Snow Blankets Istanbul: Best Snow Shots from Magical City

İstanbul has officially embraced winter as of January 6, 2017, and the city has turned white all over. The harshest one among those of past twenty years, this year’s snow has halted daily life to a great extent. Affected by the snow in the worst way possible, drivers in TEM highway had to wait for more than ten hours, having to spend the night inside their cars. Some busses have taken a different route, going along the main roads and avoiding side streets. A freighter going from Black Sea to Sea of Marmara almost hit the coastline, coming within an inch of leading to a disaster. Fortunately, no casualties have been reported so far. To prevent further complications by such an intense downfall, İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality has announced that metro will run until 6 a.m. and additional trips will be added to metrobus service.

On the other hand, snow has created picturesque sceneries, and we have complied the most cinematic, touchy, and romantic photos of snowy İstanbul.

A little fox who apparently had trouble finding food descended among people in Maslak, İstanbul. First bewildered by the uninvited guest, the crowd later on fed the fox.

Snow in İstanbul has given Hagia Sophia an epic look.

Snow has turned İstanbul into such a cold place that even our little friends could not endure it. So they were given shelter inside various buildings.

A couple enjoying snow with the Maiden’s Tower at the background.

It was not only us trying to capture the beauty of snow in İstanbul.

Some parts in İstanbul now take one to the world of fairy-tales. The surreal imagery justifies exotic descriptions of the city.

Such a nice place to enjoy the winter, İstanbul harbours all the gifts of nature within its core.

The contrast of snow white with colourful houses makes the side streets of İstanbul look like a place from the dreamland.

Snow, defoliated trees, a long path, and a companion to share your walk with: is there any better way of enjoying the winter?

Snow is never an excuse for disarrangement.

Feel confined? Just get to Galata Tower and watch the city.

Even cliché poses become original when you are in İstanbul, facing Galata Tower through the snowy streets.

Same places gain different moods in different seasons in İstanbul. Do you know the name of this place, and what feelings does it inspire in you in different seasons?

An umbrella can become ultra-functional in İstanbul.

Railroad junctions could make one a thinker when weather condition is appropriate.

The Bloody Year of Istanbul – What Happened in 2016

20th July 2015, Şanlıurfa, Suruç: An explosion, caused by the suicide attack of the ISIS, during a press release of the Federation of Associations of Socialist Youth, cost the life of numerous young people. This shocking event should become the starting point for a series of terror attacks in the Turkish Republic. Istanbul, the vivid and crowded heart of the country, was one of the most targeted cities. Here is the list of the bloody incidents happened 2016 in Istanbul:

  • January 12

At the Sultanahmet Square, one of the most popular tourist places of Istanbul, a suicide bomber, belonging to ISIS, approached to a group of tourists, mainly Germans, and killed ten  and injured 15 people.

  • March 19

Another suicide attack, caused by ISIS, occurred. That time, the place of the detonation was one of the most crowded places of Istanbul, the Istiklal Street.  The target, 5 dead and 39 injured, was again mainly tourists.

  • June 7

A car bomb exploded next to a police bus carrying the Turkish riot squad the so-called Çevik Kuvvet in Vezneciler, an area near the Istanbul University. The result was a street full of destroyed shops and buildings, 12 dead and 36 injured. Later TAK, a split group of PKK, was charged with the explosion.

  • June 28

This time, the Atatürk Airport turned to a place of carnage. Three explosions, caused by the ISIS, terrorised the life of almost 300 humans. 44 of them could not survive. Two of the attacks happened at the main international terminal whereas the third one was at the parking lot of the airport.

  • July 15

In the night of 15th July Turkey was shocked by a coup attempt planned in the long run by the Gülen movement. Starting with the closing of the Fatih Sultan Mehmet and the Bosporus Bridge, the night turned to a bloody fight on Istanbul´s streets between the soldiers and the population invoked by the President of Turkey for the defend of the Turkish democracy. The officials claimed that 240 people died at that night. The outcome was a wave of purges. Mass arrests and suspension hit several layers of the Turkish society. After a few days the state of emergency has been declared. Today the effects of the coup attempt are still rigorously noticeable installed into Turkish politics and media as well as the everyday life of the population like the change of the name of the Bosporus Bridge into 15 Temmuz Şehitler Bridge.

  • October 6

In the near of a police station in Yenibosna a motorbike, filled with bombs by the PKK, detonated. Luckily, although the place of the explosion was close to several public institutions, only few people were harmed.

  • December 10

The recent explosions occurred in Beşiktaş near to the Vodafone Arena Stadium after the game between Beşiktaş and Bursaspor. At first a car bomb detonated and then a few minutes later a suicide bomber killed himself at the Maçka Park. The victims of the attacks were for the most part policemen that had been on duty during the game. The officials claimed 44 dead and over 150 injured.

The hope for more peaceful days in 2017 ended with the first day of the New Year in the city. The armed attacker of the ISIS killed many young people in Reina, Ortaköy within a few minutes and escaped from the crime scene. He is still on the run. However, neither the attack of Reina nor the one in Izmir after a few days ago was surprising as much as the attack of Suruç was shocking for the Turkish population because terrorism have become a part of the daily life.

The Spectrum of Istanbul: The Silent Observer

Big thinker, the guy who writes about usual things in an unusual way, analyser of human behaviour, looking for inspiration in simple things, passionate about the classic literature, who is stepping in the same stream, admirer of Nietzsche philosophy.

His name means Sea Soldier of the Ottoman. He believes in one story if people get two lives he was a slaver of captive rowers. The Pirates took him on the ship, he is feeling in his bones that his “ex” life was difficult.

Coincidence in which I met Levent is really exceptional and absolutely amusing…It was when I was hitch-hiking to İzmir with my friend. One man stopped for us on the highway to Yalova. We wanted to get on the ferryboat there. We were surprised that he could speak English and he was going in the same direction. He did not seem dangerous so we just got inside the car. During our conversation in really modest way he confessed us that he loves writing and he has already written his own first book.  At the end of our conversation in a really spontaneous way I told him: I want to hear more about your stories which are part of your book. He said: no problem.

Today he is sitting in front of me in one coffee shop located in Taksim Square. The place where we have our meeting seems to be so climatic. Levent does not like commercial places. Despite that this place receives a lot of famous actors. Even the owner used to work as an actor.  He said me that this place has exactly been one of the inspirations to write his book. He was writing in this café about human behaviour.

He was watching people really carefully. For example: One afternoon, a beautiful woman with fancy, luxury clothes came to me with a really clear purpose.  Many women try to flirt with actors because they believe that in this way they can get a job in the famous movies. Then, Levent opened his book and he was reading me his English translation of one fragment which included this episode: “When I was sitting, chilling and smoking my cigarette. One woman came to me and started to poke me. She was thinking that I belong also to elite of famous actors. I just respond her:  “Sorry Miss, I am not famous,” I was just laughing and then she just left.

Levent grew up in a village. He was born in Malatya.  As a child he used to read lots of books. People around him had predicted that he would be a writer in the future.  His father was a teacher. Sometimes his dad was checking if he was reading an academic book or some novels. After he started to know some tricks, he was trying to hide the storybook behind his academic book and when his dad left the room, he just changed into the novel.

He was a really good student at the school. When he was 10 years old, he moved to Ankara.  When he was 12 years old, he started writing some short stories. He thought to himself: when I am fifty, I will print it! He was studying at the Economical University. After that, he started working quite early as a financial expert. His company needed someone who could speak English fluently for future partnerships with international companies. His boss saw potential in him so he offered him to the United Kingdom. They said to him: Levent you have 6 months to study English. This experience has totally changed his mind.

Levent Yetkin - Monika Pietrasik

After some time he spent there, he found out that even in a super modern and open-minded country like the UK democracy does not exist.  He feels that democracy is just for British people; not for foreigners. He was feeling a bit worse than others. On 9th September, following the attack to The World Trade Centre police called him to the police station. He was so surprised. He was asking many questions: for what are you calling me here? I am not guilty of anything. Police officers were silent. He suspected that it is about his religion and nationality. In accordance with usual stereotypes:  All Muslims are terrorists. They stayed in front of one table. The officer was trying to make some wrong accusations. Levent was just smiling and looking at him. He was just smiling. But surprisingly, after that he gave him the business card and said: If you have any problem call me.

During time in the UK he sometimes felt homesick for Turkey. Once he met one Turkish girl and he started conversation with her, which lasted 9 hours.

I asked him how long he had been writing his first book. He answered me: just one day.

In one evening, he went to the İstiklal Street and he just started to watch people and tried to remember every detail of them. Then he came back to his flat. He bought one bottle of Raki and just wrote all the things he had witnessed. He finished his stories around 3 am. The next day he went to his job and one of his friends saw the file on his laptop. He started to read the document. He said to him it is an incredible story and nobody has told İstiklal in this way before. He said that he wanted to be sponsor for printing his book. Since then he has been pushing Levent to write more stories.

Sometimes he hates Istanbul but on the other hand, he likes the life style in Istanbul. For him, Taksim Square is like mystery. In this place he notices weird energy which works like a magnet. He usually goes there every week. He really appreciates the diversity of people here. He really enjoys being in Bosphorus. He likes staring at the ships. Currently he is writing two more books; one is a kind of psychological story and the other is a mix of drama and romance. He does not receive a lot of money from the books. Levent is satisfied that some people appreciate his effort, read his works and support him to write more.

PS. You can find his book in the book store!

Fausto Zonaro: The Last Ottoman Court Painter

Fausto Zonaro was born in Masi, a small town near Padua in 1854.  From an early age he revealed a clear propensity for drawing. When he was 12 years old, with parental consent, he attended the Technical Institute of Lendinara, a town 12 km away from Masi.

From Lendinara, Zonaro goes on to study in Verona at the famous Cignaroli Academy. Shortly after that he transferred to Venice, where he opened a small school of painting in Palazzo Pesaro located on the Grand Canal. It was at this location where Zonaro meets Elisabetta Pante, a young woman who attends the courses at the school and whom later became his partner in life and in art. Although he was a famous and well known artist, Zonaro was one of many painters in Italy, and so, after living in Paris for one year to study and refine his technique, he decided it was time to leave along with his unique style. In fact, the painter’s style, composed of original and unmistakable products by schools and artistic movements fused together with French Impressionism, Venetian colouring and Neapolitan realism, wouldn’t undergo any more changes. And with this knowledge Zonaro tried his luck in the fabulous and mysterious East, in the year 1891. Following the reading of “Constantinople” written by Edmondo De Amicis, a real best seller during the time, Fausto and Elisa decided to stay for some time to look for new inspirations and new territories to explore. Elisa was the first to start. Exploring alone and after reaching her destination, she developed a dense network of relationships through the Royal Embassy of Italy. When the time was opportune, Fausto Zonaro also left Venice and travelled to Constantinople. Even while on the boat, he wouldn’t stop painting. The proof was seen on some small wooden boards depicted with landscapes of Ancona, Bari, Corfu, and Athens. He was the last of the long line of Italian artists, beginning with Gentile Bellini, who went to seek fame and fortune in the Ottoman Empire.

At the sight of Constantinople, the aesthetic upheaval is total. Zonaro for some time interrupted the activity in order to devote himself to the study of this new environment; so different and yet so fascinating. The light, atmosphere and nature were completely different compared to what he was used to in Italy. Therefore, the painter had to become committed to represent exactly what he saw and what he felt. His first production, small tablets with Turkish daily life scenes, are addressed once again to tourists and traders who literally swarmed to Constantinople. From 1891 to 1896, Zonaro was appointed Painter of the Court. This crescendo of fame and commissions were due largely to a single factor, created and supported entirely by Elisa, who in the meantime becomes his wife. It is she who is responsible for, undoubtedly, the success of Zonaro at the western and eastern aristocracy. Elisa understands that the friendships and the relationships earned are not enough. She knew her husband needed advertising, and advertising for a painter during that time included artists’ pictures being published in the most respected art magazines of Europe. Photographic studios in Constantinople were few, expensive and very inadequate for the couple, so once again Elisa, with her eldest son Fausto I, goes to Paris and decides to undertake the difficult art of photography. She is most likely the first European woman who graduated in photography.

She returned to Constantinople, armed with cameras, acids, films, and tanks for development. She uses her new found talent to take photos of her husband’s art and sends them to major newspapers of global art. Newspapers were excited to show articles and reviews with images of Zonaro’s paintings.

So commissions, portraits, landscapes, and many different proposals start to arrive to Zonaro.

The Ambassador of Russia, Alexander Nelidov even made a living room available at the Russian Embassy where Zonaro could open a popular school of painting for the western part of the aristocracy living in Constantinople (ambassadors, noble ladies, ladies of the bourgeoisie) and some members of the court of the Sultan.

Nelidov, in agreement with the Italian Ambassador Panza, were to present the final work of Zonaro, the Imperial Regiment Ertuğrul on the Galata Bridge in 1896 to Sultan Abdülhamid II. The Ambassadors knew that the Sultan, a fabulous patron of the painters, would have liked the picture, having created himself that body of cavalry. Furthermore, the previous court painter had died a few months ago and so the position was vacant. Abdülhamid II not only immediately bought the work, but he elected Zonaro as the Court, while also granting him a very high salary.

Fausto Zonaro Paints 03

This sovereign was always very gracious with Zonaro, he always looked at him with sympathy and esteem and judging by the commission entrusted to him (the portrait of the beloved children, studies from life in the Palace Park, gifts of money, titles such as Army Colonel and later Pasha, gifts such as a three-storey building in the Beşiktaş district, exceptional fees such as the arrangement of the apartments destined to the Emperor and the Empress of Germany during on an official visit to Constantinople in the 1897) it was clear to see. It is during the reordering of the picture gallery, in the rooms intended for the Emperor, that Zonaro met, for the first time, the Sultan Abdülhamid.

These were his words: “One day I was putting new pictures in the large corridor leading to the theatre […] and a voice is heard and all the members of my team glide faster and in a flash I am alone. I thought that I was close to a great danger. You know? A fire, an earthquake? I was fantasising in order to find a reason for what happened when the door of the lobby of the theatre opens. A man with a reddish beard, in a jacket and fez, fiddling a stick holding in his hands, stares at me hinting a slight bow, and I look at this silhouette. My eyes go beyond the boundaries of him and I see the white teeth of the Negro Nadira, the favourite eunuch of Sultan. I find myself! I am in the presence of Abdülhamid! A deep bow, a greeting, I straighten up. I feel that I am in the presence of a Sovereign and I stay at attention with my head high, staring forward as twenty years before they had taught me in the Regiment in Italy. My hands were folded but I looked right well towards my Lord. A Muslim would never dare doing that. So, with a deep voice, S. M. speaks to me in Turkish. I concentrate all my faculties to understand and be ready to answer. “How are you? You are good at Constantinople? Your family is fine? There are some good paintings in my gallery?” And I replied to everything “Evet Efendi Mis” (Yes my Lord) Then, hinting me a picture, he tells me to take it away from the wall and put it in the space above the door of the theatre. I look and I see that this painting is higher than the previous and that it could not stand. I was going to express the inconvenience when S. M., moving his stick like a saw: “Copsi bir as!” (Cut a little) He says, looking at me with a smile, and I immediately say “Evet Efendi Mis.” Then he turns around and goes away. The last vision is the bouncing bow of the fez and the white teeth of the black skinny peeking me while he pulls the door. Half an hour later the painting of a knight of the Fourth Regiment, which fortunately had a lot of ground and sky was in its place; the author’s signature had disappeared, but who cares? Tie the donkey where the master wants… “

Taking possession of the palace donated by the Sultan, Zonaro settles a permanent exhibition of his work there. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Zonaro was at the top of his artistic and vital parable. In 1896 he was rewarded with the title of Painter of His Imperial Majesty the Sultan. The same year another Italian, Raimondo d’Aronco, became the Sultan’s official architect.

