Category: Culture/Art

Traditional Köfte in Istanbul’s Sirkeci Area

Where we come from, flipping burgers is a time-honored tradition among pimply teenagers looking for a summer job and troubled short-order cooks looking for a place to land in between firings. It’s work that promises mobility, not stability.

But don’t tell that to Ziver Usta, who’s been turning the köfte – something like Turkey’s equivalent of the hamburger – at the grill of the shoe-box-sized Meşhur Filibe Köftecisi in Sirkeci for the last 30 years. The dough-faced Ziver, in his early fifties, is actually the restaurant’s junior employee – “head waiter” Mehmet has been there for 40 years – but his long tenure means he’s only one of a select handful of grill masters who have worked at Filibe over the course of its 100-year history.

“Just like a shop goes from father to son, the grill goes from one master to another,” Ziver, dressed in a white apron and a small peaked cap that looks like it actually might have been salvaged from the kitchen of a 1950s American drive-in burger stand, says proudly. Does he get bored doing the same thing six days a week? Ziver seems surprised to hear the question. “Never,” he says. “I do it with love. I like serving folks.”

We definitely felt the love in Filibe’s outstanding köfte, juicy little buttons of meat that come off Ziver’s coal-fired grill with just the right amout of char. (Although the name Filibe refers to the Balkan town from which the restaurant’s owners hail, the cook told us it really means “juicy.”) The piyaz – white bean salad, served with shredded lettuce and carrot – that came on the side was impeccably fresh and, as always, provided just the right counterpoint to the little meatballs. The restaurant’s central location, not far from the Sirkeci train station and the bustling open-air “food court” on Hocapaşa Sokak, further adds to its appeal.

The century-old, two-item menu here is augmented by the presence of revani, an extremely homey dessert made out of a dense white cake that’s been soaked in a sugary syrup. “It’s good for your sex drive,” waiter Mehmet promised us with a sly nod, Ziver chuckling appreciatively, as if it was the first time he had heard that joke in the 30 years they’d been working together.

Great köfte, time-proven service and bawdy humor – who can get bored with that?

Address: Ankara Caddesi 112, Sirkeci

Telephone: +90 212 519 3976

Hours: 11am-5pm; closed Sunday

(photos by Yigal Schleifer)

via Traditional Köfte in Istanbul’s Sirkeci Area | Culinary Backstreets.

February 26, 2013
Iranian, Turkish, Greek musicians team up for Istanbul concert

TEHRAN – Three kamancheh virtuosos from Iran, Turkey and Greece have come together to perform a concert at the Cemal Resit Rey Hall of Istanbul on March 5.

Kayhan Kalhor from Iran, Derya Turkan from Turkey, and Sokratis Sinopoulos from Greece will perform the concert entitled “Night of Kamancheh”, the Cemal Resit Rey Hall announced on Saturday.

The musicians have organized the program to highlight the power the Iranian instrument.

The Iranian santur virtuoso Ali Bahrami-Fard will also accompany the group in some performances.

They will perform classic pieces of their own country as well as some improvisations during the concert.

Kalhor has previously collaborated with some international musicians.

The most recent one was his joint performance with the Turkish baglama player, Erdal Erzincan, at the GlobalFest, New York’s annual world music festival in January 2013.

SB/YAW

END

via Iranian, Turkish, Greek musicians team up for Istanbul concert – Tehran Times.

February 25, 2013
Classic book ‘Of Mice and Men’ under scrutiny in Turkey

The Turkish government recommends every student in the country read John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, but now a parent has complained it’s not appropriate, because of a few lines on a couple of pages in the book.

Turkey is no stranger to TV and Internet censorship. But recently, a controversy erupted over a call to censor a book on Turkey’s recommended reading list for students.

The book was John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men.”

Bilge Sanci, the head editor at a publishing house in Istanbul, says she still can’t quite understand the problem. Last month, she says, a parent complained that a book she published was inappropriate for his child. The book in question? The Turkish edition of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men.

But not the whole book — just pages 63 and 64. In fact, Bilge said, it’s just a couple of lines.

“They are playing cards in the village and they say let’s get to the town and hanging with the girls at a house, like Miss Suzie’s house, or something like that,” Bilge said. “That’s it. There is nothing else.”

Miss Suzie’s house is a brothel, though the book never uses the word. Still, the local school board urged Turkey’s Ministry of Education to delete the offending lines.

“They said it is not necessary for a child to know about the girls, about these kind of houses, and this kind of information,” Bilge said. “But the book is telling another story about friendship and many things, and this is only two pages.”

