Salvaging the remnants of a demolished neighborhood.
Ferdi Celep sat on a sofa surrounded by the debris of his life, watching city workers empty clothes and furniture from a row of two dozen colourful houses huddled against the Byzantine battlements of Istanbul's old city.
Within hours, the last remnants of a thousand years of Rom history were wiped out by bulldozers.
Anti-riot police supervised this final phase last week of the demolition of Sulukule, a neighborhood on the European bank of Istanbul once home to a vibrant community of musicians and artists whose rhythmic songs and belly dancing served as the city's musical heart.
Similar scenes have been repeated across the country as municipalities, supported by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), drive home a programme of urban renewal, destroying ramshackle and often unsanitary housing in favour of new tower blocks, often many kilometers (miles) outside localities.
.JPG "Parade in Sulukule")