Few aspects of Istanbul eluded his energetic brush. He painted dervishes, beggars, street barbers, public scribes, firemen and fishermen. His landscapes included views of Üsküdar, Kumkapı, Beşiktaş and many other districts of the city, and he also depicted scenes from the great religious festivals of Bayram and Muharram. Some of the pictures have a bland journalistic quality – and were indeed reproduced in the Figaro Illustré. The subjects of the pictures are as varied as the population of Constantinople itself. In one, a minaret soars above the Golden Horn, in another, Turkish ladies gather flowers in a meadow and others included, families picnic by a fountain, the moon gleaming on the Bosphorus, and a Turkish woman lifting a corner of her veil.

Being a painter of a maritime city, Zonaro however, excelled in the seascapes. Masts and minarets, smoke and mist, sails and clouds, light and water blend into some of the most evocative of all representations of Istanbul.

Zonaro’s appeal is enhanced by his role as painter of the court as well as of the city. The unique quantity of Zonaro’s pictures, as well as the unique quality of his archive – which includes his memoirs, his visitors’ book and his wife Elisa’s accounts and photographs, from which he often worked – reinforce his importance as a witness to Istanbul’s imperial twilight.

Elisa, for her part, continued to photograph his paintings-constituting a precious archive of hundreds of photographs- and personally took care of the home and children. Also as a photographer she gave painting lessons to the powerful women of the harem, where she now had regular access. The house of Zonaro spouses becomes then, for about 10 years, a solid point of cultural exchange between East and West, and a place of meeting of mentality, customs, and different religions.

The sunset of Zonaro in the East coincides with the collapse of the kingdom Abdülhamid. In 1909, Enver Bey, Started the movement “Union and Progress” and as leader of a large part of the Army, he forced the Sultan to reopen the Parliament, which was closed for twenty years, and to restore the constitution and then forced the exile of the Sultan. The painter is spared from the humiliation of dismissal, as it touches the majority of the Court of Abdülhamid, but the new Court asks him to pay a salty rent to continue living in the palace of Beşiktaş. Zonaro cannot prove with documents that the Palace is his property because it was a gift and so, offended and embittered, he decided to return to Italy. Back in Italy he settled in San Remo, and the choice is quite understandable. San Remo is an authentic miniature Constantinople. Although he never returned to Constantinople, he talked about it unceasingly and he wrote in his memoirs, “Twenty Years of the Reign of Abdul Hamid”, which is still unpublished.

Zonaro again rebuilds his life. He organises exhibitions throughout Liguria and the French Riviera, he opens a permanent atelier, he dedicates himself to small paintings of views of some cities, he creates portraiture with crayon, reproduces Orientalist paintings, or touches upon nostalgic memories of a lost world. San Remo is also a giant sanatorium for tuberculosis patients from all over Europe and among the victims there is also his daughter Yolanda, who died at the age of 21. In addition to the pain due to the loss of Fausto I, who died in 1915 while volunteering to Argonne in France. And in July 19, 1929, Fausto Zonaro, an honorary citizen of San Remo, would die as well. With public honours, he was buried in the monumental cemetery of the Foce, where he still rests. Elisa, the faithful companion of a lifetime, would die about two decades later, in 1946, in Florence. She currently lies in the cemetery of San Miniato al Monte.

 

 

REFERENCES
www.faustozonaro.it
www.cornucopia.net
CORE
istanbulperitaliani.it
Shaw, Wendy Miriam Kural.  Istanbul Exchanges: Ottomans; Orientalists; and Nineteenth-Century Visual Culture, by Mary Roberts. Art Bulletin. Mar2016, Vol. 98 Issue 1, p129-131. 3p.

10 Influential Philosophers of Istanbul

Although the most famous philosophers of the world are of Western origin, the contributions of thinkers from the Middle East, China and other cultural spaces to the domain of philosophy should not be neglected. In some significant aspects, the quality of their works is undoubtedly superior to the so-called Anglo-Saxon and overall Eurocentric traditions. Having different tools of analysis, interpretation and representation, the reasoners from Istanbul brought rich theoretical and practical improvements to global philosophy.

As a consequence of the pronounced religious influence reflected in different branches of science and philosophy, a more articulate theological terminology can be observed in their major publications. But this fact does not reduce the authenticity of the topics debated in the philosophical context of the Middle East as many European scholars and cultural critics may believe. Our list is conjured according to the criterion of the major historical epochs of the most ten influential thinkers from Istanbul.

 

BYZANTINE PERIOD

 

Michael Psellos (1017/1018 – 1078/1096): Cronographia, Historia Syntomos, Epitaphioi, De Omnifaria Doctrina and De Operatione Daemonum

Michael Psellos was a Byzantine Greek monk, writer, philosopher, politician and historian. The main source of information about Psellos’ life comes from his own works which contain extensive autobiographical passages. Michael Psellos was born in Constantinople. His family hailed from Nicomedia and according to his own testimony, counted members of the consular and patrician elite were among its ancestors. Michael Psellos was educated in Constantinople.

Psellos’ best known and most accessible work is the Chronographia. It is a history of the Byzantine emperors during the century leading up to Psellos’ own time. Psellos was universally educated and had a reputation for being one of the most learned men of his time. He prided himself in having single-handedly reintroduced to Byzantine scholarship a serious study of ancient philosophy, especially of Plato. His predilection for Plato and other pagan (often Neoplatonic) philosophers led to doubts about the orthodox of his faith among some of his contemporaries. At one point, he was forced to make a public profession of faith in his defence. He is believed to have died in 1078 although it has also been maintained that he lived until 1096.

 

Theodore Metochites (1270 – 1332): Logoi, Poems, Commentaries, Stoicheiosis Astronomike and Semeioseis Gnomikai

He was a Byzantine statesman, author, gentleman philosopher, and patron of the arts. He held the position of personal adviser (mesazōn) to emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos from c. 1305 to 1328. Metochites was born in Constantinople as the son of the archdeacon George Metochites, a fervent supporter of the union of the Orthodox and Catholic Churches. He devoted himself to studies of both secular and religious authors. Metochites’ fortune was however linked to his emperor’s and after a few years of intermittent civil war, Andronicus II was overthrown in 1328 by his grandson Andronicus III Palaeologus. Metochites went down with him thus being deprived of his possessions and forced into exile in Didymoteichon. In 1330, he was accepted to return to Constantinople. He withdrew to Chora where he died on 13 March 1332, having adopted the monastic name of Theoleptos.

 

Georgius Gemistus (1355 – 1452/1454): Reform of the Pelopnnese, De Differentiis and Nómoi

Later on known as Plethon, Georgius Gemistus was a Greek scholar of Neoplatonic philosophy. He was one of the chief pioneers of the revival of Greek learning in Western Europe. In the dying years of the Byzantine Empire, he advocated for a return to the Olympian gods of the ancient world. He re-introduced Plato’s thoughts to Western Europe during the 1438–1439 Council of Florence. This turned out to be a failed attempt to reconcile the East-West schism. Here, Pletho met and influenced Cosimo de’ Medici to found a new Platonic Academy, which under Marsilio Ficino would proceed to translate into Latin all of Plato’s works such as; the Enneads of Plotinus and various other Neo-Platonist works.

According to J. Monfasani, Pletho is said to have died in Mistra either in 1452 or in 1454. The argument between the two dates being significant is whether or not Pletho still lived to know of the Fall of Constantinople in 1453. During 1466, some of his Italian disciples headed by Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta stole his remains from Mistra and interred them in the Tempio Malatestiano in Rimini “so that the great Teacher may be among free men”.

 

George Amiroutzes (1400 – 1470): Dialogus de fide and A letter on the Council at Florence.

Known also as ”the Philosopher”, George Amiroutzes was a Pontic Greece Renaissance philosopher, scholar and civil servant. He was praised and respected for his outstanding knowledge not only in theology and philosophy, but also of natural sciences, medicine, rhetoric and poetry. He is considered as a controversial figure of the late Byzantine era due to his role in the fall of Trebizond as well as being a servant for Mehmed II.

He was denounced by his fellow Greeks as an opportunist, traitor and renegade for his familiarity with Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror. He was a nephew to the Grand Vizier Mahmud Pasha of the Ottoman Empire. While serving as protovestiarios (a high Byzantine court position), Amiroutzes helped speed the fall of the Empire of Trebizond by persuading Emperor David to surrender to the Ottomans to prevent bloodshed to its inhabitants. George Amiroutzes himself was very popular with the Ottoman court and one of the advisers of Mehmed the Conqueror on Christianity and Greco-Roman philosophy.

After Athens fell to the Ottoman forces, Amiroutzes fell in love with one of the prisoners from the conquest, the widow of the last Duke of Athens. He desired to marry her despite the fact that his own wife and children were still alive. When the patriarch Joasaph Kokkas refused to consent to this marriage, Amiroutzes with the assistance of his cousin Mahmud Pasha dethroned the patriarch and compelled him to shave his beard as punishment. Amiroutzes also punished the high ecclesiastical official whom he unsuccessfully tried to bribe to assist him convince the patriarch by having the man’s nose slit. Amiroutzes died with a dice-box in his hand while playing dice.

 

OTTOMAN EMPIRE ERA

 

Rıza Tevfik Bölükbaşı (1869 – 1949)

He was a Turkish philosopher, poet, politician and community leader (for some members among the Bektashi community) between the late 19th century and early 20th century. He is is most remembered in Turkey for being one of the four Ottoman signatories of the disastrous Treaty of Sèvres. Owing to this, he was included among the 150 personae non gratae of Turkey in 1923, spending 20 years in exile until he was granted amnesty in 1943.

Rıza was placed in a Jewish school by his father who was a prefect. He studied Spanish and French at an early age. He was remarked as a restless personality during his student years. Rıza Tevfik lived in the United States, Cyprus, Hejaz and Jordan where he was made the director of the National Museum and Library in 1925. In the following 20 years, he lived in Lebanon until his return to Turkey in 1943 after being granted amnesty. He adopted the last name Bölükbaşı after the 1934 Surname Law. In the meantime, he had had his collection of poetry published in Nicosia and resumed work as a university professor in Istanbul until his death on December 31, 1949.

 

Prince Sabahaddin (1879 – 1948): The Witness

Prince Sabahaddin de Neuchâtel was an Ottoman thinker and sociologist. He was considered a threat to the ruling House of Osman (the Ottoman Dynasty) to which he was a member. Owing to his political activities and push for a democracy in the empire during the late 19th Century and early 20th Century, he was exiled. Despite being a part of the Ottoman dynasty himself through his mother, Prince Sabahaddin was known as a Young Turk thus opposed to the absolute rule of the dynasty. As a follower of Émile Durkheim, Prince Sabahaddin is considered to be one of the founders of sociology in Turkey. He established the Private Enterprise and Decentralisation Association (Turkish: Teşebbüs-i Şahsi ve Adem-i Merkeziyet Cemiyeti) in 1902.

During the first phase of his career in political opposition (1900–1908), he sought unity between Christians and Muslims as well as meeting with leaders from the respective groups. He received support in the cause of the Young Turks. His Liberal Party standing in opposition to the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) was banned twice in 1909 and 1913 leading him to flee again. During the First World War, he was exiled in Western Switzerland since he was the head of opposition. In 1919, Sabahaddin returned to Istanbul in the hope of realising his political vision but was ultimately banned in 1924 by the victorious Turkish National Movement under Mustafa Kemal (later Atatürk). His project of a democratic Turkey contained means of decentralisation and private initiative as well as elements of the social theories of Frederic Le Play and Edmond Demolins.

In his autobiography The Witness (1962), John G. Bennett notes in the later years of Prince Sabahaddin, he reportedly became an alcoholic later on dying of poverty due to frustrations, disappointments and exile. His body was kept in a metal coffin for four years in Switzerland following his death in 1948. Prince Sabahaddin’s remains were transferred to Istanbul and buried in the mausoleum of his father in 1952.

 

Celal Yalınız (1886 – 1962)

Celal Yalınız was an underrated Turkish philosopher of the fifties. He did not leave any written work behind but many anecdotes from his legendary life include several famous sayings, such as:

  • Just like no milkman is milk, no Turkish (Türkçü, Turkish nationalist) is Turk.
  • If you want to serve this country, no one should know about it. Otherwise they would stop you.
  • Wisdom among the people is like the pearl in the oyster. It is rare.

 

REPUBLICAN EPOCH

 

Hilmi Ziya Ülken (1901 – 1974): The Anthology of the Turkish Philosophy, Problems of Sociology and History of Contemporary Thought in Turkey

Hilmi Ziya Ülken was a Turkish intellectual who had a great influence on the formation of a philosophical and sociological tradition in Turkey. He had interests in many fields of science, geography, history, methodology and arts. Through his work, he significantly contributed to the intellectual history of Turkey in the republican times. Ülken died in Istanbul on June 5, 1974.

 

Cemil Meriç (1916 – 1987): Indian Literature, Saint Simon, first sociologist, first socialist and The Story of a Disaster

Cemil Meriç was a professor of history and literature who had made research in many areas of social sciences including sociology and philosophy. He is considered to be one of the most respected thinkers of modern times Turkey. After losing his eyesight, he had the most productive years of his life by continuing to write articles by dictate. From 1963, he gave classes at the Department of Sociology and Cultural History of the Faculty of Arts until his retirement.

 

CONTEMPORARY TIMES

 

Seyla Benhabib (b. 1950): Politics in Dark Times: Encounters with Hannah Arendt, The Claims of Culture, Democracy and Difference and Critique, Norm and Utopia. A Study of the Foundations of Critical Theory

Seyla Benhabib is a Turkish-American philosopher. She is a Eugene Mayer Professor of Political Science and Philosophy at Yale University, director of the program in Ethics, Politics and Economics and also a well-known contemporary philosopher. She is the author of several books, most notably about the philosophers Hannah Arendt and Jürgen Habermas. Benhabib is famous for combining critical theory with feminist theory.

Born in Istanbul, Benhabib was educated at English language schools in the city. Benhabib taught in the departments of philosophy at Boston University, SUNY Stony Brook, the New School for Social Research, and the Department of Government at Harvard University prior to arriving at Yale. In 2012, she was awarded the Dr. Leopold-Lucas Prize by the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen in recognition of her outstanding achievement in the field of theology, intellectual history, historical research, philosophy and her commitment to international understanding and tolerance. She also received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Georgetown University in May 2014.

Benhabib is a liberal democratic thinker who does not believe in the purity of cultures, she thinks of them as formed through dialogues with other cultures. According to Benhabib, human cultures are the constant change of imaginary boundaries. They influence each other and sometimes radicalize or conform as a reaction on other cultures. Benhabib argues that in democratic theory, it is assumed that every single person should be able to determine their own life. Benhabib prefers a world with porous borders. She argues that political boundaries define some as members but lock others out. She states that “I think it is possible to have an empire without borders; I don’t think it is possible to have a democracy without borders.”

As can be observed from the above list, these ten philosophers of Istanbul are representative of the entire Turkish intelligentsia having an uncontested originality especially the modern and contemporary ones. They were and still are influential in their fields of study, unceasingly coming with innovative ideas and intellectual trends in the academic arena. But the most relevant observation that can be made is that they reached the European and American philosophical standards and even surpassed them despite being perceived as ”outsiders”.

Homemade and Steaming Hot – A Lokanta in Istanbul

People might argue about taste, but anyone who has tried the Turkish cuisine, will tell you that it has much more to offer than just kebap and döner. In most cuisine rankings the Turkish cuisine has found a place among the top ten worldwide. But it would be a mistake to talk about it as one cuisine. Turkish cuisine is a hotchpotch of different influences: Ottoman, Armenian, Asian, coming from the Middle East or from Europe. It’s its own culture!

One component of this fantastic culture constantly influences our daily life. The Turkish lokanta system. It is Turkish food with that homemade feel of mom’s cooking: quickly prepared, healthy, fresh and cheap. So, to dive into this one aspect of Turkish culture, it is best to just visit a lokanta yourself. That’s why we met up with Yücel Abi and Burhan Abi at their lokanta in Kadıköy.

Yücel Abi’s lokanta career began in 1986, since then he has worked in different lokantalar all over Turkey. Since six months their lokanta in Kadıköy has become his new home. In the meantime, he has stopped cooking and instead takes care of the guests and the lokanta’s smooth execution. That sounds easy, but the reality is that people would otherwise often argue about the last portion of a meal, cut in line, or knock on the windows, until they have secured the last piece of meat. Between 20 and 25 employees prevent this madness on a daily basis.

