KAYSERİ’NİN CUMHURİYET DÖNEMİNDEKİ İLK KENT DÜZENLEMESİ: 1933 ÇAYLAK PLANI

In the Early Republican Period, as it can be seen in the Kayseri example, central and local governments developed an urban plan and its implementation for Anatolian cities with traditional structure, as part of a transformation project that usually introduced a rigid geometric pattern. Although some development practice had been achieved by municipalities and lieutenant-governorship (Mutasarrıflık) even before the Republican Period, they are known to be very limited. These limited development implementations were made without planning and by decision of the administrators and governing bodies. In this period, some big state investments such as Ankara-Kayseri railway, Kayseri-Ulukışla railway, the inauguration of a plane factory and the renown Sümerbank textile factory were established in Kayseri. However, in those years, Kayseri’s urban pattern was criticized for having a city image which was completely challenging to this economic development, awaiting to be salvaged from its ruined view. The central Government fulfilled the expectation for a plan, assigning the task to Nazmi Toker as governor in 1932. Within nine months of his duty, the municipality was placed under the responsibility of the governor just like İstanbul and Ankara. Nazmi Toker, who became the only authority in the city, initiated the first development plan and practice in Kayseri during the four years of his governorship. The sources usually assert that the earliest plan of Kayseri was made in 1945. When approved plan of 1945 is taken into account with its structural configuration and effects on urban order that was prepared by Gustav Oelsner and Kemal Ahmet Aru, this assessment seems reasonably correct. However, when the earliest documents are inspected and analyzed, they bring out different outcomes. According to this investigation, the first Received: 02.01.2012, Final Text: 30.03.2012 Keywords: modernization; urban planning; urban history; Kayseri. KAYSERİ 1933 ÇAYLAK PLANI METU JFA 2012/2 87 development movement was started in 1933. Nazmi Toker, who was both the governor and the mayor initiated this development movement between 1932-1936. In this regard, Toker ordered preparation of Kayseri city plan in 1933, which was designed by Burhanettin Çaylak and stayed in effect until 1945. This plan consisted of a 1/8000 scaled concept-project (master plan) that was completed in 1933; a 1/2000 scaled final project (or the application plan) and their corresponding reports. Information about this plan can be gathered from published books “Erciyes Kayseri’si ve Tarihine Bir Bakış/ Kayseri of Erciyes and Its History” that written by Kemalettin Karamete in 1934 and through several columns in the Kayseri newspaper, which mention about the Çaylak Plan. Nevertheless, in the following years this plan was overviewed and did not appear in sources that mentioned about Kayseri urban planning history. From archival studies Çaylak Plan and its paraphrase reports are found; and in addition, Çaylak Plan’s official correspondences are obtained, which are publicized here for the first time. In this study, primarily the urban condition of Kayseri before 1933 is analyzed, following the quality of urban decisions in the Çaylak Plan, which gave shape mainly to the urban formation. Thus, not only a certain period of the city of Kayseri (1933-45), but also its dynamics of formation are explained. Consequently, the paper aims to contribute to both the city planning history of Kayseri and the Turkish urban planning history all through the 1930s.