Biography of an industrial town of republican era: Kirikkale

Abstract

It is known that national development efforts in the foundation process of the Republic of Turkey happened within the spatial organization and functional development processes of the settlements that took place both in urban and rural contexts. Thus, the effects of these policies in the rural context had been the design of new ideal villages called the Republican Villages (Cumhuriyet Koyo in Turkish), in order to regenerate and improve the agricultural production and also rural life. As for their reflections in the urban context, it can be said that it was founded in the early industrial towns like Kirikkale, Golcuk, Karabuk, Iskenderun, Batman which were specialized in military and strategic industries which depended on weapon, steel and iron manufacturing.

The aim of this study is to analyze the development process of the spatialization, functionalisation and demographic changes of the city of Kirikkale. The city of Kirikkale was founded as an industrial town specialized in weapon manufacturing, which was improved with the development process of the city.

The methodological framework of this study consists of three main stages. The first stage is assessing the data from written resources related to the socio-spatial history of the city of Kirikkale. The second stage is examining the statistical data about demographic trends of Kirikkale, and also the interpretation of the migration phenomenon and its effects on the city of Kirikkale in the spatial and functional contexts. The last stage is defining the historical development process of the city of Kirikkale by using schemas which were prepared using the information of spatial and functional analyses.

It is considered that this study contributes to the academic context by discussing the spatial, functional and demographic effects of industrial investment decisions on urbanization processes. Also, it is thought that it presents an analytical framework for the Kirikkale case, in terms of planning decisions and strategies for the future in the context of the interaction between the industrialization and urbanization processes