However, the lokanta has not only become a second home for Yücel Abi and his crew. Up to 1700 people stop by daily to enjoy a meal here. Burhan Abi comments: “İnsanlar her yerde insanlar” (People are people everywhere). And their lokanta is much more than just a fast food joint, it has become somewhat of a brand in this mahalle. People arrange to meet each other in front of the restaurant and the relationships between the guests and the staff go far beyond the obligatory “Merhaba”. Everyone knows each other, each other’s preferences and the people behind those preferences.

In our ever-accelerating time, where the very time-consuming Turkish cuisine is in danger of losing its place, lokantalar are the counter-trend. Everything is based on tradition and is freshly prepared. Instead of burgers and döner, guests can choose anything ranging from fresh salad to soup to stuffed eggplant. Between six and seven dishes are always available, the classics being mercimek çorbası (lentil soup), pilav (rice), musakka (casserole), Izmir köftesi (meatballs), kuru fasülye (haricot beans) or kavurma (braised meat). Besides these, new dishes are added often, sometimes you can even find Italian pasta. If it works, it stays on the menu.

Lokanta Istanbul 5

The prices start at 1,50TL, which is equivalent to 50 cents for a soup. This can only be financed through the masses, meaning that only if enough people come, the lokanta stays profitable. The market is highly competitive and most lokantalar disappear even quicker than they are established. Cleanliness and the smell of the food is what attracts most people. Yet, at their lokanta, personal contact remains the most important feature. “I could tell you hundreds of stories and anecdotes of the people who come to eat here”, says Burhan Abi. For instance, about an elderly couple, that had to give up cooking at home. It had become too much for them and if they included everything in the calculation of their expenses (like electricity, gas, and groceries) the lokanta was cheaper for them in the end. So they came to their lokanta on a daily basis and took their food home in a sefer tası (some kind of lunchbox), where they could eat in peace.

Their lokanta in Kadıköy has been existing since four years and two years ago a second branch was opened a few streets further. It is one of thousands of lokantalar in Istanbul, how many there are exactly, probably no one knows. According to Burhan Abi everything began with a trend, one person started and countless lokantalar followed. Nowadays, two types exist: self-service and service. He views the self-service version as a new form of supermarket. This system had already been running on a non-commercial basis in Ottoman times, for instance in big canteens for soldiers or students. The lokantalar as we know them developed through the fast food trend. But what makes them special: everyone eats here. Students, retired people, officials or tourists. Whether you are young or old, the lokanta is a place that connects people.

If they’ve considered opening more lokantalar, we ask at the end of our conversation. Berlin might be a good location? Burhan Abi waves the idea aside, saying franchise doesn’t make sense: “It wouldn’t work, our food isn’t cooked easily. You need good people to do it. Their lokanta belongs in Kadıköy.”

Text: Rebecca Meier, Eren Erdoğan
Translation: Judith Blumberg

Grace of Death: Ottoman Tombstones and the City

Meaningful in-city reflections of a civilisation formed of alluvium carried by a river running towards art and poetry for centuries: İstanbul, an Ottoman city, and tombstones.

İlber Ortaylı starts the book named ‘‘Osmanlılar ve Ölüm’’ (Ottomans and Death), the preface of which he wrote, by quoting the statement from Andrê Malraux that ‘‘burial tools and tombstones are the most important signifier of identity for a civilisation.’’ And he goes with his own words to say, ‘‘Ottoman tombstones and funeral ceremonies show the main character of Ottoman people: modesty, taking death in cold blood, and indeed making death warm up to life…’’

When I took interest, in my own way, in city history, I ran into people, to my surprise, who received with astonishment the fact that graves that were in the treasury room of mosques were positioned in the middle of the city in accordance with the classical spatial distribution of Turkish-Islam cities—roughly: a mosque in the middle and around it a series of neighbourhoods dispersed towards the outside. Indeed, there were people who thought that the Hill of Pierre Loti, in Eyüp, was one of the most beautiful places of the city but the graves, which existed there in great numbers, deformed the beauty of this hill. I am sure there are people today as well who thinks in the same way. However, in my personal opinion, as someone from the Black Sea (We bury the dead very close to our houses, even in our gardens, for geographical, sociological and emotional reasons), I would hardly find any reason to go to Eyüp if we left out graveyards from Eyüp. This is because just like every city and town says something to people, so does Eyüp. Rather than from a bare hill, I would find it more meaningful to watch the scenery of Haliç along with the graves that make up the background of my frame. This meaning has always impressed me profoundly as someone from a civilisation with a custom of wrapping itself up in death while loving, walking, living. However, in modern times, graveyards have been pushed out of cities and we grew up forgetting, while becoming modern, death and what it tells us. And we still keep growing. Ultimately the sensibility in the comment of İlber Ortaylı regarding Ottoman grave stones, ‘‘making death warm up to life,’’ has long abandoned us. In addition to this comment, Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar also touches upon taming death in parallel with İlber Ortaylı: ‘‘Regarding the east, they say that it has the secret of death. However, there is no nation, except for us, even among eastern nations that frames death as much as we do and tames it while at same time refraining from any kind of levity.’’ And he concludes saying that graveyards represent a third time zone just like a bridge in the middle of old Turkish cities that can easily be eroded. Our disconnection with this third time zone nowadays has made death, which Ottoman gravestones has softened for us, creepier than its existence. As a result, as Tanpınar puts it, since it is no longer possible ‘‘for the death to witness all the life on the street through their place of residence,’’ graveyards have gotten away from cities, literary and artistic softness and creepy. Yet everybody knows Yahya Kemal’s notion that he articulated when he was working as the Madrid ambassador that ‘‘We live together with the dead.’’ We are so afraid of graveyards that remind us of death, as well as the death that Rumi calls ‘‘Şeb-i Arûs’’ since we have lost that subtle sensibility which Yahya Kemal points out. And this fear has caused gravestones to be pieces of marble that are prepared in a trice and functions merely as information conveyers as a result of the notion that no more than the name and place of the dead person is necessary. However, such a beautiful and meaningful were the art and literary spirit in Ottoman gravestones…

Ottomans Tombstones

I would like to go on by quoting from Gülizar Haydar’s perfect book called ‘‘Şehirlerin Ruhu’’ (Spirit of Cities). Gülizar Haydar describes cities saying, ‘‘A city is like a school without a building, a library without any books and a classroom without a blackboard and chalk.’’ So he meant that city is a teacher. What is left for us to do is to ask question to the teacher in this school from which we will never graduate and learn as much as we can. Especially for those of us living under a teacher as experienced as İstanbul, not asking questions, living without talking to her, must be an unexplainable mistake. I am one of those who think that it is the alms of to be living in İstanbul to be able to ask at least why Adalet Kulesi (Justice Tower) rising right next to the Imperial Council (Divan-I Hümayun) among the buildings in Topkapı Palace is higher than all other building in that palace. Or, I believe we must be able to comprehend in what dimension a reference is made to our temporary situation when we see the corroded marble threshold of the inside doors of Hagia Sophia. On the other hand, I expressed that Gülizar Haydar called cities a teacher. In the further chapters of the book, the author points out a circle by saying, ‘‘A city teaches what it learns.’’ In this regard, İstanbul has been teaching us all she has learned for decades. At the moment the new generation is teaching her new things, and in the future our grandchildren will learn what we teach her. We are now learning what those people who corroded the marble threshold of Hagia Sophia taught this city. They, indeed, taught us grace, art, feelings and pleasure. And I do not know what we will able to teach the next generation with our skyscrapers, huge shopping malls and graveyards that we have pushed out of the city.

I will end this text by concluding in regards with Ottoman gravestones through which İstanbul tried to teach us grace even in death. It is obvious that Fatih, Üsküdar and Eyüp are quite famous among İstanbul towns with their graveyards. Since these towns are the most densely-populated places of residence in the old İstanbul, they are a must-visit for people who are curious about the past with their historical web. I should add that a lot of things people are looking for who do not possess a wall of difference in the comprehension of what is seen and what is not seen are hidden in these towns.

Among these towns Fatih is a local and foreign tourist attraction every year due to Süleymaniye Mosque which is one of symbolic buildings of İstanbul. Unfortunately, it is not possible for me to convey the effect exerted upon me when I visit this great sanctuary every time I visit it. Every time I visit there, I watch the splendid Bosporus scenery and see people who cannot hide their astonishment against the scenery they behold. However, the number of people fascinated by the scenery is bigger than the number of people visiting the hazire (burial area reserved for special people especially in mosques or sufi lodges) of Süleymaniye Mosque. As to me, I define this graveyard scenery that exists beyond this spectacular Bosporus scenery as ‘‘the beyond of Süleymaniye’’. There is such a scenery beyond the great Bosporus scenery. Just like all the gravestones existing in the middle of city are trying to tell us:

[su_quote]Hüve’l- Bâkî
(It is He who is permanent)
Gel efendim nazar eyle şu mezârım taşına
(Come, oh my Effendi, fix your gaze on my gravestone)
Âkil isen gâfil olma aklını al başına
(If you are smart enough, act wisely)
Salınıp gezerdim bak neler geldi başıma
(I used to wander all around, see what has happened to me?)
Âkibet öldüm taş dikildi başıma
(I died in the end, a gravestone erected upon me.)[/su_quote]

A naïve voice calling from that third dimension Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar talks about leaves me hanging in midair every single time. It gives one undefinable feelings to walk on that stony road that divides into two the area where there are shrines of Süleyman the Magnificent and Hürrem Sultan along with the graves that appear especially at the end of the mosque. Because each and every one of them talks to you. It should not deceive one that they stand silently, and it should be ignored that they are called ‘‘Hamûşan’’ in Rumi language. They express a lot of things about us and themselves in a very artistic language by staying silent.

Ottomans Tombstones

I will end the text by mentioning that grave which bewildered me the first time I saw it in the hazire of Süleymaniye Mosque. The grace is truly astonishing in the grave of a lady, who passed away at the age of 17, that is on the left side when you enter the hazire from the side of dried bean sellers, towards the kiblah wall of the mosque. This grave, which is quite famous among people who are curious about Ottoman gravestones and wander back and forth around graveyards, has a bride’s veil in the head stone that symbolises that she passed away before she got married; and in the written part of this head stone, which is covered by the bride’s veil, how she passed away before she got married is explained. On the other hand, in the foot stone, there is a very subtle, naïve symbol symbolising that she passed away at a very early age: a broken rose. The explanation of a young lady’s death through a broken rose is a poem carved on a stone, in my opinion. The epitaph of the grave tells us about this:

“Ey zair, şu taşın altında yatan genç kızların en pâk ve afîf ve en zekî ve en güzellerinden biri idi, heyhat ecel onu on yedi yaşında şu gördüğün toprağa serdi. Yegâne emeli olduğu ailesinin kalbgâhından mevtin henüz pek taze iken kopardığı bu nadide çiçek, nûr-i zekâ ve malumat ile mümtaz hüsn-i ahlâk ve namusa mücessem misal idi. Ruh-ı masumu için Fatiha. Fi 13 Kanun-ı Sâni sene 1325 (26 ocak 1910) yevm-i Çarşamba.” (Oh visitor, this young woman lying beneath this stone was one of those cleanest, purest and smartest. The fate laid her on the soil that you are beholding now. This rare flower, which death picked when she was so young, was one of the finest examples of intellect and chastity. Recite Al-Fatehah for her innocent soul. 26 January, 1910. Wednesday.)

I do not know what is there to say for these statements. The explanation of death in this language of grace informs us of a reality including quite profound meanings, and the fact that this civilisation in which that reality is comprehended has a lot more to tell us. Ottoman gravestone art and literature are truly an omani. I believe that every person living on this land should get their share from it. Not only in İstanbul, but in every corner of Ottoman geography you may run into a grave that a captain under sail as if leading his ship with broken posts, a chain and ropes, or a grave in which a lady who passed away at a young age is expressed with a broken rose. You can understand at first sight what job the person had when he was alive, how he died and what kind of a personality he or she had. Because he or she keeps talking. And they utter the first words as if in a chatting room and you step into the third dimensional time zone Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar talks about by replying to this first utterance. It will not take time for you to understand when an artist tells you something with their colours and pallet, and a musician with his notes, reed and qanun. While it is fairly easy to talk to them with these symbols, it is also fairly easy to talk to executioner graves that do not have any writing on it and own stones not sculpted roughly (Of course, if you can find them. Their number in İstanbul has gone down fairly for various reasons. If you look for them at the back of Eyüp, in the graves near the shrine of Karyağdı Baba, you can still see some of them). They tell you their situation without any symbols or words. Also the graves being lost teaches you something. For instance if you happen to ask yourself why the stones of janissary graves are so rare, you can find the answer to this question by going as far back as the removal of the Guild of Janissaries in 1826.

10 Photos of Old Istanbul: 1930s in Istanbul

Acrobatics was one of the most popular live entertainments in the Ottoman Empire. They were usually the member of the guild of Janissaries, and they were making money from giving performances out on the streets, especially when it was Ramadan evenings, religious festivals as well as imperial weddings and circumcision festivals. They remained popular during the republican times as well. In this photo taken by Selahattin Giz in 1930, you can see a live entertainment on the streets of Kadırga neighbourhood.

The first fire brigade department, called as the Tulumbacılar Ocağı, was established during the reign of Ahmet III. This department was abolished in 1826 along with guild of Janissaries but after the Hocapaşa Fire erupted, the fire brigade department was re-established as a small fire brigades in each neighbourhood. After the Turkish Republic state was founded in 1923, the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality decided to modernize the department. For this, the municipality bought a water-pumping set from the German company. Taken in the courtyard of Dolmabahçe Mosque on 14 January 1931, the photo shows control examination of new water-pumping sets.

In this photo, you see the Süleymaniye Mosque with the view of the Golden Horn from the Beyazıt Tower. The photo is said to be taken in 1936. Süleymaniye Mosque is one of the masterpieces of architect Sinan, the Ottoman’s greatest architect. The empire’s greatest sultan, who was Suleiman the Magnificent, wanted to show his magnificence with an everlasting building. He ordered the construction which began and completed in the 1550s.

In this photo, you see Turkey’s one of the oldest woman educator who is reading the declaration of the rights of the child at the Taksim Square in 1930. Nakiye Elgün was born in 1882 in Istanbul and died in 1954. After the political rights were given to women in 1934, she was elected as Erzurum deputy and entered the Parliament with 17 women deputies. They were the first women deputy in Turkish Parliament took place between 1935 and 1939.

What you see in this photo is the Valens Aqueduct in 1936. You may be surprised due to the houses in front of the aqueduct because they don’t exist anymore. They were all demolished because of the construction of the Atatürk Boulevard which passes under its arches today. The Valens Aqueduct is a Roman aqueduct which was the most important water-providing system of the Constantinople during the Eastern Roman period. It was used by Byzantines as well as the Ottomans and it is now Istanbul’s one of the most important landmarks.

The photo you see dated from 1936, a boat trip hosted by Atatürk, the founder of Turkish Republic, with King Edward VIII, the king of United Kingdom, on the left. Ernst Simpson, the beloved wife of the king, is sitting on Atatürk’s right. This was King Edward’s first overseas journey. According to the note, the group is enjoying watching the sea races at Moda on 6th September 1936.

The area of Taksim was the centre of entertainment in the 1930s too. The building you see in the photo was one of the most popular entertaining complexes in the city at that time. Its name was “Dalla Terra Alla Luna”, in Italian language, meaning from “the world to moon”, and the slogan was written below; “original – divertente”, meaning “original and entertaining”. The entrance fee was 50 kuruş for each person as it was written on the cash point.

Here is the photo of the second largest island of the Prince Islands in 1934. Yesari Asım Arsoys says in his famous song “Every night in Heybeliada we walked under the moonshine”. That’s the joy of this charming island in the Sea of Marmara. But not only this, this charming place for a weekend escape also offers you to engage with history, peaceful times, beautiful scenery, narrow beaches, pine forests, stylish Ottoman mansions. While you enjoy the shades of blue and green, you are also far from the hustle of the city. No motor vehicles still not allowed!

