Gecekondu
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Gecekondu is defined by The New Redhouse Portable English-Turkish Turkish-English Dictionary as a house put up quickly without proper permissions; squatter's house; a shack of a house, shanty, shack.
In Turkish, "gece" means night and "kondu" means placed or put; thus the term "gecekondu" literally means placed (built) overnight. In common usage, it refers to the low cost apartment buildings or houses that were constructed in a very short time by the migrants from rural areas in the outskirts of the large cities. Such buildings were often edificed without going through the necessary procedures required for construction, such as acquiring building permits, and are very densely populated.
The gecekondu phenomenon is directly linked with the problems of unemployment and poverty in the rural areas of Turkey, especially in the east of the country. In many instances entire villages have migrated to the outskirts of the large industrialized cities in order to seek better life standards, but often having to face disappointment.
At present, gecekondu areas are being gradually demolished and replaced by modern mass-housing compounds developed by TOKI.
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