The Effects of Large-Scale Public Investment on Cities and Regions in Turkey

Abstract

Large-scale government investments have crucial impacts on the economy as well as social, environmental, and cultural realms in Turkey. These investments, targeting the building of a nation state once, turned into economic-oriented profit-seeking projects after the 1980s. The large-scale projects, also named as megaprojects in the literature, have been successful to a certain extent, while their negative repercussions have been evident due to prioritizing economic gains over social and environmental benefits, and accounting for limited participation. The large-scale projects discussed in this section are; The Southeastern Anatolia Project which aimed to support socio-economic development via agriculture and industry in the most disadvantaged region of the country; tourism investments after the enactment of the “Law for the Encouragement of Tourism” which favored economic growth primarily in coastal zones; critical infrastructure projects such as highway projects, the High Speed Train, and the Izmir suburban rail which focused on improved connections. These projects are discussed with regard to their initial intentions, scopes, performances, and consequences. Most of them are criticized for disrupting social and natural values while economic benefits have also been limited, except for some successful projects such as Izmir suburban rail (IZBAN) which supports networking while amalgamating technical know-how and local experience.