It is really hard to witness such scenery in the modern Istanbul. Here is a shoeshine parlour in Istanbul in the 1930s. Ladies are getting a shoe shine and all the workers are men. This shoeshine parlour was said to be in the district of Beyoğlu. The date is also doubtful as some accounts claim that the photo was taken in the 1940s.

Here is the photo of Melek Nimet Özden or known as Nimet Abla (Blessed Sister) in 1932. She was a national lottery seller who started her job in 1928. After one of her tickets won the lottery in 1931, she used her money for advertising. With this, she has become a public figure of luck in Turkey. She opened the Nimet Abla lottery ticket shop which may be the luckiest booth in the world. Her lottery ticket shop is renowned for producing regular winners so much that punters are flocking to her lottery ticket shop.

The Feeling of Coming Home After Erasmus in Istanbul

No one prepares you for the depth and darkness of the hole you fall into, when coming back home from a semester abroad. Most people also don’t know that this hole is called “reverse culture shock.” My mom, for instance, was very sceptical, when I used this term to explain why I was spending most of my time in my bed upon my return to Germany. Yet, the feeling of coming home is much more complex and nuanced than the black linear “W-Curve” that illustrates the Wikipedia article about reverse culture shock. So I have taken it upon myself to put together an emotional inventory of what it felt like to return home to Germany from Turkey:

The feeling of coming home is wonder. Wondering about all the small things you never picked up on before, which now catch your eye all the more fiercely. For instance, that I now have to pay attention again to what I say, since everyone around me speaks and understands German. That I have to separate trash again and recycle plastic bottles. Or that the supermarket has a whole section with vegan products, whose ingredients I can suddenly read and understand.

The feeling of coming home is loneliness. It’s the feeling of being surrounded by people and still feeling all alone. Just as your life has moved forward, so too have the lives of your friends and family. After a few weeks people quickly start to lose interest in all the stories you want to share about your study abroad. It’s desperately clinging to the new friends you made in Istanbul, who luckily like to reminisce about all the memories you share just as much as you do, but who are now thousands of miles away.

The feeling of coming home is pride. Pride that shows itself, when you think about all the challenges you mastered living in a foreign country. Talking on the phone in Turkish, getting onto the correct bus line or simply enduring the annoyance of always being branded with the „Yabancı“ -stamp. Its being proud of successfully having translated feelings of alienation into a learning experience.

The feeling of coming home is being overwhelmed. Overwhelmed with demands of tidy summarisations and straightforward evaluations of your experiences where you yourself are struggling to comprehend their impact on this new you. But also being overwhelmed with returning into a society where you have to perform and play your role and where the “foreigner bonus” no longer exists.

The feeling of coming home is recognition and respect. Recognising the hardships of those people in Germany who have migrated voluntarily or involuntarily to our country and who face constant discrimination and prejudice because of it. Recognising how hard it is to learn a foreign language and to find one’s bearings in a foreign culture. And a newfound respect and appreciation that these people, despite all the struggles they face, so often radiate such openness and warmth towards you.

The feeling of coming home is frustration. Frustration that developed so quickly when realising that although my eyes had been opened, those around me hadn’t had the fortune of viewing this country and the issues it faces up close. Engaging with people, who confronted me with generalising statements and gave me the feeling of either being the new political correspondent for Turkey or not being able to change their view of the world, no matter what I said. At every family gathering I am now questioned on my views regarding Islam, refugees or the current Turkish policy. When I then respond by saying that I find it difficult to make general statements about these matters because I have met such different people with diverse personal stories, I only receive disappointed or angry responses of how much I have changed and how they don’t recognise me anymore. It remains a huge struggle for me to not let this frustration turn into defiance and resentment and to nevertheless go into such conversations with an open mind and attitude.

Above Istanbul

The feeling of coming home is ease. An ease that I had to develop very quickly in Istanbul, to not go crazy in the chaos of this city. I took this ease with me to Germany. It showed itself when I had to reschedule a doctor’s appointment three times because every time I was 15 minutes late and the receptionist refused to let me see.

the doctor. I just quietly smiled to myself and made a new appointment. It is so liberating to develop this ease in situations that are beyond your control. What’s more, is the ease in situations that would have affected me much deeper before my study abroad. Having experienced multiple terrorist attacks, an attempted military coup and so much poverty in Turkey, my problems in Germany suddenly seem like luxuries.

The feeling of coming home is confusion. Confusion that so many people live their daily lives in their own bubbles without questioning them. Confusion, that it is precisely these people who think they can explain the world to me. But most of all confusion that there is still so much hatred and intolerance when now is just the time where we all need a little more openness, acceptance and love.

The feeling of coming home is a sense of purpose. It is a feeling of wanting to turn all the wonderful, educational experiences into something meaningful for someone other than myself. For me that meant finally being able to transform the helplessness that I felt when I was confronted with the many Syrian refugee families living on the streets of Istanbul by volunteering in a refugee shelter back in Germany. Not only my newly acquired language skills, but also the experience of being introduced to Muslim culture helped me greatly in my work there. It is the feeling of suddenly seeing the bigger global puzzle picture and wanting to contribute your own puzzle piece all the more.

The feeling of coming home is shame. It’s the shame that you feel, when you quietly admit to the sense of relief of coming home. Shame, that because of a little red booklet you are able to leave all the sorrow behind you, whenever you want. Shame, that with this you are leaving behind the people, who aren’t able to flee the current political climate so easily. And shame, that life goes on in Germany.

The feeling of coming home is gratitude. Gratitude about having this possibility. But even more so, a gratitude towards all the people, who invited you into their homes, who helped you with your daily concerns and who showed me how breathtaking and multifaceted Turkey really is. And with this comes a gratitude, because you know that these same people are eagerly awaiting your return.

The feeling of coming home is nostalgia. Nostalgia towards places, people, sights, smells and sounds. A nostalgia that always makes me excitedly smile when I walk past someone in Germany who is speaking Turkish. Nostalgia, that constantly urges me to walk into Turkish supermarkets, so I can fill my refrigerator with all the delicacies. But also nostalgia that makes it hard for me to admit that even I find the current political climate highly alarming.

When you’ve gone through all these feelings, the feeling of coming home is acceptance. Acceptance that the people in my surrounding have changed in my absence, just as much as I have developed and grown. Acceptance, that both Turkey and Germany have their bright sides. Acceptance that the range of feelings I am currently experiencing will teach me something in the end.

And finally, the feeling of coming home is knowing that Istanbul will always have a place in my heart.

Text and Translation: Judith Blumberg
Editor: Sam Simon

Spectrum of Istanbul: Mother, God, Sex, Fight

Once time I just stopped for a while on one of the overcrowded street of Istanbul and carefully was looking at ambient mob. I see a smiling street musician without two front teeth who is holding a small, old, wooden guitar. On the other side runing businessman with elegant suitcase in his hand and fashionable tie around his neck. In the middle of the pedestrian the begging woman who is asking for money with her loudly crying baby on her back. Then I noticed seller of Simit who is screaming “SIMIT1 TL” and trying to attract their clients. In a few seconds my way crossed thousands of faces. Working as a journalist daily proves me how many “simply unordinary” stories are around me and how many are worth to share with the world. In one month I met completely different from each other eight different people, with eight different attitude to life, different background and only one common thing being a citizen of Istanbul. Each story is like one tiny square of wonderful mosaic of Istanbul because the real beauty of city mainly consists incredible diversity of them.

Through his veins does Iranian-Turkish blood flows. The guy who does not see the limit. Not for nothing does his name mean The Old Warrior of Ottoman. His life is like a huge, explosive mixture. He looks quite dangerous but I can sense that he is a good guy with an artistic soul. In my opinion all the actors have a dose of sensitivity even under their threatening images. He is like crazy freak with a huge heart to take risks.

We meet in front of one of the clubs in crowded, noisy Taksim square. The guy is sitting on the chair in front of the main entrance door of the club. His look can make your blood curdle, especially when you catch a glimpse of his eyebrow piercing, and notice the bushy beard on his face and a lot of tattoos on his forearms. He is peering at the people crossing this street in a bit suspicious way. The man is frowning. He is tall and very-well built. From the beginning, I have no doubt that he is working as a bodyguard here. He is wearing “moro” trousers almost like a soldier, a black jacket and a funny, Rasta style t-shirt with the Bob Marley image on it.

Bahadır comes from Iran. His hometown is Tehran but his father comes from Turkey so I would say his roots are joined Iranian- Turkish “node”. I ask him whether he identifies himself more with Turkish nation or Iranian. He answers that is difficult to say in an unequivocal way. He appreciates both nations and does not want to choose between them, but he confesses that Iranian culture is more traditional and deep, and it is a bit closer to his heart. He is calling himself the “village guy”.

In the childhood he used to practise Thai box but after that he followed a completely different path in his life. In Iran he graduated from Fine Arts and Cinema Television and then he came to Turkey in order to take some extra courses on acting. He performs mostly as a stuntman who is responsible for acting extremely adventurous parts. Also, he was a real cinema star in a Turkish movie. He acted as a terrorist leader. He gets offers mostly to play in action or comedy movies. He is asking me if I would like to see a fragment of his movie. I just nod and say: “Sure why not?!”.

During our conversation he admits to regret that he has quitted sport. He is sure that he would be one of the best boxers and have much more achievements. Life has forced him to choose just one passion. He says that during castings and recording movie staff often asks him why his face is bruised. Training Thai box would significantly decrease his opportunities for getting other roles in the movies. He tells me about real Hollywood life that is completely different. He calls it: “Dirty World”. It is like never-ending, brutal fight to survive there. He does not like that. This world is not about having talents, skills or education just about having more and more connections with influential people. This is definitely enough. If you have good contacts, you can be on the top without any effort. Hollywood life is totally unfair without any rules.

Bahadır - The Bodyguard 4

I ask him about other episodes of his life and then finally we reach the topic how he has become a bodyguard. He does not conceal that his body build attracts much attraction. He has always been the “security guy” of his friends, and then the offers have rapidly increased. I ask him if working as a bodyguard is interesting or not. He laughs and says that he can see during nightlife on the street a lot of weird, strange and sometimes scaring situations. Once time, drank Turkish woman let out and she started to hit him. She was so aggressive. It was so difficult to stop her. His jacket was ripped in tiny slices. He could not do anything because it was a woman, and he would never touch the woman. But as he said that was quite dangerous. Getting killed by woman? That would be quite ironical… I am smiling.

We broached issue related with his life in Iran. Bahadır told me that living in Iran is much stricter but despite that equality of law does not exist for everybody. He restored his memory about one situation when he got stuck in prison. My eyes started to get bigger but I was trying to hide my emotions. In my mind the words are going around: Well, I am just speaking with the guy who was in jail but he started to tell the story.

Many years ago when he was living in one small neighbourhood of Tehran where everyone knows each other very well. One night his sister came back to house. Her face was full of bruises and wounds. It looked like somebody had hit her. Actually it was like that, two men attacked her when she was on the way back to their house. Bahadır ran amok. Immediately, he went to their house. He felt himself lucky because he knew the offenders. When one of the fighters opened doors he just smashed his face. “I just did this thing for what they had done to my sister, maybe in a bit harder way”– he is telling. After that men went to the hospital and police. They accused him of using violent.  He went to the jail for a few days after he was compelled to sell his cars and paid the amount to leave the prison. He had to pay 21,000,000 Iranian rial. Offenders had to pay just 800,000. “Is this fair?” he is asking. In Turkey he may feel freer. The law is more based on liberality. He cannot compare how life is in other countries other than Iran. Also, he is really upset when people judge him by his look. He has quite a lot of tattoo on his body. I asked him about his tattoo on forehand. He said for him Mother is the most important thing in life for that she is the first in order. She is living in Iran. God- he does not have a specific religion but he believes that the God exists for everyone the same., then Sex and Fight- he compares his life to the fight.

Bahadır likes doing dangerous things. I asked him how he could define dangerous things? For example, in Istanbul with -10 degrees he jumped to the swimming pool. The most important fact of this story is that he was not in the hospital. Also, he could exemplify another episode from his mad life which was reported as he was drinking a whole bottle of Raki in a few seconds… I have impression that I was speaking with the real killer…

Istanbul’s 20 Greatest Intellectuals

For a thousand years Constantinople was the Queen of Cities. It was the capital city of the Byzantine Empire between 330 and 1453 and the largest and richest urban centre in the world, thanks to its strategic position that dominated the trade routes. After the fall of the city to Ottoman hands, nothing really changed. The city remained its power and continued to enjoy powerful, cultural and intellectual life. In the nature of things, the city produced many great intellectuals, whose works and ideas are still discussed among the people from every corner of the world.

Here are the most famous 20 intellectuals of Istanbul who put their stamp in history with their works and ideas.

PROCOPIUS OF CAESAREA

Originating from Caesarea in Palestine (which is now Israel), Procopius came to Constantinople in his youth and became the legal adviser for Belisarius. Belisarius was the Emperor Justinian’s chief military commander, whom we know from the famous Nika Revolt in which Belisarius overpowered due to the massacre which occurred in the Hippodrome of what is known today as Sultan Ahmet Square. Procopius was alongside Belisarius in several wars fighting for the Emperor Justinian against Persia, Africa and Italy until 542. Afterwards, he wrote eight books about the wars fought by Justinian known as “Wars of Justinian”, which became the primary source of information for the rule of the Roman Emperor Justinian. Procopius also wrote “the Buildings of Justinian”, a book for Justinian’s architectural works, and “Secret History”, his most famous book, which reports the scandals that Procopius couldn’t include in his previous books. The anecdotes attack Justinian’s policies and spreads gossip about the private lives of the emperor, his wife, as well as Belisarius and his wife Antonina. Procopius’s writings situated him as a major source for the sixth century and made him become one of the greatest historians of antiquity and Byzantium.

ISIDORE OF MILETUS

Isıdore of Miletus was a lecturer in psychics at the universities of Alexandria and Constantinople and also an architect, engineer, geometer and physician. His name is usually associated with Anthemius of Tralles in the construction of the Hagia Sophia (the Church of Holy Wisdom) between 532 and 537. Neither Isidore of Miletur nor Anthemius of Tralles were educated in architecture, but they were great scientists and intellectuals that could organize thousands of labourers and loads of raw materials from every corner of the Roman Empire to build the Hagia Sophia. They are also said to be responsible for building the Church of the Holy Apostles, in Constantinople. Before he was commissioned by Emperor Justinian I to design the great church of Hagia Sophia, Isıdore of Miletus had created the first comprehensive compilation of Archimedes’ works and made a special study of domes and vaults, which helped him to build the greatest church ever.

LEO THE MATHEMATICIAN or PHILOSOPHER

Leo the Philosopher, also known as Leo the Mathematician, was said to be the cleverest man in Byzantium in the 9th century.  His fame even reached the caliph al-Ma’mun, who offered him great riches to come to Baghdad. This offer of caliph al-Ma’mun showed Leo’s value to the Emperor Theophilus, who then appointed him to teach at the Church of the Forty Martyrs in Constantinople. He became archbishop of Thessalonica and later around 855, Leo was appointed to the chair of philosophy at the newly-founded school in the Magnaura Palace. As the friend of Photios I of Constantinople, who is regarded as the most influential church leader of Constantinople, Leo was a celebrated philosopher, mathematician, literary, philologist and astronomic as well as renowned for inventing a fire signal chain between Constantinople and Cilicia, which gave advance warning of Arab raids.

DOUKAS

The Ottoman conquest of Constantinople produced many great Greek historians such as, Chalkokondyles, Doukas, Laonikos, and Kritoboulos, to name a few. However, Doukas has a special place among all these historians during that era. It is not because he was was so handsome that girls would scream when they saw him, but because of his works; especially his accounts for the Fall of Constantinople which are regarded as the most precious sources for the last decades of the Byzantine Empire and the holy war between the Byzantines and Ottomans. If you open Doukas’s history books, you would see that his works begin with the battle of Kosovo in 1389 and continues with a detailed account of his latest mentions of the rise of Turkish arms and the capture of Lesbos by the Ottomans in 1452. Many modern historians believe that Doukas was still living in Lesbos in 1452 when it was captured by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II. It is known that Doukas survived this event, but there are no records of his subsequent life and he may have died around that time.

