You can't have a single silent day in Istanbul without having a casual conversation about Istanbul. That's what all small talks are about around here. Just choose words like "crowded", "traffic", "beautiful", "breeze", "bosphorus", "people", "urbanization", "immigration", "dynamic", "colorful", "restless", "alive", "pressure", "danger", "disorder", "adrenalin", "bad but beautiful", "beautiful but bad" and you can easily have a 5 hour chat with any stranger on the street.
Small talk is one thing, sophisticated is another. Prof. Dr. Edhem Eldem, one of my university professors whom I respect a great deal, gave a lecture called "Change and Development in Istanbul during 18th and 19th Centuries" last month from which I want share my highlights with you if my memory doesn't fail me:
The stereotypical timeline for Istanbul -an empire capital for centuries- goes like this: Constantinople, as a Byzantium capital, was "European". The Ottoman came and dramatically transformed the city by demolishing everything that was European in it. The city, now called Istanbul, became the very symbol of a vast Islamic empire. It became the center, the heart where the blood and gold flowed to. But the transformation was never over, with its unique urban development, Istanbul kept shifting its center north -from the current historic peninsula to the current central tube line- instead of growing around the origin like its European siblings. Every center shift brought along a new era, a brand new page that changed lifestyles. Meanwhile, European minorities lived packed together around Taksim/Pera without changing their lifestyles or mixing in. They were legal aliens in Istanbul, strangers to the oriental ways of the common crowd. And we were damn oriental with our mysterious belly dancers, exotic spices, and dangerous camels... Well... The history doesn't agree with this picture.
So what was really going on?
So what was really going on?
First, Istanbul's timeline is straight, not discreet as it is believed to be. We didn't start over in any of these cases, Istanbul was always pretty much on the same page as it is today. You can see it in documents, you can see it in maps, you can see it in paintings and you can see it in photos. For almost 10 centuries, it was always pictured with the same taste, the same lifestyle, the same perception and the same types of emphases. But Europe chose to treat Istanbul like an outcast, like an exotic-far-away-land, like an ex-partner who is now a complete stranger. This "banishment" was very much welcome and nourished by the Ottoman who wanted to distinguish themselves from the west until the last two centuries. With the caliphate, they were trying to look as eastern as possible to have all Islamic countries under control. The royalty tried to hide the fact that the empire was running itself with its unified societies, and used propaganda to show Istanbul as a dominant oppressing central, eventually causing the western minorities to label themselves as western. This oriental self-delusion was nailed to the minds of people, forever haunting the current historic peninsula while the city center started shifting north. Now, even after the end of Ottoman Empire almost 100 years ago, everyone thinks that the oriental area defines Istanbul despite the completely different structure built away from it in all these years. And this mysterious package easily sells, that's what the tourists want to see: lots of question marks, the belly dancers that Turks only care about when they have a tourist to host, exotic spices that are not so exotic, and dangerous camels that don't event exist around here. There is so much more to this place that the oriental shade is just a crack on the wall at most. I have done so many diverse things within this single weekend but very few of what I did is inside the boundaries of the identity associated with this confused city. 3 million people pass the main street everyday, and almost all of these 3 million people have identity issues mainly due to centuries of self-denial.
