Du Loukoum au Béton
Du Loukoum au Béton (from Turkish Delight to Concrete). A title evoking transition, passage. The transition of a country, Turkey, at the junction of two tectonic plaques named Tradition and Modernity. The passage of our Western minds towards a renovated, more accurate vision of today’s Turkey, a vision growing away from our orientalist nostalgia as well as from our fears.
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![](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/01-Diyarbakir-jardins-maraîchers-2010-copy2.jpg)
![Kayseri (Turkey), June 2009. View over the northeastern part of Kayseri, a city of 1.5 million souls, an economic tiger spreading like lava over the Anatolian plateau.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/02-Kayseri-vue-générale-partielle-2009-copy2.jpg)
![Fishing in the polluted Dicle River, as the Tigris is called in Diyarbakir, is popular among low-income families. September 2010](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/03-Diyarbakir-sur-les-bords-du-Dicle-2010-copy2.jpg)
![](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/04-Trabzon-voie-expresse-à-Meydan-Parki-2007-copy2.jpg)
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![](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/07-Münever-Diyarbakir-2010-copy2.jpg)
![](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/08-Kayseri-un-lokanta-2009-copy2.jpg)
![Kayseri’s population doubled in 10 years. A consequence of dynamic demography and rapidly-modernizing cities is urban spread into the peripheral areas, covering the empty land on the cities’ outskirts. Rectangular apartment buildings, solely distinguished by their colors, plus the neighborhood mosque, is a recipe reproduced along all of Kayseri’s edges. This is a “bedroom community” between Kayseri’s downtown and its light-industry zone, the Birinci Organize.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/09-Kayseri-nouveau-quartier-périurbain-2009-copy2.jpg)
![](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/10-Kayseri-dans-la-ZAC-2009-copy2.jpg)
![Ghostly buildings sprouting on the outskirts of Diyarbakir in a neighborhood baptized Metropole. Globalized models of modernity are erasing cities’ individual personalities and creating uniformity and a feeling of solitude, as opposed to the colorful disharmony of these cities’ traditional urban fabric, with it’s shops and pedestrian-filled streets.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/11-Diyarbakir-quartier-périurbain-en-construction-2010-copy2.jpg)
![On the fringe of Kayseri’s light-industry zone, the Birinci Organize. Turkey’s biggest industrial zone on one contiguous piece of land (over 800 companies), the Birinci Organize was implanted on former agricultural land about twenty miles from central Kayseri. The employment opportunities represented here are an enormous magnet for the villagers from the surrounding Anatolian countryside. Globalized models of modernity erase singularity and create anonymous zones where a human being may even appear incongruous. June 2009](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/12-Kayseri-une-usine-dans-la-ZAC-2009-copy2.jpg)
![In the port city of Trabzon’s lower, or Arab, part (as it was called in the 19th century), the old neighborhood of Zafer ("Victory") has been allowed to decay in order to "renovate" it. The homes will be torn down, the families expropriated and given an apartment in Boztepe, or further away for the less lucky.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/13-Trabzon-le-Zafar-Mahalle-2007-copy2.jpg)
![A playground in downtown Kayseri, surrounded by cars. Another example of the automobile’s increasing invasiveness. The explosion in the numbers of private cars has outstripped the parking possibilities in this city that has tripled in population in 15 years.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/14-Kayseri-aire-de-jeux-2009-copy2.jpg)
![Hukumet Meydani (“Government Square”) in the old, central part of Konya with the usual disparate buildings and shaded alleyways typical of traditional, human-scale urban fabric. The square and behind it, the bazaar section of Konya, are a pedestrian haven in a city where motor vehicles are increasingly intrusive.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/15-Konya-Hukumet-Meydani-2007-copy2.jpg)
![The shops and stores in the traditional shopping streets of Kayseri seem old-fashioned and offer no status "added value" to their customers. People prefer to shop, if they can afford to do so, in the boutiques of Kayseri's shopping mall.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/16-Kayseri-rue-commerçante-2007-copy2.jpg)
![](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/17-Trabzon-le-Zafar-Mahalle-2007-copy2.jpg)
![This neighborhood of high-rise apartment buildings is taking shape near the new and modern central bus station, on the outskirts of Konya. June 2007](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/18-Konya-nouveau-quartier-près-de-la-gare-routière-2007-copy2.jpg)
![An avenue in Diclekent, a recent residential section 40-minutes distant from central Diyarbakir. Middle class families desiring to get away from the congestion, theft and ill-kept streets of central Diyarbakir are the principal inhabitants of Diclekent. Turkey, September 2010.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/19-Diyarbakir-nouveau-quartier-2010-copy2.jpg)
