The building celebrated in literature and film as a gateway to Istanbul has become a stage for a real-life drama about the city’s future as theories and accusations swirl in the wake of a devastating fire.

The Nov. 28 blaze at Haydarpaşa train station destroyed the roof of the century-old structure in Istanbul’s Kadıköy district; a few days later, it drew a crowd of architects, environmentalists, city planners and concerned citizens to a cramped meeting room in the same neighborhood to discuss the fate of the famous building.

“Many people believe this fire didn’t happen so simply,” Sami Yılmaztürk, a member of the board of the Istanbul Chamber of Architects, said at the meeting Thursday, which he helped organize. “I think this is part of a plan to make city officials forget about Haydarpaşa.”

Immediately following the fire, the repairs being done to the building’s roof came under scrutiny, with some claiming that the work had not received proper authorization.

“The repair work was being done without getting the approval from the Kadıköy Mayor’s Office,” the district’s mayor, Selami Öztürk, said in a press meeting. “Those responsible for such neglect will be punished.”

Redevelopment plans

Though the fire attracted the attention of the public and the media to the fate of the train station, the controversy over Haydarpaşa and the area around it has been ongoing since 2004. To date, public announcements have been made about two different “restructuring” plans, one by the German company Drees & Sommer and the other by the Çalık Group, a Turkish firm known for its close ties to the ruling Justice and Development Party, AKP.

“We want to design the whole area in a contemporary Ottoman style,” Şefik Birkiye, an architect with the Çalık Group, said at one point of his firm’s proposal. “We also want to develop an artificial strait with artificial canals, like in Venice, and we want to build seven copper towers to become the symbols of Istanbul.”

The municipality initially agreed to both projects, but had to subsequently cancel them due to strong public opposition. In 2007, the Haydarpaşa train station was declared a first-degree historical monument, but two years later, the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality created a new construction plan, the details of which remain unknown to the public. The new plan is currently awaiting approval from the Council of Monuments.

“We are waiting for the results from the council,” an official from the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review. “Only then we will announce the details to the public.”

The Istanbul Chamber of Architects is also waiting to see what the council will decide. “[Haydarpaşa] is a first-degree historical monument, yet the Mayor’s Office insists on ruining it,” the chamber’s Mücella Yapıcı told the Daily News. “Until then [when the council decides] we want to concentrate on restoring the building.”

Privatization threat

Though it is no longer the bustling transit hub of days gone by, when the elegant 19th-century building represented the gateway to Anatolia, Haydarpaşa still serves as both a train station and ferry port and holds an important place in many locals’ hearts.

“I have lived in Kadıköy since I was born and I see this building like a close friend or relative,” Güher Bayır, a member of the “Say No to the Haydarpaşa Project” Facebook group, told the Daily News. “Every time I see it now, my eyes fill with tears. To me it is one of the most beautiful symbols of the city.”

Uğur Duman, another Kadıköy resident, agreed. “I have lived in this city for 50 years and it breaks my heart to see the Haydarpaşa building like this.”

This emotional connection with Haydarpaşa is reflected in the dozens of films and books in which the station is a gateway to Istanbul for those stepping foot in the big city for the first time. The building has served as a backdrop in movies by classic Turkish directors such as Ertem Eğilmez and younger ones such as Tayfun Pirselimoğlu.

“The image of Haydarpaşa in Turkish movies best represents for us the immigration flow from the villages to the cities in Turkey,” said writer Mahzun Doğan. “It represents a new lifestyle, full of hope and dreams for the rural people.”

Supporters of preserving the building’s current form and function fear that the fire will pose a setback to their efforts.

“The mayor’s office wants to cancel Haydarpaşa’s function as a train station and wants to privatize the area,” Hasan Bektaş, from the Haydarpaşa Solidarity Platform, told the Daily News. “Whether or not [the fire] was intentional, they might use it to completely cancel train services and isolate the area.”

Added Yapıcı of the Istanbul Chamber of Architects: “They are now announcing that it will take at least two years to repair the damaged parts. We need to make sure train services are not limited while the work is being done.”

Profit or loss?

City planners say the Haydarpaşa issue is only part of a larger debate about the architectural transformation of Istanbul. “It is not just about Haydarpaşa but about the whole city, which is being closed off to the public,” Murat Cemal Yalçıntan, a city planner and a professor at Istanbul’s Mimar Sinan University, told the Daily News.

“Istanbul has been being restructured since the 1990s and many of the public spaces in the centers have been transformed into secured areas,” Yalçıntan said. “I am not against transformation, but I am against how it is being done by the city administration. Instead of working with experts, universities and nongovernmental organizations, the city administration is only valuing projects that are profit-oriented.”

A council needs to be formed to oversee how urban-transformation projects are carried out in Istanbul, architect Korhan Gümüş told the Daily News. “Right now they are just handled based on how much income they would generate,” he said. “There is no creative thinking, despite the fact that these are all industrial or cultural heritage sites.”

Gümüş cited the example of the Ruhr region in Germany as a better model for carrying out redevelopment projects. “The Ruhr used to be a heavily industrial zone, yet when transforming that area, they first set up a committee to determine a vision for the new plan,” he said. “First we need to develop a vision; only then can we start planning.”

As such debates continue, citizen activists plan to keep fighting to save Haydarpaşa, organizing a march Sunday from the Kadıköy port to the train station. “They are trying hard to remove Haydarpaşa from our collective memory,” said Bektaş from the Haydarpaşa Solidarity Platform. “But we will continue to resist.”