Haydarpaşa In Colors

Haydarpaşa, with all its all magnificence, is one of the most dominant buildings in Istanbul's soul. If Istanbul is a meeting point between east and west, then Haydarpaşa, being the main train station on the Asian side, is the very point where  these two symbolic poles touch each other perhaps in the most elegant manner. It's like an eagle head proudly standing at the edge of the Asian continent looking at the European shores of Istanbul with a confidence that it seems to take from the vast continent behind.

It was always depicted in the old Turkish movies as the first and rather shocking contact point between peasant Anatolian families and the "challenging" Istanbul with all its - to any foreign eye - intimidating skyline that can be observed right when stepping out the main hall. Perhaps it's this effect or surprise that it makes it "so Istanbul". 

In those movies, you would mostly observe these families observing this skyline - which seemingly is so much more different to what they have in their villages - with thoughtful eyes and maybe also hear the hero utter a word or two showing that he accepts the challenge he is being offered. That that challenge is still the major one going on in Turkey's politics today.

This show I came across by accident. Like many of the Cultural Capital - 2010 things, I didn't hear about this when it happened. Anyway, better than nothing, I'm putting it here.Nice one, indeed, done by these guys.

‘YEKPARE’ (monolithic) from nerdworking on Vimeo.

Speaking of Istanbul

Here is what an Istanbullu is like...

How Istanbul Feels To An Istanbullu Man

I think for a man, there is a strong sense of wisdom in kissing a not spotlessly beautiful woman. How life wears a woman's body, the faults and even more, how she handles these; her fragility makes a woman attractive.


If Istanbul is the chubby, middle aged next door woman with large breasts, then -say- Paris is the photo-shopped beauty on the cover of Sports Illustrated - in a continuous state of narcissistic masturbation.

If there is no other woman in the world when you're making love, then you know you are in love and probably being loved - this way or another. And at some point, as irrational as it is, if the city you live in is the most beautiful city in the world to you; then you know you truly live in that city and that city, I assure you, is and will be breathing with you - wherever you are.

Picture from Ara Güler.

Lively Atoms Coming From The Sun

The title is direct translation of the rather bizarre name of (probably) first vegetarian and raw food restaurant in Turkey that was owned by my grandfather.

Today, as an act of great surprise, my grandmother gave this to me which she found in an old box; a menu used in that restaurant for which I had been looking for quite a long time. This piece of paper dating back to 1956 is a precious artifact of my family's history.

Restaurant of Lively Atoms Coming From The Sun
List of Dishes
Owner: Ejder Akısan
Beyoğlu - Kurabiye Street 24.


Next challenge; to locate exact the spot where it operated.

How To Fish A Cat - A National Geographic Documentary

It's one of the many  interesting things about my new apartment block. We share the block with cats. They are allowed to enter the building as they wish, live there as long as they want. While feeding the stray cats is a common habit in this city - as matter  of fact it's an essential part of Istanbul's culture - I must admit I had never seen this nice tradition being taken to this extreme.


Anyway - I like cats; so no big deal despite the smell in the block.


Today, one of these cats sneaked into my apartment and found her way to my extremely small laundry room which has a corner in its end where a cat can perfectly fit in without being reached by any human being. 


At first I tried for many minutes to convince the extremely anxious cat to come out using my most charming voice to not much luck until the point I realized that the whole scene must be looking extremely bizarre. So I initiated the execution of plan B.

Right after this pic was taken, she ran back to her corner. Flashlight scared her a lot.





I went to the corner shop to get some frozen turkey döner. Here is what happened next:

Good bye Miss Cat. 

3 minutes over Istanbul

I came across this video when looking for multimedia art pieces about Istanbul. It is by far my favorite so far. Most of the images in it are more likely to be from early 80s. Things covered look different than they do now and of course things that developed at mind numbing pace in the last 20 years are missing. But the essential feeling about Istanbul and about being an Istanbullu is to be felt in here. I could at best describe it as a mystical sadness that could only be found in the joy of living. Like the lover far away.

Beat It

Of course, Istanbul had to do it as well. MJ@ Galatasaray square.

Confrontation with a Jew

Sounds like a title coming from a Nazi officer's wartime diary but no the title is today mine. As discriminative as it sounds, the type of conversation I had with a Jewish fellow couple of weeks ago justifies this title as we had the opportunity to discuss some of the tragedies the Turkish-Jewish diaspora had to face coming from the Turkish governments in the last 80 years particularly during 1940's and 1950's.


Bit of a background first;
 
Of course - if you look at the surface Turks love the Jews. First of all, an average Turk couldn't care less that Jesus was betrayed by a Jew and for that matter, quite frankly for Jesus himself.

Secondly when the catholic crown in Spain looked for places to dump them in 1492, only two places in Europe were willing to accept them; Amsterdam and Ottoman Empire's trade cities including Istanbul and Thessaloniki. It is said when Sultan Beyazit 2nd. heard about the news, he said something in effect; "Ye call Ferdinand a wise king he who makes his land poor and ours rich!"  He was very right especially when you considered that the Jewish population was known to be very good in trade.


