Sequestering a River: The Political Ecology of the “Dead” Ergene River and Neoliberal Urbanization in Today’s Turkey

Abstract

This article explores the neoliberal authoritarian transformation of Turkey’s water sector since 2000 by examining the policies surrounding the Ergene River, a dead river that runs through Turkey’s European province of Thrace. Within the context of the accelerating neoliberalization of water resources in Thrace for the benefit of the Istanbul region at the expense of severe environmental pollution, the result was a combination of authoritarian policy prerogatives and priorities that rest on organized irresponsibility and a politics of nongovernance regarding environmental protection. As this article demonstrates, contemporary authoritarian neoliberalism in Turkey has created gray zones of authority involving many public authorities with varying and sometimes overlapping mandates, within which blatant breaches of the law became akin to the metropolitan municipal governance of distant water resources. Key Words: Ergene River, metropolitan municipality regimes, neoliberal urbanization, river pollution, Thrace region, Turkey.