneration practices to understand whether urban regeneration projects create a kind of urban degeneration. In the first part, there are basic theoretical discussions about urban regeneration. The second part is about a historical description of urban regeneration in the Turkish context by focusing especially on the methods and priorities in different periods since they are important by understanding the ongoing processes of urban regeneration. The third part concentrates on the problems of urban regeneration with reference to its underestimated economic and social dimensions. The conclusion of the study aims to discuss the potential qualities of urban regeneration in Turkish context and to determine possible modifications in the processes, priorities, and principles of existing urban regeneration practices so that the possibility of urban degeneration could decrease.

Mersin is a relatively new city in Turkey. Although it only dates back to the first decades of the 19 th century, it has experienced significant changes in its urban economic structure. Being established as a port city, Mersin has been a major gate for Anatolia and Middle-East. This character has been supported by construction of a new port in 1962 and introduction of new macro-economic preferences towards export-oriented economic development in 1980, both of which not only have increased the number of foreign trade and logistics activities but also have enriched the urban economic structure with new economic activities. With the Persian Gulf Crisis in 1990 and the following embargo, however, there occurred drastic changes in local economic life of Mersin. Logistics activities started to lose their significance due to radical decreases in transactions with Middle-Eastern countries. In 2006, the first regional innovation strategy in Turkey was prepared as the end product of RIS-Mersin Project in order to change downward trends of local economy and trigger local development opportunities. The strategy depends on the idea that innovation is a key-factor for local development. The aim of this study is critical evaluation of this regional innovation strategy and its spatial dimension within the context of local development. Successes and failures of this strategy provide important lessons for other regions aiming to produce such strategies.