**6. Urban renewal in Turkey**

In spite of its similarities with the West, urban renewal process in Turkey contains quite significant differences depending on the social and political dynamics. In Turkey, Urban renewal applications usually come on the agenda mainly for political and economic reasons. So, sustainability of these applications is relatively different than the ones explained in the above-mentioned Stockholm's Hammarby Sjöstad district model. The urban renewal projects implemented in Turkey have changed the physical structure of the place, but their results have not been evaluated yet [6]. Besides, being far from the ecological approach, these applications could raise serious concern for the future availability and sustainability of cities.

In addition, in Turkey urban regeneration is almost identical to the Mass Housing Adminis‐ tration (TOKİ), an organisation legally authorized to operate in urban transformation projects and connected to the Prime Ministry of Turkey. TOKİ is also one of the actors in urban renewal applications that provide habitat with local governments, and aims to improve the quality of life, stabilize the increasing economic imbalances, global pressures and social inequality as well as resolve the problems such as the housing shortage. And right now, there are more than two thousand urban renewal projects completed by TOKİ in Turkey, and this number is considered to increase continuously due to the growing need for urban renewal applications.