LAGARİ HASAN ÇELEBI

What is known about Lagari Hasan Çelebi, is compiled from Evliya Çelebi’s “A Book of Travels”. He recorded that Hezarfen Ahmed Çelebi flew with homemade wings across the Bosphorus from the Galata Tower to the slopes of Üsküdar. He had one of the craziest minds of his era. His brother Lagari Hasan Çelebi was no less than him. Perhaps inspired by the great success of his brother, Hezarfen Ahmed Çelebi, Lagari Hasan Çelebi designed a seven winged rocket and made a successful manned rocket flight in Istanbul. Evliya Çelebi documented that the launch occurred in celebration of the birth of Sultan Murad’s daughter Kaya Sultan. As Evliya Çelebi recorded, Lagari proclaimed before his launch “O my sultan! Be blessed, I am going to talk to Jesus.” After ascending in the rocket for 30 seconds, he opened a parachute of some kind, landed gently in the water, and swam ashore reporting “O my sultan! Jesus sends his regards to you!” Lagari was rewarded by the sultan with gold and the rank of Sipahi in the Ottoman army. His experiment is regarded as the first rocket flown in the history.

SULTAN MEHMED II

One of the most nonsensical accusations made against the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II is that he was simply a tyrannical leader with a numerical superiority in the army. Those who claim this are usually not alone in misreading Mehmed’s strength of mind and character. He had the chance to receive the best education and was supervised by the best scholars of his time. Before changing the course of human history, he developed fluency in languages including Turkish, Arabic, Greek and Slavic as well as Latin and Persian. He obtained high levels of knowledge on geography, science and politics and was also fascinated by history, philosophy and literature. He was deeply interested in the great heroes of classical antiquity. He surrounded himself with a group of Westerns, particularly Italians, with whom he discussed Alexander and Caesar, his role models for the future that he was dreaming of. All these intellectual savings can be seen in his policies which helped him to create one of the biggest empires in world history.

EBUSSUUD EFENDİ

One day, Suleiman the Magnificent was walking in the garden of the Topkapı Palace and observing the trees. He saw one of his trees was surrounded by ants. He was saddened, but couldn’t decide what to do. He asked advice from the Ebussuud Efendi. As both men were poets, Sultan Suleiman proclaimed; “Meyve ağaçlarını sarınca karınca / Günah var mı karıncayı kırınca…” (When ants surround a tree / Is there permission to kill them…) and Ebussuud Efendi replied; ”Yarın Hakk’ın divanına varınca / Süleyman’dan hakkın alır karınca…” (When time to meet the Lord comes / Suleiman will be made to pay) – The result was the Sultan could not kill the ants in fear of God Almighty. Ebussuud Efendi was promoted to Grand Mufti – supreme judge and highest official – by Sultan Suleiman in 1545, and he worked closely with the Sultan to formulate an effective and simplified code of laws known as Kanun-I Osmani (The Ottoman Laws), that served the Ottoman Empire for the next 300 years. For this, Suleiman was given the nickname Kanuni, meaning “lawgiver”. Ebussuud Efendi, who produced many great books on medicine, literature, language, law and religion, is regarded as the one of the most influential scholars of the Ottomans.

MİMAR SİNAN

The Michelangelo of the Ottomans, Mimar Sinan is known by people as the greatest Ottoman architect who shaped Ottoman architecture in the 16th century with more than 300 major structures and other more modest projects. His works can be found everywhere within the empire, in cities like Sarajevo, Mecca and Medina, but his real signature can be seen in Istanbul. He was responsible for projects like the water supply, fire regulations and the repair of public buildings. He also built many large and small mosques in Istanbul, two of which are his most famous designs. They are the  Süleymaniye and Şehzade mosques, while his masterpiece is the Selimiye Mosque in the city of Edirne, almost 140 miles west. The combination of domes and minarets stretching into the sky in a majestic fashion in Istanbul is the signature of Mimar Sinan, he shaped Istanbul’s silhouette with his buildings and their effects on social life are still visible today.

KATİP ÇELEBİ

Mustafa Bin Abdullah was the most important Ottoman intellectual of the 17th century. He was born in Constantinople in 1609. Because he worked as a Janissary scribe, he was known as Katip Çelebi among the public. He was said to be a regular man; not from a family of pashas, didn’t receive formal education, but it was not difficult for Katip Çelebi to be accepted by the upper ranks of the Istanbul intellectual elite during the era all thanks to his brilliant mind. His child-like curiosity and never-ending passion to discover the truth were key aspects to his success, but the turning point in Çelebi’s intellectual career was the meeting with Qadizade Mehmed Efendi and taking lessons with him. He gained a wealth of scientific knowledge and the philosophic tradition of Islam (Sufism), and became the author of many works in the fields of bio-bibliography, geography, history, philosophy and economics. Two of his books made him a bright star of the Ottoman intellectual party during the era; “Keşfü’z-Zünun” is a bibliographic resource that is a classic on classics and his mysterious book “Cihannüma” is the most complex work of Celebi in a world of geography. According to information in one of the Cihannüma autographs, Katip Çelebi died of a heart attack on 6 October 1657. Sadly, many of his major works remained unfinished.

 

KOÇİ BEY

The 17th century was the best age ever to be in Istanbul. Although it was the renaissance age in Europe this moment in history was a powerful period for the Ottoman Empire as it was under the rule of the tyrannical leader, Sultan Murad IV. During this period many things occurred such as, Hezarfen flying from the Galata Tower and landing on the slopes of Üsküdar on the Asian side of Istanbul while his brother launched his rocket off the docks near the Topkapı Palace with himself inside and flew over the Bosphorus. Also, as mentioned before, two other intellectuals Katip Çelebi and Evliya Çelebi were living during this period. However, there is one more name that deserves to be on the list from this period. He is known as the Turkish Machievelli, Koçi Bey. Koçi Bey studied in the Enderun (palace school) in Istanbul, became consultant of two sultans, Murat IV and İbrahim the Mad, and prepared a series of reports about reforms in the empire. His intellectual profundity is apparent in his first report that was handed to the Sultan Murad IV. After writing for two generations following Sultan Suleiman’s death, he was convinced that his reign marked the beginning of the decadence in the empire. He saw the corruption in the “tımar” system as the main problem that was creating unrest within the empire. He suggested a smaller and more disciplined army and a more authoritarian leadership. Towards the end of İbrahim’s reign, he retired and returned to his home town Korçë for the remainder of his life. He was buried in Plamet village following his death.

MUALLİM NACİ

In the wake of the westernising Tanzimat reforms of 1839, a debate on literature between the old and the new literary schools suddenly became dense and this debate was spearheaded by Muallim Naci and Recaizade Mahmud Ekrem. Ekrem was the author of the first contemporary work of Turkish Literature – A Carriage Affair – while the followers of the old tradition gathered around Muallim Naci. Naci was born at Saraçhaneiçi quarter in 1849. He travelled a lot in Rumelia and Anatolia. After returning back to Istanbul, he worked in the Foreign Ministry, but eventually began his career in journalism. He is most known for his masterpiece work, Lûgat-i Naci, a dictionary of Turkish language, and he is also the author of poetry books, Ateşpare (1883), Şerare (1884) and Fürüzan (1885). Most importantly, his views on the need for an institution to simplify and to preserve the Turkish language were beyond his era.

HULUSİ BEHÇET

Dr. Hulusi Behçet is one of the most famous names of Turkish medicine in the international arena. The famous German pathologist Prof. Schwartz called him a scientist who was well known everywhere except in his country, adding that you could never find him in Turkey because he was always abroad presenting his findings. Indeed, Hulusi Behçet, the first Turk who received the title of professor in Turkish academic life, described a disease of inflamed blood vessels in 1937 and this disease is universally called Behçet’s Disease in medical literature. (Morbus Behcet) He was one of the most important scientists and tutors in the field of dermatology, which he lectured at the Medicine School of Istanbul University. He was also a prolific writer and a dedicated publisher, who published important articles and reports that gained the respect of scientists from every corner of the world.

NAMIK KEMAL

The French Revolution changed peoples minds from old habits into new understandings; ‘equality, freedom, human rights, justice and nationalism’, which influenced the west and then the east and eventually everywhere. As the symbol of patriotism and freedom in Turkey, Namık Kemal, was the intellectual figurehead of the first modern political opposition known as the Young Ottoman movement, which requested an establishment of a constitutional government. This request of the Young Ottomans put them against the Sultan and his government which resulted in their fleeing from the country and seeking refuge in Western Europe. Still, Namık Kemal maintained his struggle for his ideas encouraged by his articles, novels and poems. He produced works in almost all genres of literature including novels and plays that were amongst the first of their kind in Turkish. His most influential work is the play, Vatan Yahut Silistre, which translates to “Fatherland”. ‘Vatan Yahut Silistre’ not only became a phenomenon at the time it was staged, but also had a reputation which still endures today. The founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, often remarked that he had been influenced by Namık Kemal’s writing as a young man and that they had subsequently been a source of inspiration for his goals in the formation of the Turkish government and state.

NEYZEN TEVFİK

Tevfik Kolaylı or better known by his pen name, Neyzen Tevfik, was a Turkish poet, satirist and neyzen. He was a Sufi who played ney, a reed flute that is especially popular in Mevlevi music, and that was the reason why he added the word “neyzen” (ney performer) in front of his name. Despite being a Mevlevi Sufi, Neyzen Tevfik was a very heavy drinker and was most known for his colourful bohemian lifestyle. He often introduced himself as “Neyzen Tevfik, whose three-dimensionality is manifested in his music, his poetry, and his Rakı.” His satirical poetry was critical of the conservative Sultan Abdülhamid II and it resulted in his exile to Egypt in 1903. He was forced to visit Egypt once again in 1908 and stayed there until 1913. As a poet, Neyzen Tevfik is unique in the literature of the latest Empire and early Republic. Yet, in his final years he wrote a poem called, “Türk’e Birinci Öğüt” (First counsel to the Turk), and in a section regarding religious institutions, he included this verse prior:

“Varsa aslı bunların alemde siksinler beni.”

(If any of these are true, well, fuck me.)

MEHMED FUAD KÖPRÜLÜ

“Köprülü” has always been one of the most respected family surnames in the history of the Ottoman Empire. The family provided six grand viziers with several other high-ranking officers. Mehmed Fuad Köprülü was the last honour of this prestigious Ottoman family. He was just 23 years old and without a bachelor degree, but nonetheless, his genius, limitless knowledge of history and literature convinced officials to assign him as a professor of history on Turkish literature at the Darülfünun. Köprülü was named a member of various national and foreign academies including the Soviet Academy of Sciences, the Hungarian Sandor Korosi Csoma Science Association and the Turkish Council of Historians. Several foreign universities gave him honorary doctorates including Heidelberg University in Germany, Sorbonne of Paris and the University of Athens in Greece. All the while, he was in Parliament for 22 consecutive years from 1935 to 1957. He was a member of the parliament for three successive terms during the single-party rule of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and another three terms as a representative of the Democrat Party. He held the office of foreign minister from 1950 until 1956 and played a key role in Turkey’s entering of NATO in 1952. He was a successful politician, a statesman, a sophisticated historian, a Professor of Ordinaries, was known for his contributions to Ottoman history, Turkish folklore and language. Köprülü’s major motivation in writing on history and literature was to create a modern identity for the new Turkish society and secular Muslim understanding of the Turkish state.

TURGUT CANSEVER

The philosopher architect Turgut Cansever is also known as “the wise architect”. He was not just an architect, but he was also a thinker on religious and architectural topics, and one of the first intellectuals who was vocal about architecture’s political responsibility in Turkey. He was also the only Turkish architect who received the Aga Khan awards three times. His career began with the Sadullah Pasa waterfront mansion in 1949 and continued with designing the Beyazıt Square. He worked as an adviser in the government as well, while continuing to publish articles and books. Moreover, he is the owner of the first art history doctoral thesis.

HALİL İNALCIK

Halil İnalcık is a world-renowned Turkish historian who was listed by the Cambridge International Biographical Centre as one the 2,000 social scientists who made their mark in the 20th century. Halil İnalcık lectured at many universities including Princeton, Harvard and Columbia University in the USA, and also in Ankara and Bilkent Universities in Turkey. In addition, he was the founder of the Department of History at Bilkent University. Known as the sheikh of historians, Halil İnalcık was a member and president of many international organisations. He gave various seminars and conferences in Turkey and abroad, and has written on many fields of the 600-year Ottoman rule during his 100 years of life. One of his students is the renowned historian, İlber Ortaylı, whom had stated that İnalcık was a monument of Ottoman history. Another Turkish historian, Prof. Erhan Afyoncu, also stated that İnalcık was the sheikh of historians in Turkey.

ORHAN PAMUK

Born in Istanbul in 1952, Orhan Pamuk is the face of modern Turkish literature. He is Turkey’s best-known and best-selling novelist as well as one of the leading intellectuals. He was awarded with the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2006. In the same year, Time Magazine chose him as one of the 100 most influential persons of the world. In 2005, he was honoured with the Richarda Huck Prize, awarded every three years since 1978 to personalities who “think independently and act bravely”, and he was named among the world’s 100 intellectuals by Prospect Magazine. In 2014, Orhan Pamuk’s Museum of Innocence received the European Museum of the Year Award given by the European Museum Forum in Talin.

AZİZ SANCAR

Coming from a low-income family from the town of Savur in Mardin, in southeastern Turkey, Aziz Sancar graduated from Istanbul University and completed his PHD degree at the University of Texas in Dallas. He has been a professor at North Carolina School of Medicine since 1982. He worked on mapping the cellular mechanism that underline DNA repair, which happens every single minute of the day. In addition, Sancar and his colleagues discovered how the common cancer drug cisplatin and others like it damage the DNA of cancer cells. This finding has led to further research to figure out how to better target and kill cancer cells. In 2015, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with Tomas Lindahl and Paul Modrich for their mechanistic studies of DNA repair. With this great success Aziz Sancar became the first Turkish scientist to win a Nobel Prize. Aziz Sancar is a great scientist with strong political opinions. His dedication of the award to Atatürk and his vow on presenting it at the museum in Atatürk’s Mausoleum is a strong statement in favour of Turkey’s secular qualities.

IOANNA KUÇURADİ

“The reason why we suffer is ignorance”, says Turkish philosopher Ioanna Kuçuradi. She is of Greek descent, but born in Istanbul. Ioanna Kuçuradi is a leading personality in the world community of contemporary thinkers. She is most known for her efforts to promote human rights and human rights education in Turkey and abroad. She was the President of the International Federation of Philosophical Societies between 1998 and 2003 and the organiser of the 21st World Congress of Philosophy. In 1994, she was elected chair of the newly established High Advisory Council for Human Rights in Turkey. Ioanna Kuçuradi is also a holder of UNESCO Chair of Philosophy of Human Rights since 1998. In the same year, she founded the Department of Philosophy at Hacettepe University in Ankara, where she taught philosophy until 2005. She is currently a full-time academic of Maltepe University in Istanbul. Kuçuradi has received numerous honours including the Goethe-Medaille, UNESCO Aristotle Medaille, and UNESCO Human Rights Education Prize to name a few.

How To Make Mantı At Home

One of the most prestige dishes in Turkish cuisine with track going back to the Ottoman Empire are the little meat dumplings called Mantı. In Istanbul’s Restaurants the classic modern version of Mantı is severed with a cold yoghurt garlic sauce and is drizzled with hot red pepper oil on top. Cold yoghurt on hot pasta seems peculiar to you? Well, that’s something quite common around Turkic and Middle Eastern countries and you should give this awesome delicious dish definitely a try.

Mantı are most popular around all Turkic and Middle Eastern countries, but might vary in size, shape and filling on the geographical region. Every Turkish family has its quite own favorite version. They may be boiled or baked, but the recipe itself is fairly standard. A classic pasta dough is rolled out and filled with minced lamb or beef meat and fold into tiny packages. In modern Turkish cuisine, Mantı are typically served with a cold yogurt-garlic sauce and topped by further spices. A hot and spicy sauce made of butter or olive oil infused with red pepper flakes, pepper or tomato paste is poured over the dish. In addition to this it can be sprinkled with sumac and dried mint. For some extra crisp the Mantı can be deep fried instead of being cooked.