This pragmatic approach - actually found in every successful empire in history and today's world - ensured a peaceful habitat for Jews in Ottoman Empire to show their magic.Indeed until the beginning of 20th. century, they became an essential nation in the Empire. Of course, we are not talking about type of daily life we would encounter in today's world where regular Ottoman Jews and Muslim Turks meetup in the corner shop for a drink to wash down the daily stress. In fact, until the beginning for 20th. century very few Jews spoke Turkish. They had their own districts in the city (not Ghettos - Mahalles in Turkish meaning simply district) which they rarely needed to leave. In 18th. century Istanbul which was crazily cosmopolitan, this was the way cospolitanism was experienced.





Then when in early 20th. century, as the nation state transformation took pace in the region, unpleasant incidents started to occur against the Jews as well. Although we could safely say that when compared to tragedies what Ottoman Greeks and Armenians had to face, what Jews had to deal with was softer.

Coming back to present; I was at my good mate's wedding coctail where the majority was Jewish. I didn't have any other friends and so I started to gulp down margaritas after margaritas until the point I realized that a little, at his well above 60s, white haired, partially bald, chubby man in his funnily looking white suite was on his own as well. He was checking people around with a shy attitude and was occasionally answering greetings sent over to him from far away corners of the room by shaking his head or slightly raising his glass.

We came eye to eye, smiling at him I walked over and said "you are too handsome to be so bored." No - this isn't how it happened and I haven't turned gay yet; neither do I use such terrible pick-up lines.

We got started talking about daily stuff. He immediately understood that I wasn't Jewish whereas I immediately understood that he was Jewish. Our initially polite and distant conversation developed quickly thanks to my sometimes a bit too direct or even impudent style. I asked him about his first hand experiences at incidents such as the Wealth Tax and September 6-7 1955 incidents; two major sins in the Turkish Republic's short history.

Now, you should know that these are still delicate issues in Turkey. An average Turk thinks he is not racist. He sees racism as a western notion and ignoring the very western transformation his own country has been experiencing from an empire to a nation state, he argues that the Ottoman Empire didn't have any racist history and therefore Turks are exempt from racism. To support this, he gives examples of Ottoman Empire's Milletler or Nations System - an indeed brilliant system for its time. This in the past living, self protection mechanism however prevents him from dealing with phenomena that are actually very evident in today's life including racism. Therefore he prefers to ignore related shameful acts from his own history as if they never happened and shows strong reaction when they are brought up. The reaction is mostly fueled by a sense of deep insecurity.

What I found particularly encouraging were his direct and honest responses that he gave looking directly into my eyes, recognizing the state's and for that matter at that time young nation's direct responsibility. His confidence made me realize with the help of all the movies made and public discussions hold things were changing.

I had been trying to face and come into peace with these actions by reading and by trying to remotely empathize with victims. But this was the first time I could find a real opportunity to actually discuss these face to face with a victim. I chatted with him to learn as many details as I could learn from him where I realized with every detail I could catch, I was becoming freer in a sense my ties with a nation in a nationalist sense was weakening but with the humanity strengthening.

We talked for an hour and in the end we toasted to the human; the sometimes most horrible animal.

Bad Eye

Today, I have come across a scene that would have been possible in only very few places on earth, fortunately or unfortunately including Istanbul.

A woman at her 40's is walking on one of the main shopping streets of Istanbul with her daughter. Very conservative in her moves, the mother looks quite poor and is wearing an old fashioned hijab. The uncovered daughter walking beneath her mother is throwing wannabe sexy smiles around; she is at most at her 15. The big inscription on her tight t-shirt says: "NO SEX CAUSES BAD EYE".

The incident looked so weird that I questioned whether or not it could have been that long since the last time I got laid. Or whether or not Istanbul is the bad eye itself.

July 19th. 00:20

It was yesterday midnight when the smoking ban in Turkey started to be in effect. Last night after having couple of beers with my friend Idil, we moved on to Peyote . When we reached the place, at roughly 00:20, we found people apparently kicked out from inside gathered in front of the entrance smoking their cigarettes. The mood seemed to be quite positive where everyone was complaining but secretly seeming to like it.

We moved on to Cihangir. Walking along streets lined up with clubs, we passed by groups of people smoking outside. I kept thinking that the law was received surprisingly fast until we reached our destination club Kiki to find it still in a thick smoke cloud. The law apparently hadn't reached there last night. People were smoking, so were the bartenders and DJs.

So yeah, luckily another night could be spent with smoking and being smoked. But indicators show that not many of these nights are left for Istanbullus.

Istanbul Is Blooming

Literally, the spring has arrived to Istanbul. The tulips started to show up everywhere.

"Sümbüls" started to shade the terrace of my favorite day-time cafe again.



But more importantly, our much beloved "erguvan"s (Judas trees) started to bloom dotting the green landscapes of Bosphorus with its pink flowers setting gray winter-time imaginations free. To an Istanbullu, when erguvans bloom, it is time to end the hibernation and mix with life outside.

Indeed, the same time has been coinciding with Istanbul's major cinema festival for the last 28 years. The event - Istanbul Film Festival - is a two weeks cultural feast consisting of some 200 movies gathered from all corners of the world shown in movie theaters that mostly concentrate around Taksim area attracting thousands of loyal followers every year.

The lively crowd on streets melts all of a sudden during matinées making the Istiklal and its side streets resemble school corridors. Then when the movies are over, the crowd makes its way back to the streets rushing to cafes to grab a quick drink over a short chat with an acquaintance run into on street until making their way to the next movie.

The festival marks the cultural awakening of the city each year starting a chain reaction of festivals blooming one after another around the city making you believe whatever events you attended during winter time were merely preparations for the real thing - the cultural summer.

Link: