Letters from Istanbul

They were three sisters and they had all grown up together in a small town in the south of Turkey. The oldest, and the...

It’s hard to miss the Trump Towers in Istanbul. The twin tower complex, bearing the signature brand name in large letters, commands your view as...

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...

As a yabancı, you probably have your own first impressions of the city. One of my own was made while coming from Ataturk International Airport...

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...

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,...

All day long, in fits and waves, there had been blackouts. And not just in one part of Istanbul, but across the whole vast...

A group of border agents are sitting on a beach in the southern Turkish seaside resort town of Antalya. It’s a working holiday –...

Ali was a 27-year-old Kurd from the eastern Turkish city of Van. He and his brothers had come to Istanbul nearly a decade before...

Every great city has its own soundtrack, or at least, deserves one. If it doesn’t, you should think about moving somewhere else. I think of...

In the city of Istanbul many poor old women sell packets of tissue in the streets, mostly to passing motorists and the people sitting...

We were getting married. We couldn’t believe it. It was unbelievable. We didn’t consider ourselves the marrying type. We were too lazy to get...

On the way to work the other morning, the taxi driver, noticing I was a yabancı, asked the usual, inevitable question. “America,” I answered. “Amerika?” the driver...

“Do you know why this city exists? So that a guy like me doesn’t take you to the end of the world.” This is...

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...

A young journalist travels back in time to 1919 Istanbul, accidentally disrupting the natural flow of history. She must act quickly to prevent the...

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...

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...

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...

You may have read in the Turkish news recently that archaeologists in Antalya found the head of Medusa … in stone. The archaeologists told reporters...

The word “devrim” means revolution. Does Devrim Erbil consider himself a revolutionary? “Of course,” he says, without hesitation. “Every day. Every night. I work constantly.” Indeed, at...