The most praised version of Mantı is originally from the Kayseri, an Anatolian city in mid Turkey, and is also known as Kayseri Mantısı. In Kayseri there is a tradition that a future bride has to make Mantı for her future mother-in-law. The smaller the tiny dumplings are, the more skillful is the future daughter-in-law in the kitchen. It’s said that at least 40 pieces should fit on one spoon to certify the future bride good cooking skills.

You can find a full variety of meat Mantı recipes around the internet, but a vegetarian version is hard to find. Down below you can find the recipe for a traditional meat filling, but for a vegetarian option also.

Ingredients

[su_table]

Dough Meat Filling Vegetarian Filling
400 g flour

180 ml lukewarm water

1 egg

1 tsp. salt

 250 g minced meat

1 chopped onion

1 tbsp. chopped fresh parsley

½ tsp. black pepper

1 tsp. salt  

 150 g lentils

500 ml water

1 chopped onion

2 tbsp. cream cheese

70 g roasted, chopped walnuts

1 tbsp. chopped fresh parsley

½ tsp. black pepper

1 tsp. salt
Garlic Yoghurt Hot Spicy Sauce Topping
400 g yoghurt

1-2 cloves of chopped garlic

Salt to taste

 4 tbsp. olive oil or butter

1 tbsp. pepper paste or tomato paste

1 tsp. red pepper flakes

 Dried mint Sumac

[/su_table]

For the dough mix water, egg and salt together and gradually knead the flour in by hand. Knead it to a smooth dough cover it with clingfilm or a wet towel and give the dough some time to rest.

Meanwhile prepare the filling. For the meat filling simply mix all the ingredients listed outlined above. When you go for the vegetarian filling, cook the lentils in water until the lentils are done. 500 ml of water is an approximated benchmark of the amount of water you need, depending on the lentils you use. Mix the onion, walnuts, cream cheese, parsley, salt and pepper to the lentils. You can also prepare the yoghurt sauce in advance by basically mixing yoghurt, garlic and salt, so it has time to develop its full taste.

Take a third of your dough and roll it with the help of a standard or Turkish rolling pin (Oklava) to a thin layer. Sprinkle the dough with some flour to prevent the dough from sticking to your work surface. Take a knife or pizza cutter to cut the dough into little squares of about three centimeter. Put a pea-size portion of filling in the middle of each square. The tricky part is to fold the Mantı in the shape of little packages by pressing together all four corners and pinch to seal. Once you got how it works it’s a relaxing but time consuming task. In Turkish families making Mantı is traditionally a group project which is filling a whole afternoon and involves all female members of the family. Prevent the Mantı from sticking to each other by putting them with on a towel or lightly floured surface without toughing each other.

Cook the Mantı in a large pot of simmering hot salted water for 5-10 minutes. You might do this in two or three batched depending on the size of your pot. Drain the Mantı, but don’t rinse them. For the hot spicy sauce let oil or butter get hot in a little pan. Stir in pepper or tomato paste and red pepper flakes and let it come up to boil for a minute. Serve the Mantı topped with a generous amount of yoghurt sauce and a tablespoon of hot spicy sauce. Sprinkle with dried mint and sumac up to taste.

Afiyet olsun!

Osman II: A Victim of the Ottoman Era of Change

The Yedikule Fortress, whose history can be traced back to the Late Antiquity, witnessed numerous historical events in the course of time. One of them was the dramatic death of Osman II, also known under the name Osman, the Young.  May 1622 he was strangled there by the Janissaries at the age of 18 within the framework of the 17th century´s power struggles of the Ottoman ruling elite. For the first time in Ottoman history, a sultan was killed by its subjects.[1]

Looking to this incident from a larger perspective, the late 16th century´s and the 17th century’s global crises caused by population increase, the Little Ice Age, epidemics and additional domestic problems induced transformations in different societies of the world.

This era of crises hit also the Ottoman Empire and provoked not only changes in bureaucracy, military and economics[2] but also conflicts between the traditional system and reforming attempts. Moreover proliferation of power took place. While in the past rule was indisputably concentrated in sultan´s sovereignty, in the 17th century different court factions and their interests played a crucial role in Ottoman politics. The voices of the sultanic family, the bureaucrats and statesmen, the ulama, the Ottoman military and finally the influential notables in the peripheries developed to decisive elements of the Ottoman rule. Their “revolts and alliances” led to several political crises and changes in the empire.[3]

Osman II´s accession to power was a result of such a crisis. After the death of Ahmed I, for the first time in Ottoman history succession occurred not from father to son but from brother to brother. Against the Ottoman tradition of fratricide, Ahmed I did not kill his brother Mustafa I and offered so a further heir for the sultanate besides his sons. 1617 Mustafa I became sultan installed through the power games of the court. However, the following year he was dis-empowered because of his mental incapacity to rule.[4]

Strong and Martial Sultan Osman II

In 1618 just at the age of 14 Osman II became the next sultan. Despite his young age, during his reign he tried to reestablish the image of the strong and martial sultan. He stood out with uncommon policies contrary to the ruling conventions of his time. Although the marriage with high-ranking women outside the court was unusual, he married the daughter of the Şeyhülislam, the leading head of the ulama.[5] Or Osman II appointed a grand vizier that was not educated at the court but started a carrier in the Ottoman ruling elite because of the successes of his father.[6] Such kind of unconventional practices caused that he was eyed with suspicion and as a possible threat to both the existing order and the power of the influential factions in Ottoman politics. A disastrous winter which froze the Bosporus and a solar eclipse additionally cast a cloud over his reign.[7]

The Battle of Khotyn in 1621 and the young sultan´s reaction to the heavy losses caused that he finally fell into disfavour with the most of his subjects of the ruling elite. First of all, neglecting the voices who spoke against his participation by the battle, Osman II led the Ottoman army to the battle. His personal success in the war would not only enhance his prestige in the society but also raise his scope of action in politics in order to purge his rivals who challenged the absolute power of the sultan.[8] However, the Ottoman army had to retreat.

Back from the battle, he organised immediately a pilgrimage which should turn to a deadly decision for the young sultan. Though his real aim is unclear, the main opinion was that he planned this campaign for the creation of a new army in Anatolia after the failure of Kothyn. The army in Istanbul reacted harshly. The janissaries in Istanbul broke in the palace and dis-empowered Osman II and handed the sultanate back to Mustafa I.[9]

The last days of Osman II´s life is presumed to be one of the darkest days of a sultan in the Ottoman history. Offended, mistreated and dishonoured publicly, he finally ended up in the Yedikule Fortress where he was murdered in cruel circumstances.[10] However, his death was just another outcome of an era of turmoil generated through changes in the Ottoman society and politics.

References:
[1] Değİrmencİ, Tülün: İktİdar Oyunları ve Resİmlİ Kİtaplar, II Osman Devrİnde DeğİŞen Güç Sİmgelerİ (İstanbul; Kİtap Yayinevİ, 2012), 19.
[2] DEĞİRMENCİ, TÜLÜN: İKTİDAR OYUNLARI VE RESİMLİ KİTAPLAR, II OSMAN DEVRİNDE DEĞİŞEN GÜÇ SİMGELERİ (İstanbul; Kİtap Yayınevİ, 2012), 26-27.
[3] Faroqui, Suraiya: “Crisis and Change, 1590-1699”, in An Economic and Social History of the Ottoman Empire, ed. H. Inalcik with D. Quataert (Cambridge; CUP, 1994), vol. 2, 413-415.
[4] Öztuna, Yılmaz: Genç Osman ve IV Murad (İstanbul; Babialİ Kültür Yayıncılığı, 2008), 15-18.
[5] DEĞİRMENCİ, TÜLÜN: İKTİDAR OYUNLARI VE RESİMLİ KITAPLAR, II OSMAN DEVRİNDE DEĞİŞEN GÜÇ SİMGELERİ (İstanbul; Kİtap Yayınevİ, 2012),  250-251.
[6] Tezcan, Bakİ: “Khotin 1621, or How the Poles Changes the Course of Ottoman History”; HistoryActa Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae , Vol. 62, No. 2 (June 2009), pp. 186-187.
[7] Öztuna, Yılmaz: Genç Osman ve IV Murad (İstanbul; Babialİ Kültür Yayıncılığı, 2008), 36-37, 40.
[8] Tezcan, Bakİ:” Khotin 1621, or How the Poles Changes the Course of Ottoman History”; HistoryActa Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae , Vol. 62, No. 2 (June 2009), pp. 188-189.
[9] Tezcan, Bakİ: “Khotin 1621, or How the Poles Changes the Course of Ottoman History”; HistoryActa Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae , Vol. 62, No. 2 (June 2009), pp. 191-192.
[10] Öztuna, Yılmaz: Genç Osman ve IV Murad (İstanbul; Babialİ Kültür Yayıncılığı, 2008), 69-74.

The Mozart of Turkish Literature: Sabahattin Ali

“Most of the people in Sabahattin Ali’s novels and stories are weak or even decayed. They are people who go along with the evils of the society or are even the reason for these evils.”[1] These words may describe best Sabahattin Ali’s social realistic works like Kuyucaklı Yusuf or İçimizdeki Şeytan (The Devil Inside Us).  Writing was the way he used in order to criticise the existing order and point out social grievance.

Born in 1907, Sabahattin Ali’s childhood was marked by the troublesome events leading to the establishment of the Turkish Republic. After finishing his education as a teacher, he studied German in Berlin for two years where he was attracted by leftist ideas experiencing there the German socialist ideology and labour movement. [2]

Turning back to Turkey in 1930, he started to work for the publishing of a magazine with Turkish socialists like the poet Nazım Hikmet. His critical attitude and his political orientation resulted in first troubles with the police. Accused for insulting Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in one of his poems, he was imprisoned for several months. [3] Just with another poem praising Atatürk, he could retrieve his civil servant status as a teacher. [4]

His following years were marked by moves to different cities, changing jobs and frequent conscription calls for precautionary measures due to the Second World War. He started a family and published almost all of his literary significant works during this time. [5]

Always having a close relationship to the Turkish left, nevertheless, it is difficult to call him a revolutionist. His political orientation towards socialism persisted at a theoretical basis because, above all, he continued his contacts to statesmen and kept for long time his civil servant status. First and foremost, he was rather a novelist than a political fighter. Just in the last years of his life the criticism towards the state become gradually harsher in his writings parallel to the rising state oppression which attacked his circle of friends and his work.

Markopaşa Magazine

In 1946, together with Aziz Nesin, another well-known leftist writer of Turkey, he decided to publish Markopaşa which was a satirical and op-positional humour magazine pressed on a weekly basis in Istanbul. The public success, the large circulation and the fierce tone of the magazine displeased politicians. [6]

Like other countries supporting the American side in the Cold War, Turkey experienced a rising anti-communism in politics. Furthermore, after the move to the multi-party period in 1945, Turkey experienced a struggle for power between the Democratic Party and the Republican People’s Party at the expense of the leftist movement. “The years 1948 and 1949 saw a witch-hunt against the left.” [7]

Also Sabahattin Ali became a victim of this anti-communist wave. The first arrestment for 17 days [8] was followed by the closure of Markopaşa and the imprisonment for three months. The attempt to revive the success of Markopaşa under different names ended with the menace of the next arresting and the lack of money. Closely associated with the left wing, being a friend of the novelist became a reason for blame. [9]

Exhausted from all this trouble around him, Sabahattin Ali finally ended up as a truck driver in order to earn his living. Thinking about leaving Turkey, he might also detect this as a way to escape. In March 1948, he started his last drive to Edirne but he never turned back. [10]

In June 1948 his dead body was found in Kırklareli. Ali Ertekin, who shouldered the crime, said he killed him because of national feelings but the novelist´s political background and the late announcement of his death by the police have caused doubts by the testimony of his murderer. Sabahattin Ali still does not have a grave. [11]

References:
[1] Tİmuçİn, Afşar: Öykü ve Romanlarıyla Sabahattİn Ali (İstanbul: Bulut Yayınları, 2011), 90.
[2] Topuz, Hıfzı: Başın Öne Eğİlmesİn, Sabahattin Alİ’nİn Romanı (İstanbul: Remzİ Kİtapevİ, 2007), 36-46.
[3] Topuz, Hıfzı: Başın Öne Eğİlmesİn, Sabahattİn Alİ’nİn Romanı (İstanbul: Remzİ Kİtapevİ, 2007), 58-62.
[4] Alİ, Fİlİz; Özkırımlı, Atİlla; Sönmez, Sevengül: Sabahattİn Alİ, Anılar, İncelemeler, Eleştİrİler (İstanbul: Yapı Kredİ Yayinları, 2014), 25.
[5] Alİ, Fİlİz; Özkırımlı, Atİlla; Sönmez, Sevengül: Sabahattİn Alİ, Anılar, İncelemeler, Eleştİrİler (İstanbul: Yapı Kredİ Yayinları, 2014), 25-26.
[6] Kormaz, Ramazan: Sabahattİn Alİ, İnsan ve Eser ( İstanbul: Yapı Kredİ YaYınları, 1997), 44-47.
[7] Zürcher, Erik J.: Turkey, A Modern History (New York: I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd, 2005), 213.
[8] Topuz, Hıfzı: Başın Öne Eğİlmesİn, Sabahattİn Alİ’nİn Romanı (İstanbul: Remzİ Kİtapevİ, 2007), 168-172
[9] Topuz, Hıfzı: Başın Öne Eğİlmesİn, Sabahattİn Alİ’nİn Romanı (İstanbul: Remzİ Kİtapevİ, 2007), 197-209
[10] KorKmaz, Ramazan: Sabahattİn Alİ, İnsan ve Eser ( İstanbul: Yapı Kredİ YaYınları, 1997), 49-50
[11] Alİ, Fİlİz; Özkırımlı, Atİlla; Sönmez, Sevengül: Sabahattİn Alİ, Anılar, İncelemeler, Eleştİrİler (İstanbul: Yapı Kredİ Yayınları, 2014), 231-252.

Turkish Rock Story #1: Anatolian Rock Delight

One night, sitting across a table full of empty bottles, a group of friends decided to educate each other on the rock music from their respective countries. As the only Turkish at the table, it was my responsibility to tell them about the birth of Turkish rock. Our drunken discussion was highly informative, and today I present to you a more sober but no less exciting outline of the ‘60s in Istanbul.

Only one year after the international success of “Rock Around the Clock,” the first rock’n’roll No. 1 in the world, the gramophones started to play rock’n’roll music in Istanbul where this new genre of music was immediately picked up by the Istanbul’s elite urban college youth.  From 1957 to 1963, many college students formed their own rock bands and played cover songs of rock’n’roll, beat and twist music. One such student, Barış Manço, was at the Galatasaray Lycee, his alma mater, on 29 Dec 1957, when Erkin Koray, a young musician from German High School held a concert there. Koray and Manço, still students, would later go on to become rock legends in Turkey.

While Manço didn’t suspect this future stardom at the time one thing was certain; music would only be increasingly important to Manço. He was even forced to change schools because his passion for music became the reason for his declining academic performance. Later in 1962, Manço’s band, Harmoniler, released its first record: “Twist in USA/The Jet.” The second one, “The Twist/Let’s Twist Again,” was released in the same year.

Erkin Koray was doing good job as well. His musical talent landed him a role in the movie named “Naylon Leyla” in 1961 which is when he was given the nickname, ‘Crazy Rocker. ’His astonishing success was the root of envy among other musicians, but that did not lead him off track. His only wish was to produce an original song, and that happened in 1963 when he blessed the country with his first record “Bir Eylül Akşamı” (One September Night). His first record is was regarded as the first rock’n’roll song with Turkish lyrics.

[su_youtube_advanced url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgbU6f9nnWU” width=”640″ showinfo=”no” rel=”no”]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wo_VipgxKSk[/su_youtube_advanced]

Erkin KORAY – Bir Eylül Akşamı

Besides Erkin Koray and Barış Manço there were many other musicians across the country who formed their own bands and played cover songs of the fathers of rock’n’roll music, namely: Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Jerry Lewish and Elvis Presley. However, from the mid-1960s, their sound started to evolve into what we call now “Anatolian Rock” – a mixture of American psychedelic sound and Anatolian folk music. Interestingly, none of Turkish rock pioneers, save for Erkin Koray, had been bound up with traditional folk music previously. On the contrary these young musicians were the first generation of musicians who were thoroughly influenced by Kemalist music reforms that gave them plenty of exposure to western music.

