ISTANBUL, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) -- Istanbul, once renowned for its beauty and richness as the ancient capital of both Roman and Ottoman Empires and a city straddling Europe and Asia, has been increasingly acknowledged now as a place going uglier.
The ongoing urbanization process, accompanying mega projects and restoration works in particular, is blamed for the most populous Turkish city being degenerated into a concrete jungle with fast destruction of its green areas and historic tissue.
The city's uglification is a hot topic among the residents in different platforms, giving rise even to a social media account devoted to "Ugly Istanbul," in which videos and photos showcasing its "mean landscape" are shared.
"The account tries to raise awareness among people against the spreading hideousness of the city," Ece Ergin, a devout follower of "Ugly Istanbul," told Xinhua.
She believes that only increased social awareness could unite Istanbulites in combatting flawed administrative decisions that are transforming the city into a "more grotesque" place filled with concrete buildings and squares.
Not long ago people were ignoring the ugly side of the city and chose to hang around in their neighborhoods or in locations where they liked the most, she said, adding "But now, through growing social awareness, people have started to raise their voices and say 'stop' to dubious projects."
The iconic Taksim Square at central Istanbul is among the renovation projects most criticized, as the area lost its historic fabric after being turned into a granite-covered place.
Pinar Seyran, another follower of "Ugly Istanbul," groaned about the "horrific" illumination system set up in the square on top of its loss of green area, an issue of contention on the Twitter account.
In Seyran's view, the charm of Istanbul has been compromised in these details. "I find these social media accounts very useful in terms of revealing the truth about the city," she said.
For Ahmet Vefik Alp, an academic and urbanist, the landscape of Istanbul is turning uglier each day and the city is gradually becoming a place in which no one would like to live.
"We are on the verge of a catastrophe, as everywhere is full of concrete structures," he told Xinhua.
Alp argued that until late 1950s Istanbul was a calm, tranquil, balanced and most importantly a green place, saying "There were no bridges, no highways and the Bosphorus Strait was a unique feature of the city flowing calmly in between the continents."
The influx of people from Anatolia that began in 1960s and the building of ghettos, highways and bridges afterward started the inevitable demise of Istanbul, according to the urbanist.
In Alp's opinion, Istanbul is losing its eco-balance particularly after the city's last green spot, forests in the north, is being demolished to make way for the third bridge over Bosphorus and a third airport.
Millions of trees were cut down, forcing animals to abandon their nests, during the construction of the third airport, slated to be opened in 2018 as the biggest in Europe, according to press reports.
Alp cautioned that people will see the negative impacts of these mega-projects in years and "their children will suffer the most."
"Due to all these reasons, I strongly recommend residents of the city to raise their voices louder in every platform to save Istanbul," he said. "Istanbul is a global treasure and let's come together and find a way to restore Istanbul as a balanced, livable and secure city again."
