Developing an approach for conservation of abandoned rural settlements in Turkey

Abstract

Following the industrial revolution, abandonment and decrease of population in rural areas are common problems that can be faced all around the world, as a result of various factors. As a consequence of implemented policies and radical changes in social life, nowadays large number of rural settlements in Turkey are also in the process of abandonment. However, many of these abandoned rural settlements have invaluable vernacular assets that bear the traces of past rural life and comprise the spirit of these cultural landscape areas. Although rural heritage in depopulated settlements have melted against the natural conditions by time, some settlements succeed to preserve their authenticity and integrity to a certain extent. On the other hand in some villages, which are more crowded and close to the city centers, authenticity and integrity values of traditional architectural heritage has been destroyed by human beings as a result of new construction pressures. This situation accompanies a big dilemma about conservation of traditional architectural heritage. This article aims to discuss reasons of depopulation in countryside, impacts of abandonment, pros and cons of re-evaluation alternatives for rural settlements and to develop proposals not only for preservation of rural architectural heritage in rural regions of Turkey, but also for revitalization and sustainability of livelihoods in there.

Reviving villages – a proposal for a concept and identification. A methodological approach

“…Strijker, 2005;Collantes & Pinilla, 2011;McLeman, 2011;Bezák & Mitchley, 2014;Plieninger et al, 2016). Although there are papers presenting various ways how to revitalize or re-use the abandoned villages (Filipe & Mascarenhas, 2011;Di Figlia, 2016;Güler & Kâhya, 2019), no comprehensive research has been yet undertaken to analyze the phenomenon of the revival of villages in the multi-aspect dimension, and to present the definition or methodological aspects how to define a reviving village.…”

“…Churski, 2010;Eberhardt, 1989;Ciok, 1991;Bański, 2008). Numerous studies focus on these problematic regions, trying to propose solutions and new development paths for the less privilege rural areas, such as tourism (Gannon, 1994;Boesch et al, 2011), revitalization of abandoned villages (Di Figlia, 2016;Güler, & Kâhya, 2019), heritage conservation and promotion in depopulated areas (Filipe & Mascarenhas, 2011), modernization of agriculture and multifunctional rural development (Berkel & Verburg, 2011;Bogdanov & Vasiljević, 2011;Pinto-Correia et al, 2016). The most common proposal for rural areas, are the concepts of multifunctional transition of rural areas (Holmes, 2006(Holmes, , 2012, including the development of tourism services (Brown & Hall, 2000;Jepson & Sharpley, 2015;Salvatore et al, 2018) and the new rural paradigm (OECD, 2006;Nørgaard, 2011).…”

“…However, it is quite rare that areas which were previously classified as problem regions due to their long-term depopulation and economic recession would show any symptoms of local revival of socio-economic processes. Such symptoms are especially surprising in villages which were previously considered as vanished or abandoned, which is for example the case of some highly depopulated regions in Portugal (Filipe & Mascarenhas, 2011), Italy (Di Figlia, 2016 or Turkey (Güler & Kâhya, 2019), where the previously abandoned villages are currently revitalized mainly for tourism purposes. Such processes were also identified in the Kłodzko region, which is the most depopulated region in the Sudetes Mountains (Miszewska, 1989;Ciok, 1995) and which has been for many years classified as a problem area by various authors (Zagożdżon, 1988;Eberhardt, 1989;Ciok, 1991;Bański, 2008;Konopińska, 2016).…”

Revitalising abandoned heritage villages: the case of Tinbak, Qatar

“…A scenario for protecting cultural resources in deserted rural settlements is re-functioning or revitalising tourism sites, either entirely or partially (Dincer & Dincer, 2005;East, 2017;Güler & Kâhya, 2019). Several studies applied different approaches for revitalizing abandoned villages or ghost towns (Brown, 1971).…”

Depopulation and Extinction of Villages in Moravia and the Czech Part of Silesia since World War II

“…In the Mediterranean, in the Balkans, and some other parts of Europe, this is still a current problem in relation to abandonment of the countryside and land [32]. Re-use of abandoned buildings is widely discussed [33], particularly in relation to an eventual tourism function [34], for the purpose of social agriculture [35] or for the creation of ecovillages [36].…”