The growth of different genres in Turkish rock music was intertwined with external events. The decade of 1960s saw important issues coming to the forefront of societal consciousness: race relations, war, sexuality, drugs, ecology, belief in God, world hunger and so on. Rock’n’roll music was used to respond to these issues by rebellious youth whom we now call the flower children. Indeed, rock’n’roll, rebellion, protestation, and profligacy went hand in hand during the 60s and the growing unrest scared conservatives and many others who wanted to safeguard the status quo. The ruling elites saw rock’n’roll as a danger to their position, and their attempts to manipulate the situation included a musical competition for the masses.

The Altın Mikrofon (Golden Microphone) competition, organised annually from 1965 to 1968 by Hürriyet, Turkey’s best-selling newspaper, helped shape the future of popular music in Turkey. Finalists were awarded with studio time, an opportunity to record a 45-rpm disc, and a tour across the country. However, there was one catch: the musicians had to either arrange western style music to a traditional folk tune, or compose a completely new song that blended folklore and modern western style.

[su_youtube_advanced url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81B0eJ3vc2s” width=”640″ showinfo=”no” rel=”no”]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wo_VipgxKSk[/su_youtube_advanced]

Silüetler – Sis

Ziya Gökalp, the father of Turkish nationalism wrote: “In order to create our own international music, we should work on our own melodies…and then polyphonise them according to the rules of Western harmonic music.”’ This idea was endorsed by Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey, who deeply supported reforms to develop national music. As a result, from the early 1930s, Turkish musical life was altered through state institutions; traditional Ottoman music was banned and the ears of the new generation were introduced to Anatolian folk music.

In a way, the Altın Mikrofon contest killed two birds with one stone; it helped secure Anatolian folk music’s position in society and it also postponed the emergence of the real rock music which was considered a threat to the state. But did it work out the way the state wanted it to? The indisputable truth is that the fathers of Turkish rock music were never immersed in any rebellious attitude the way their counterparts in United States or Britain were. Even as the content of rock songs touched upon rebellion, social protest, sex and even drugs abroad, Turkish rock pioneers also made songs about love, suffering, life, death and so on. Their songs spoke about springs, mountains, streams as well as legendary historical figures including the names of Ottoman sultans. Rock music had in the hands and lives of its players, become flowing poetry that provoked restless thought but also invoked still beauty.

[su_youtube_advanced url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHNCw1-PrK0″ width=”640″ showinfo=”no” rel=”no”]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wo_VipgxKSk[/su_youtube_advanced]

Mavi Işıklar – Çayır Çimen Geze Geze

I’ve spoken much of these spectacularly successful young musicians. It is time to name their compatriots, beginning with the bands that proved short-lived despite their awards at the contest. In 1965, the band Mavi Işıklar took the 2nd place with their twist song “Helvacı” and the band Silüetler took the 3rd place with their beat-rock song “Kaşık Havası”. In the following year, Silüetler won the contest with the song “Lorke Lorke”, while Mavi Işıklar took the 2nd place again with “Çayır Çimen Geze Geze”. Unfortunately, also in that same year, the bands disbanded.

Another band, Moğollar, made a name for themselves with their cover songs and took 3rd place in 1968 with the song “Ilgaz”. Apart from their success in Golden Microphone, they released many favourite songs such as “Mektup”, “Lazy John”, “Everlasting Love” and “Sessiz Gemi”, until 1970, when they left Turkey for Paris in search of international fame.

Cem Karaca, came in 2nd in 1967 with the song “Emrah” which was a beat song with lyrics of folk poem written by Erzurumlu Emrah. After the contest, his band “Apaşlar” (The Rowdies) released their first record “Hudey Hudey”, followed by many smash hits such as “Resimdeki Gözyaşları” and “Istanbul’u Dinliyorum”. Despite that achievement, the band faltered under political and personal disagreements. Cem Karaca would later formed a new band, named Kardaşlar (Brothers), running into the 70s with a clean slate.

[su_youtube_advanced url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QwkB28QuKk” width=”640″ showinfo=”no” rel=”no”]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wo_VipgxKSk[/su_youtube_advanced]

Cem KARACA – Resimdeki Gözyaşları

Remember Erkin Koray? He moved to Germany to become closer to the spirit of rock’n’roll in the mid 60s, and by his return he was the prototypical rock icon in his looks, lifestyle and music. His song “Çiçekdağı” placed 4th at Golden Microphone 1968. He continued producing hit songs such as “Anma Arkadaş”, “Kızları da Alın Askere” and “Hop Hop Gelsin”, songs whose enduring popularity mean that many Turkish people today still sing them.

As for Barış Manço, he couldn’t join the contest as he was in Belgium studying. However, he was still perhaps the most hardworking rock musician of the 1960s. With the band Les Mistigris, he produced songs while in Belgium and upon returning to Turkey he formed the band, Kaygısızlar. Among all the records he produced in the 1960s, there two records worth taking special note of: “Bien Fait Pour Toi/Aman Avcı Vurma Beni” with Les Mistigris and “Ağlama Değmez Hayat/Kirpiklerin Ok Ok Eyle” with Kaygısızlar, which were Manço’s bestselling record in the 60s.

[su_youtube_advanced url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkcJ2fYxDJw” width=”640″ showinfo=”no” rel=”no”]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wo_VipgxKSk[/su_youtube_advanced]

Barış MANÇO- Ağlama Değmez Hayat

We examined the birth of “Anatolian Rock”, where electric guitars, bass, and drums meet with bağlama, a traditional stringed folk music instrument, and ney, wind instrument in Turkish classical and sufi music. Whether or not Anatolian Rock was wholly shaped by the state did not matter to the Turkish people who greatly loved this unique sound. Anatolian Rock grew in popularity, peaking in the early years of the 70s. It faded away in the mid 70s due to political turmoil in the country that saw a crescendo with the Turkish coup d’etat that happened on September 12, 1980. That brought on the country’s the darkest years, in which there was no breathing space for any kind of art. Consequently Anatolian Rock music disappeared for good, and lives on in old records and in articles like these.

In colloboration with Min Yi Tan.

Special thanks to Anatolian Rock Revival Project for letting me use their beautiful illustrations.

The Tale of A Love Affair: Concordia Theatre and The St. Anthony of Padua Church

[su_quote] My love (Margaret), remember that felicitous night; that pinewood buss you gave me with delight. You made me madly in love, I hope the same to you; if you dare to deny my love, I’d wish god’s mercy upon you.[/su_quote]

What could be the relationship between a love song, the old Concordia theatre and the St. Anthony church of Padua you wonder?

Hatırla Margarit.. Nihavent Ş.Beste muhlis Sabahattin. Solist: Hanende İbrahim Efendi

The Concordia theatre located in Beyoğlu district of Istanbul was a quite popular entertainment avenue during the time of Sultan Abdulhamid II. It was located on the Cadde-i Kebir, today’s famous Istiklal avenue. Not only was it famous for the dancing and singing acts from Europe, but also the nature of the visitors that came in. Majority of these were generals, lords, wealthy ottomans and Levantines as well as members of the French community of Constantinople.

At that time, there was a British family[1] the Morgans” who were trapeze artists. They performed at the Concordia theatre and during their shows, the youngest daughter Margaret sold postcards of herself to the visitors. She was a beautiful young girl and many men secretly vied for her attention. Among them was the special aide to Sultan Abdulhamid II, Fehim Pasha. Fehim pasha was feared for his infamous involvement in tortures, murders and robberies. It is also believed that Fehim Pasha was part of Sultan Abdulhamid II’ s intelligence and espionage activities.

One day, Fehim Pasha’s father remarked about the Concordia Theatre in Pera’s newest acrobat, the beautiful Margaret. He asked his son so they could go and see for themselves this new member. Fehim Pasha agreed and upon seeing Margaret, he was left in awe. He had fallen in love with her.[2] Margaret soon became the mistress to sultan Abdulhamid II’s most feared aide Fehim Pasha. He went as far as furnishing a mansion the Şişli area of Constantinople for Margaret.

However due to the reputation he had earned overtime, things started moving quite in the opposite direction. It had been a reputation of murder, torture and extortion. Together with his gang of ruffians, he had tortured and bullied merchants for years but his luck was soon to run out when he was confronted by some German merchants.  These merchants in collaboration with the British merchants protested calling for an end to Fehim Pasha’s brutal activities. This saw the intervention of government representatives in the protest that resulted in Fehim Pasha being exiled in Bursa during 1907.[3] Over the following year, the Young Turk revolution broke out thus leading to the overthrow of sultan Abdulhamid II in July 1908. The aftermath involved the arrest and killing of some of sultan Abdulhamid II’s generals. Owing to his background and the nature of events at the time, Fehim Pasha decided to escape from exile but was recognised and stoned to death in the town of Bilecik.

Margarethe and Fehim Pasha

After a while, a tune was being played in the joints around Constantinople. It was song of love that had bloomed prior to all the events. The song was composed by Muhlis Sabahaddin referencing to Margaret and Fehim Pasha’s love affair,

[su_quote]My love, remember that felicitous night…that pinewood buss you gave me with delight…[/su_quote]

The famous Concordia theatre was demolished in the early 18th Century. In its place, a Venetian Neo-Gothic style church, the St. Anthony of Padua church was built between 1906 and 1912.  This symbolises the relationship between the Concordia theatre and the St. Anthony of Padua church whilst giving the meaning behind Muhlis Sabahaddin’s classic “memories of the felicitous night”.

[1] Koçu, E. R. (2003). Hatice Sultan ve Ressam Melling. Margaret Fehim Paşa “Hafiyenin Metresi” (ss. 147-48). Istanbul:Doğan Yayıncılık

[2] Koçu, E. R. (2003). Hatice Sultan ve Ressam Melling. Istanbul: Doğan Yayıncılık

[3] Bardakçı, Murat. (2011, 29 Mayıs). Türkiye’de Paşa tutuklanmalarının 100 küsur senelik hüzünlü tarihi… Erişim tarihi: 05 Temmuz 2016,
www.haberturk.com/yazarlar/murat-bardakci/

20 Movies Set in Istanbul

Istanbul: One word, 8 letters, one city, two continents. A plethora of movies set in this magical place, showing both fascinating and less pleasant faces of Istanbul all over the world. Audiences from Japan to France and Mexico to South Africa gaze at the breathtaking images of the city through the silver screen.

CROSSING THE BRIDGE: THE SOUND OF ISTANBUL (İSTANBUL HATIRASI: KÖPRÜYÜ GEÇMEK)
FATİH AKIN
2005

Thanks to its location between Orient and Occident, being the centre of glorious empires such as Byzantine and Ottoman, Istanbul has a very deep and rich musical heritage. German musician Alexander Hacke and German-Turkish director Fatih Akın teamed up to bring this rich musical culture to the silver scene and their collaboration resulted in the best music documentary ever made about Istanbul. Rock ‘n’ roll, punk, folk, pop, rap, traditional Turkish, Kurdish and Roma music  are all interpreted by Istanbul-based musicians such as Ceza, Orhan Gencebay, Sezen Aksu, Müzeyyen Senar, Duman and Baba Zula. The movie is usually advised to those who are lovers of the music and culture of Turkey, but it is also a visual documentary of Istanbul which shows the city’s old and new, western and eastern, poor and rich, modern and traditional. Despite the criticism that the movie seriously lacks contemporary urban Turkish musicians and misleads the audience about the cultural spreading of Istanbul, “Crossing the Bridge” is always a good start to explore Turkey’s musical culture.

WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH (DÜNYA YETMEZ)
MICHAEL APTED
1999

This is the 19th instalment in the official Bond series, Pierce Brosnan’s third turn as James Bond, and his best one yet – it is a role that no one could ever forget. He is accompanied by Sophie Marceau’s superb acting who portrays Elektra King. Mrs. King’s father is an oil tycoon who is assassinated in an explosion by international terrorist Renard. The British spy James Bond is keen to protect Elektra King from Renard and thus shuttles back and forth between exotic filming locations such as Spain, England, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkey. Of course, Istanbul has a prominent role in the movie. The film includes picturesque scenes in Istanbul with the Bosphorus being the perfect background scenery as well as the famous Maiden’s Tower which functions as Renard’s Turkish lair and the marvellous Küçüksu Pavilion as Electra King’s villa in Baku. The opening scene on the Thames, the scenes and shots in the glorious city of Istanbul, a great plot, one of the best James Bond ever, indeed, the film remains as a masterpiece among all the Bond movies.

THE BANDIT (EŞKIYA)
YAVUZ TURGUL
1996

“A star falls from the sky when a bandit dies, according to an old south-east Anatolian legend…” This legend comes true in this 1996 Turkish film which was written and directed by Yavuz Turgul and starring Şener Şen and Uğur Yücel. This is one of the best movies set in Istanbul, and it is not only because the film is as epic as it is acclaimed, but from its cinematography to the storytelling, from powerful acting to the plot, “the Bandit” is considered as one of the best films to ever have come out of Turkey. Set in central neighbourhoods such as Cihangir, Taksim and Tarlabaşı, the movie tells a story of Baran, an old-style Anatolian bandit, following his release from prison after having served 35 years. He returns to his village only to find it destroyed by a dam. Soon afterwards, he starts a journey to Istanbul in pursuit of taking revenge on his former best friend, Mahmud (Berfo), who ratted on him and escaped to Istanbul with his gold and his woman, Keje. A classic, a real masterpiece, one of the best pictures of Turkish cinema, a must-see movie!

DISTANT (UZAK)
NURİ BİLGE CEYLAN
2004

This glorious film directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan is the winner of 25 awards including Best Actor at Cannes, Special Jury Prize at Chiago, and Best Balkan Movie at Sophia International Film Festival. Still, this film is not for everybody’s taste. Frankly speaking, watching this movie is a feast only if you love art-house films. Otherwise, it is usually torture and torment as the movie is super realistic, the pace is really slow, and it is pretty long with a simple story. The film follows to two strong characters in Istanbul, one is Mahmut, a middle-aged wealthy and intellectual photographer, and the other one is Mahmut’s cousin, Yusuf, an illiterate and unskilled man, who comes to Istanbul to find a new life after he loses his job in his village. They start to live together in Istanbul and that marks the beginning of a beautiful melancholy. Darkness, pessimism and loneliness exist in the city of millions, this artistic piece of work – “Distant” –  is an observation of frustrating lives of the two characters living in snowy Istanbul.

ISTANBUL UNDER MY WINGS (İSTANBUL KANATLARIMIN ALTINDA)
MUSTAFA ALTIOKLAR
1996

Everybody is familiar with the legendary story of Hezarfen Ahmed Celebi who flew with homemade wings across the Bosphorus from the top of the Galata Tower and landed in the Doğancılar area in Üsküdar as narrated by Evliya Celebi, the 17th century Ottoman traveller. Indeed, Hezarfen Ahmed Celebi had a brother named Logari Hasan Celebi who tied seven rockets onto his back and launched himself into the night sky off, and then falls to the sea nearby Sarayburnu. Their story was adapted to the golden silver by director Mustafa Altıoklar who transports us to 17th century Istanbul, the powerful times of the Ottoman Empire under the rule of Sultan Murad IV, and it is the Renaissance age in Europe where intrigues, love and war alternate with each other in order to make our characters fly across Bosporus and escape from death. In more simple words, the best age ever to be in Istanbul, and it is easy to go, just watch “Istanbul under My Wings”.