![](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/20-Kayseri-le-centre-commercial-Kayseri-Park-2008-copy2.jpg)
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![](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/23-Trabzon-le-quartier-de-Boztepe-2007-copy2.jpg)
![One of the alleys in Surici, the old part of Diyarbakir within the ancient city walls. Village families, fleeing from the destruction by the Army of their homes, have concentrated in Surici and in slum-like housing built-up outside the city walls around Mardin Kapi. Poverty and unemployment have worsened, as have the related social problems. September 2010](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/24-Diyarbakir-le-quartier-de-Suriçi-2010-copy2.jpg)
![](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/25-Ômer-Kayseri-2009-copy-1.jpg)
![](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/26-Kayseri-périphérie-de-la-ZAC-2009-copy-1.jpg)
![](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/27-la-mosquée-de-la-ZAC-2008-copy-1.jpg)
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![Four children in the no-man's land that their neighborhood has become. Much of the old housing has been torn-down. Some of the ruins are still visible. New construction (pink building in the background) is just beginning. June 2007](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/33-Kayseri-dans-un-quartier-rasé-2007-copy2.jpg)
![](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/34-Kayseri-Düvenönü-Meydani-2009-copy2.jpg)
![In the port city of Trabzon, the old neighborhood of Zafer ("Victory") has been allowed to decay in order to "renovate" it. The homes will be torn down, the families expropriated and given an apartment in Boztepe, or further away for the less lucky. December 2007](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/35-Trabzon-le-Zafar-Mahalle-2007-copy2.jpg)
![One of the alleys in Surici, the old part of Diyarbakir within the ancient city walls. Village families, fleeing from the destruction by the Army of their homes, have concentrated in Surici and in slum-like housing built-up outside the city walls around Mardin Kapi. Poverty and unemployment have worsened, as have the related social problems. September 2010](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/36-Diyarbakir-dans-Surici-2010-copy2.jpg)
![](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/37-Diyarbakir-marchand-de-vélos-dans-Suriçi-2010-copy2.jpg)
![](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/38-Trabzon-Meydan-Parki-la-nuit-2007-copy2.jpg)
![A man dining alone on Gazi Caddesi, the main avenue inside the walled part of Diyarbakir.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/39-Diyarbakir-chauffeur-de-taxi-qui-dîne-2010-copy2.jpg)
![](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/40-Diyarbakir-le-soir-vers-Mardin-Kapi-2010-copy2.jpg)
![Coton candy sold by Roma outside a new shopping center on the outskirts of Trabzon.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/41-Trabzon-devant-un-centre-commercial-2007-copy2.jpg)
![An avenue in Diclekent, a recent residential section 40-minutes distant from central Diyarbakir. Middle- and Upper-middle-class families desiring to get away from the congestion, theft and ill-kept streets of central Diyarbakir are the principal inhabitants of Diclekent. Turkey, September 2010.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/42-Diyarbakir-vers-le-quartier-de-Metropole-2010-copy2.jpg)
![](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/43-Fatos-Kayseri-2009-copy2.jpg)
![In the maze of roadways between Trabzon’s northern edge and the Black Sea, a small bus station linking Trabzon with its suburbs. Globalized models of modern cities make private cars and public transportation a necessity. They also create zones where the presence of human beings appears incongruous at times.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/44-Trabzon-noeud-routier-2007-copy2.jpg)
![](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/45-Diyarbakir-un-quartier-informel-en-dehors-des-murailles-2010-copy2.jpg)
![](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/46-Beyto-Kayseri-2009-copy2.jpg)
![A town home development under construction at Sana, a small suburb of Trabzon. Inhabitants of Trabzon are increasingly desirous of moving out to the suburbs, more prestigious, less noisy and congested than the old port city.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/47-Trabzon-quartier-périurbain-à-Sana-2007-copy2.jpg)
![Diyarbakir, population 1,200,000, is the largest kurdish city of Turkey’s south-east. Enormous construction projects are underway on the eastern, western and southern outskirts. These high-end apartments under construction in Diclekent, a modern neighborhood 40 minutes from the city's center inside the ancient walls, are meant to attract the middle and upper-middle classes who want to get away from the impoverished city center's social problems.](https://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/48-Diyarbakir-vers-Diclekent-Métropole-2010-copy2.jpg)
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