Ümraniye

From Freepedia

Ümraniye is a working class suburb of Istanbul, Turkey with a population of over 250,000.

It began as a sleepy village of under 900, but in the early 1950s, it developed into a squatter area, or gecekondu. Its population grew far beyond capacity during the 1970s and 1980s due to migration to the cities from the rural areas of Anatolia.

It is just east of Üsküdar, yet shares little of its charm. There are mosques of historical importance. In between Uskudar and Ümraniye there is a 'çilehane' of the Sufi saint [[Aziz Mahmud Hudayi].] A çilehane (cheelay-hahnay, lit. 'despair house') was where Sufis would go to pray in seclusion.

Recent building projects including the construction of a large shopping mall and new modern apartments have made it an attractive place for people to buy real estate, especially as Ümraniye is on a main highway that leads to one of the two bridges linking the Asian and European sides of Istanbul. A car ride from Ümraniye to Mecidiyeköy, a business center on the European side of the city, may only take around 20 minutes in good traffic. Ümraniye also provides easy access to Üsküdar, Kadıköy and Ataşehir, the business capital of Asian Istanbul.

Housing is also relatively cheap in Ümraniye because of the large amounts of 'gecekondus', or illegal shantytowns.

Politically, the area of Ümraniye, has seen its fair share of violence between left- and right-wingers over the years, and during the 70s and 80s, it was considered the Asian side's equivalent of Gaziosmanpasa on the European side. It must be noted that this violence was concentrated in a small quarter of Ümraniye, a vast district. In recent times however, Ümraniye has been relatively calm, and the most dangerous crimes in the area are those typical of urban areas, such as pick-pocketing or theft.

The people of Ümraniye usually vote in large numbers for Islamist-leaning parties. The AK Party does well in this district.