ISTANBUL TALES (ANLAT İSTANBUL)
ÜMİT ÖNAL
2005

“Wake up! Everyone, wake up! The fairy-tale’s over! Aren’t you awake yet? I know how to wake you up. Once upon a time, once upon a morning in Istanbul…There was us and there wasn’t. And that’s as far as the fairy tale goes…” says the Turkish Pied Piper while he is walking with his flute on the famous Galata Bridge. Indeed, a Turkish Pier Piper! “Istanbul Tales” modernises five classic fairy-tales that everybody knows; Snow White, Cinderella, Pied Piper, Sleeping Beauty and Little Red Riding Hood. Each of these fairy-tales is interconnected. Lives intersect and influence one another. Don’t expect a Tarantino from Ümit Ünal because that would be very unfair, but this movie is definitely a nice try! The film also allows viewers to meet the city of Istanbul, a city that spans two continents; a metropolis situated at the easternmost point of the West and westernmost point of the East. And it is here that the best-known fairy-tales of the West are enacted once again. Istanbul Tales tells us that there is no such thing as an East-West divide, but that true fairy-tales are the same the world over.

A TOUCH OF SPICE (BAHARATIN TADI)
TASSOS BOULMETIS
2003

There is no other Greek movie that has worshipped this magical city more than Tasos Boulmetis’ Touch of Spice which tells a story of a boy and his family who are forced to leave their lives and their beloved city and settle in Athens. After all, the leading player, Fanis, becomes an astrophysics professor in Athens, but whatever he does, he can’t forget his beloved grandfather in Istanbul who repeatedly promises to visit Athens but never actually does. At the end, Fanis burns the bridges and leaves Athens for Istanbul in expectation to see his grandfather and his first love. Then, the movie introduces us to smells, pictures and feeling that we have never imagined before. A movie that awakens all of our senses and makes us wonder around tastes of Istanbul through the years. “A Touch of Spice” is semi-auto biographical tale of the Greek writer and director Tassos Boulmetis and a must-see film especially for those who are looking for colourful family moments, culinary and Istanbul in a film.

SOMERSAULT in a COFFIN (TABUTTA RÖVAŞATA)
DERVİŞ ZAİM
1996

Despite little expectations, Turkish Cypriot director Derviş Zaim made a movie that is regarded as one of the best films from Turkey and won awards at various film festivals of several countries such as Turkey, Canada, United States, England, Germany and Italy. The film has very original story that tells us about a homeless criminal and car thief who owns nothing in his life. He has no home and work, often nothing to eat, but he has few friends. His only worry is where to sleep and his solution to the problem is unique; he steals cars to sleep inside to stay far from the cold winter nights and drives them back to its first place in the morning. In one of the cold winter days in Istanbul, he falls in love with a heroin addict woman, and with this everything hidden in him comes out. A real work of art! With its original story, interesting characters, powerful acting and soundtracks by world-famous Turkish band Baba Zula, this film is one of the best films in the history of Turkish cinema, without doubt.

CHOLERA STREET (AĞIR ROMAN)
MUSTAFA ALTIOKLAR
1997

Another smash 90s hit from director Mustafa Altıoklar, 1997’s the box office champion, based on a well-known Turkish novel, which depicts the style of living of Turkish gypsies. However, “Cholera Street” is also a unique film on love, lust and revenge. The film follows the story of a family living in one of Istanbul’s faubourg, and the youngest boy of this family, Salih, is the centre of the chain of events in this poor suburb. He falls in love with a prostitute, but this passionate love is accompanied with severe suffering. This is because people need to fight in order to survive in this poor suburb, called Cholera, like the illness that brings only death. From catchy scenes and dialogs to awesome casting, and to excellent story, this film is definitely a must-see for those who want to understand the life in the ghettos of Istanbul in the 90s. The only problem of the film is the language loses its strength when translated because the dialogues include much slang and bad words.

Time to love

TIME TO LOVE (SEVMEK ZAMANI)
METİN ERKSAN
1965

Probably this is the first of its kind as the film stories a man who fell in love with a picture of a woman. A true gem coming from the roots of modern Turkish cinema, the film starts with Halil and his master Mustafa painting a beautiful house in the Princess Islands and while working Halil sees a photograph of a young woman, Meral, and falls in love with it. Upon her arrival on the island, Meral shares the same feelings as Halil. Nevertheless, both destiny and director Metin Erksan’s objection are the reasons, our lovers share a platonic affair as Halil admits that he falls for the photography. Filmed in 1965! Lovely! Heavenly black-white scenes of Istanbul introduce us Occident and Orient, the chaotic battle of these two different identities, two perceptions of love.

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE (RUSYA’DAN SEVGİLERLE)
TERENCE YOUNG
1963

After the success of “Dr. No”, the movie that introduced the James Bond character to the silver screen, Terence Young’s “From Russia With Love”, the second in the James Bond series, came onto the screen in 1963. Filled with a heavy dose of nonstop action scenes including the great fight scene in the Orient Express train, James Bond goes to Istanbul in his second adventure – to join forces with Kerim Bay and Tatiana Romanova against the Spectre organisation. The cinematography is too wonderful to show vistas of Istanbul. Blue Mosque, Spice Market, Topkapı Palace, Galata Bridge, Golden Horn, Hagia Sofia, Basilica Cistern,  Sirkeci Terminal are some of the places that the notorious agent steps on and introduces to the whole world. There’s also an intelligent plot, great pace, exotic locations, a young Sean Connery, and what’s more that we are given Daniela Bianchi – the best Bond girl ever! This is a must-see because they don’t make Bond films like this anymore!

THE TURKISH BATH (HAMAM)
FERZAN ÖZPETEK
1997

The first of Turkish-Italian director Ferzan Özpetek, this film is carefully and intelligently written and directed. Following the life and journey of a married hip couple to Istanbul, this movie has been classified amongst controversial ones, mostly for its seductive aura and chemistry between two men. Those who can portray beyond the pictures will understand that by introducing the Turkish Hamam to Francesco, a new perception of life has been given to him. Let alone the bittersweet story, the special charms of Istanbul at the centre of the movie. The director makes us wonder at the atmosphere of many centuries through the ancient, full of historical buildings city of Istanbul.  Along with Francesco we take long walks to winding streets and numerous harbours, to a city that seemed chaotic and dirty but turned to be a magical place surrounded by sapphire-blue water.

HEAD-ON (DUVARA KARŞI)
FATİH AKIN
2004

The winner of the top prize – Golden Bear – at the 2004 Berlin Festival, Fatih Akin’s precisely constructed drama, “Head On”, captures a love story laced with tragedy that may make you cry. The film revolves around two Turkish immigrants, Cahit and Sibel, who are hopeless, unhappy and tired of living a fucked-up life in Hamburg. One day, Cahit attempts suicide by driving head-on into wall to the sounds of “I Feel You” from Depeche Mode and after that he is taken to a mental institution where he meets with Sibel who also attempted a suicide. Their meeting ends up with the fake marriage, but Cahit begins to feel love for her, and the jealousy he feels brings tragedy to their lives. The performances of the two protagonists, Birol Güven as Cahit and Sibel Kekilli as Sibel, are the heart of the film that doesn’t obey the rules of classic Hollywood romances.

GIRL ON THE BRIDGE (KÖPRÜDEKİ KIZ)
PATRICE LECONTE
1999

This film follows the story of two half soul characters, a girl and a man. The girl, Adele, is on the edge of the Parisian Bridge, about to jump off, and there is a man’s voice from the dark: “You look like a girl who’s about to make a mistake.” The man, Gabor, is a knife thrower, and suggests her to team up, she has nothing to lose, she accepts. That’s how the love story begins, the viewer leaves Europe where they travel around, and the story which begins on a Parisian Bridge ends on an Istanbulite Bridge. On the Galata Bridge, Gabor stands on the edge, and a woman’s voice comes from the dark: ““You look like a man who’s about to make a mistake.” The events are shown in black and white, which allow the viewer to focus on the characters, and romance, comedy and drama come together in this work of art – from director Patrice Leconte.

TOPKAPI
JULES DASSIN
1964

Director Jules Dassin made a name with the movie “Rififi”, one of the classics of 50s, and to top his own hit Mr. Dassin presented his “Topkapı” film in 1964. Starring Peter Ustinov, Maximillian Schell and Melina Mercouri, this funny movie, which is rich in detail and background, tells a story of a multi-national gang of thieves who attempt to steal fabulous jewelled dagger from the Topkapı Palace Museum in Istanbul. The movie is filled with great locations, beautifully filmed as Dassin’s Istanbul is very exotic and mysterious, and it is also blessed with very fine soundtrack by great composer Manos Hadjidakis. Just for the images of Istanbul in the 1960s which doesn’t exist anymore this movie is definitely a must-watch!

MAGIC CARPET RIDE (ORGANİZE İŞLER)
YILMAZ ERDOĞAN
2005

In the organised crime world of Istanbul, there are mainly two kinds of people; the one who take and the ones who are taken. That’s what Asim Noyan says in “Magic Carpet Ride” movie which revolves around a crime gang that engages various criminal activities in Istanbul. Asım Noyan, the leader of a crime gang, meets the failed comedian Samet, and that’s the moment in the movie when the comedy really begins. Samet finds himself in the lives of gangs and obviously that’s not his place to be. Written and directed by Yılmaz Erdoğan, who also characterises Asim Noyan in the movie, “Magic Carpet Ride” is one of the first films that that use Istanbul’s images as a marketing product. Moreover, nearly ten minutes of film consists of aerial shots of Istanbul. In addition, while many Turkish comedies fails to get a laugh from foreign watchers, “Magic Carpet Ride” succeeds to be Turkish in the feel, but the humour is definitely universal.

RUN FOR MONEY (KAÇ PARA KAÇ)
REHA ERDEM
1999

The second movie from director Reha Erdem, “Run for Money” is a film about how money corrupts people, even the most honest ones. The protagonist of the movie, Selim, leads a monotonous life working in his family shop in the backstreets of Istanbul, but his life changes when he finds a bag with $450,000 dollar left by the taxi’s previous passenger. For the first time in his life Selim follows the wrong side; he takes the bag home and hides the story from his family. He wants to use the money for the good of his family, but however he finds himself only telling lies and doing other bad things he has never done his life. A long journey into the soul begins soon afterwards. Different from most of the movies set in Istanbul, this effective and powerful film focuses on the story more than Istanbul’s picturesque scenes. You can only see the touristic part of Istanbul that composed of Beyoğlu, Karaköy and Fatih.

SKYFALL
SAM MENDES
2012

This is the 23rd instalment in the official Bond series. It is a special movie because it marks the 50th anniversary of world-wide known agent 007 James Bond. The movie star Daniel Craig as James Bond, the film starts with the routine chase, but this time in the old city of Istanbul; he rides his motorbike through the old city of Istanbul, Eminönü Square hosts the next scenes where the British agent guides us through the quaint alleys, then the chase continues on the roof of the Grand Bazaar, making it impossible not to be confused by the endless swapping of images so full of colours and dimensions that can only be compared to well crafted post cards. The routine chase results in Bond being shot and wounded, believed to be dead by M16, but he comes back to scene later and the adventure continues. Despite the heavy criticism by the Bond fans, who thinks the film doesn’t have the feel of a Bond movie, “Skyfall” is worth watching as long as you consider the film individually from the rest of the series!

THE EDGE of HEAVEN (YAŞAMIN KIYISINDA)
FATİH AKIN
2007

There’s a reason why this film won the Best Screenplay award in the 2007 Cannes and was Germany’s entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 2007 Oscars. This film is proof that director Fatih Akın’s film-making is of a very high caliber. It is an excellent drama with lots of implications such as politics, migration, family, love, loneliness, alienation, forgiveness and loss. Filled with heartfelt performances, “The Edge of Heaven” tells the stories of 6 characters, 4 Turks and 2 Germans, whose lives are intertwined by fate, and therefore the story shuttles between Turkey and Germany. The most successful part of the film is that the screenplay brilliantly brings each character together. A touching story, there is much sadness in the movie, but yet director Fatih Akin knows how to leave you feeling hopeful and happy at the end. The production shoot was mainly in Bremen and Hamburg in Germany; at Taksim and Kadıköy in Istanbul in Turkey.

WRONG ROSARY (UZAK İHTİMAL)
MAHMUT FAZIL COŞKUN
2009

Some cities in the world, such as Istanbul, never lack unique stories. What can possibly happen when fate unites two people of different cultural and religious backgrounds? In this movie set in Istanbul, the answer of this question is the story itself.  This fine romantic drama presents us the fight between devotion to the duties of a muezzin and his love for a catholic nun. The alternation of sentiments coming from both sides being added to the alluring background carved with pieces of Istanbul turn this movie to a path that leads us to thoughts about love, diversity and companionship. This delicate film won Best Actor, Best Screenplay awards at Istanbul International Film Festival 2009, and a Tiger Award at International Film Festival of Rotterdam 2009.

The Legends Behind The Foundation of Istanbul

Every magnificent city is surrounded by mystery. Not only the mystery that emanates from its already astounding atmosphere, but also the legends and myths behind its foundation. For a city like Istanbul with such a cultural magnitude, it is seminal to know something about the cradle of its creation. Otherwise as a tourist, one will simply visit a few common places whilst missing out on the grains of civilisation and culture that are spread in different corners of Istanbul.  It is only a trained eye that can observe these subtle aspects.

In our article today, we will look at the three most significant myths or legends behind the evolution of the great city of Istanbul, starting from the ancient times through to the most recent perceptions.

The Legend of the fairies

Before the creation of humans, fairies are said to have lived on earth. Their lifestyle was quite similar to the human life of today especially when it came to organising celebrations like wedding ceremonies. In one of the fairies, two fairies fell in love and wanted to get married. The father of the girl gave a precondition that the boy’s father would construct a beautiful palace for the future bride and groom in the most beautiful part of the world. Upon agreeing to this precondition, the groom’s father set out to travel around the world looking for a magnificent spot. He settled in Istanbul thus building a beautiful palace for his son and future bride in Istanbul. On completion of the palace, the groom’s father sent a message to the girl’s father informing him about the palace and its beauty. The girl’s father was very much in awe of the palace’s beauty and Istanbul where the palace had been built that he agreed to give his daughter’s hand in marriage. It is said that Istanbul was then founded in the Bosphorus which is one of the world’s most beautiful places.

Megaryan Byzas’ legend

According to this legend, the Megarians living in Greece decided to found a city under the leadership of Byzas. They however did not know where they could found the city. Upon consultation with the oracle of Delphi, the oracle replied that “There is an area across the land of the blind, found the city on that area”. The Megarians then set out to find the land of the blind under the leadership of their president going as far as the coasts of what is today known as Sarayburnu. Reaching here, they were captivated by the unique beauty of the scenery. Byzas later caught sight of Kadıköy and his thoughts were that it was surely the land of the blind, since the people who had left this beautiful spot and settled on the opposite coast must certainly have been blind. Remembering oracle’s words “there is a place across the land of the blind”, Byzas was convinced that he had found the place he was looking for. He was determined to build his city on this unique land with seven hills that within no time, the city was founded and named after its first founder Byzas.

Although it’s a legend about the foundation of a city that we have inherited over ages in different forms, it does not cast any real light on the facts surrounding the initial foundation of the city. According to a much older local legend, the Thracian king Byzas who was the son of the nymph Semestra married Phidaleia, daughter of Barbyzos, king of the region near Istanbul. It is this lady who is said to have founded Byzantium or Istanbul.

The Legend relating to Zeus’ lover

According to another legend quite similar to the legend of the Megaryan Byzas, Zeus’ lover, the chief of all the ancient Greek gods decided to turn herself into a cow so as to escape the wrath of Zeus’ vengeful wife Hera. During her flight, she gave birth to a daughter Keroessa on the banks of the Golden Horn. Keroessa was brought up by the nymph Semestra. In the course of events, she gave birth to the son of the sea god Poseidon whom she named Byzas. Byzas was brought up by the naiad Byzia.  It is possible to corroborate this legend with Istanbul’s geography as one will encounter the names Byzas and Keroessa in various forms among the names of very old places in Anatolia. This perhaps demonstrates that the legend originates from events that took place in the depths of Anatolia’s history.

The first legend could be connected to the Greek migrations that took place between 750 and 550 BC, which are certainly not related to the city’s initial foundation. The probability is that during these migrations, a new Greek city was founded around 660 BC in what is now Istanbul circa. And it is from there that the present city developed. These legends fortify the pleasant uncertainty specific to this city of wonder which keeps its habitants and visitors connected at all times. It is an undeniable aura of mystery that continues to float over the architectural grandeur of Istanbul, amplifying its beauty and eternal metamorphosis.

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