Letter from Antalya: Border Patrol Agents on Vacation
A group of border agents are sitting on a beach in the southern Turkish seaside resort town of Antalya. It’s a working holiday –...
Letter from Istanbul: My Own Private Venice … In Sultangazi
For those of you who haven’t been there, Sultangazi sits on the furthermost outskirts of Istanbul, out near the highway that heads up to...
Yabancı Abroad: When in Rome…Levitate
When we got off the bus at Rome’s Termini Stazion, the first thing we saw was an Istanbul Kebab Shop.
My girlfriend Ozge laughed at...
Beating the Istanblues: A Night at the Spa
My wife Özge and I can’t afford many luxuries. We’re a working couple, with different schedules. We don’t even share the same days off.
We...
Construction Fever: Will It Save Us from the Next Big One?
Bağdat Caddesi is a long, wide shopping avenue on the Asian side of the city, Istanbul’s equivalent of 5th Avenue or Rodeo Drive.
Nearby are...
Letter from Karaman: Night of the Dervish
The city of Karaman stands on the low wheat plains of Anatolia, about an hour south of Konya, the birthplace of Rumi.
Arriving from Istanbul,...
Confused Letters from Istanbul: Rude Sheiks and Mad Rams — A...
It is almost a cliché to say that behind every name in Istanbul there is a story; nevertheless, the saying is true.
For instance, I...
City Scherzos: Istanbul’s Absurdist Heart
The other evening, my wife and I were out in our neighborhood of Koşuyolu feeding the cats as is our evening ritual.
While we were...
Letters from Istanbul: The Ballad of Angry Çetin
We all have those people who drift in and out of our lives, and years later, we find ourselves musing about them, wondering whatever...
House-Hunting in the Age of Terror
My wife wants to buy an apartment. That’s a pretty common goal for many people in this city, since it’s a sound investment. The...
Letters from Istanbul: The Sum of Our Travels
The other day I was having lunch at Café Nero with one of the new teachers.
She said she came from Austin. Since I grew...
My Old Neighborhood
I was 50. Half a century. How was that even possible?
Some years ago, one of my directors Zeynep, a lovely, cheerful Mediterranean woman had...
Letter from Istanbul: Looking Back at the Old New World
This month marks my tenth anniversary in the city by the Bosphorus, so I want to go back and remember how it was that...
The Golden Hour
Nizam walked quickly and nervously through the twilight. The fences and houses along Limon Paşa Boulevard were dark silhouettes beneath the rapidly aging sun....
A Strange Fast
With the start of the holy month of Ramazan this past week, many Turks have been fasting and praying. It’s not easy, especially in...
Letters from Istanbul: City of the Blind (Or, Why You Shouldn’t...
I live in Kadıköy, the “city of the blind.”
Have you heard this one?
Well, in ancient times, the first Greeks who arrived from Megara set...
Letters from Istanbul: Yeldeğirmeni’s Quiet Renaissance
Author’s note: Last week, I wrote about the stories behind some of Istanbul’s street names, and the week before that I traced some of...
City Scherzos: This Matter of Medusa
You may have read in the Turkish news recently that archaeologists in Antalya found the head of Medusa … in stone.
The archaeologists told reporters...
City Scherzos: Bukowski in Sultanahmet (and Other Ghosts of Teachers Past)
I’ve been a teacher for the past ten years, first in Prague and now in Istanbul. Over the years, you get used to seeing...
Midnight at the Pera Palace
A young journalist travels back in time to 1919 Istanbul, accidentally disrupting the natural flow of history. She must act quickly to prevent the...
Letters from Istanbul: Avenues & Interludes
One Saturday afternoon in the autumn of 2012, I was walking around Beyoğlu. I don’t spend much time on the European side of Istanbul,...