The complaint came as a surprise, because “Of Mice and Men’ is on the Education Ministry’s list of 100 books every Turkish child should read. The ministry quickly dismissed rumors that Steinbeck would be censored.

But some teachers say there’s a growing climate of intimidation. One Istanbul high school teacher who didn’t want to be identified by name out of fear of losing his job says that in 14 years of teaching, he’s never gotten in trouble for recommending a book.

“I believe it’s just chance that no one’s complained about me yet. It could happen anytime,” he said.

The man says he gives his students classic books — a far cry from “50 Shades of Grey,” he says. But recently, he’s noticed a change in the government’s recommended reading list. He says they used to be chosen on literary merit, but now, some make the list just because they have Islamic references.

He worries it’s part of a government effort to make Turkey’s schools more traditional and conservative. He points to a speech that Prime Minister Recep Erdogan gave last year, where he said his government “aims to raise religious youth.”

Osman Koca teaches literature at a religious public high school. These schools, the Imam Hatip schools, teach the standard curriculum, along with Islamic studies. Imam Hatip schools were restricted under Turkey’s secular governments, but they’ve become popular again thanks to the support of the conservative governing party.

Koca is a writer himself. Some of his favorite authors include Emile Zola, Leo Tolstoy and even John Steinbeck. He says he’s not worried about official censorship, and he thinks it’s wrong to question a book based on one page.

“You judge the writer according to this one page. I cannot agree with this,” Koca said.

Still, he doesn’t think 15-year-olds should read about brothels. When someone tells him he definitely knew what a brothel was when he was 15, Koca says this generation is different — they’re more innocent.

“We have to imagine their mental state, they do not know about these things. And they don’t need to,” Koca said. “We should have some norms for the books we assign to a 14- or 15-year-old kid.”

Koca says he will assign “Of Mice and Men” to older teens who can understand its content. For now the Ministry of Education seems to agree. But it’s trying to keep tabs on what teachers assign. Recently, it established a hotline where parents can call to complain about a teacher, a lesson or a book.

The complaints go directly to the head office, which investigates. Some teachers say it feels like a witch-hunt. Even Koca admits he’s been investigated for assigning an unapproved book.

“If you want to suggest something outside this list, you are on fire, you are on a cliff,” Koca said. “I personally suffered from it.”

Koca says he’s become more careful about the books he recommends.

As for “Of Mice and Men,” it’s still on Turkey’s reading list, and sales of the 20th century American classic have reportedly spiked in Istanbul.

via Classic book ‘Of Mice and Men’ under scrutiny in Turkey | PRI.ORG.

February 24, 2013
Turkey: Could Closure of State-Run Brothels Endanger Sex Workers’ Lives?

The gradual closure of Turkey’s 52 state-run brothels is emerging as a controversial tactic in Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s declared war on prostitution. While Erdoğan’s supporters denounce brothels as a form of “slavery,” sex workers fear the campaign poses risks to their health and safety.

Closing down state-run brothels “will not keep men from visiting prostitutes,” explained 48-year-old Istanbul sex worker Berna, “but it will push even more women into illegality and the back streets, where they will be without protection, and without any rights.”

Brothels have existed in Turkey since Ottoman times, and were tolerated by Ottoman rulers. During the first years of the Turkish Republic, state-run brothels were established as a way to control prostitution closely on all levels. Under the conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP), though, the emphasis appears to lie more on stamping out activity many Turks view as a moral outrage.

Several state-run brothels around the country reportedly already have been closed down – with official reasons including proximity to a new mosque and the nearby discovery of historical artifacts – and others should soon follow, said Şevval Kılıç, an activist from the Istanbul-based women’s rights organization Women’s Door.

Kılıç asserts that the closure of these brothels will only increase instances of violence against women and transgender people, many of whom for lack of gainful alternative employment work as sex workers.

According to the Turkish Ministry of Health, 3,000 licensed sex workers currently work in the state-run brothels, called “genel evler” or “general houses.” Women’s rights groups estimate that about 100,000 unlicensed sex workers, many of them in Istanbul, work the streets.

“In these houses, there is a minimum of protection, but on the street, working women are on their own,” Kılıç said. Upon entering a state-run brothel in Istanbul, men – women are not allowed to visit the closed-off, red-light district – have to hand over their cell phones, guns, knives and any objects that might be harmful to women.

The experiences of 55-year-old Zeynep, a transgender woman who has been a sex worker for over 30 years, illustrate the dangers. “I work on the street, on the side of motorways, in cars. It’s dangerous,” she said. “I have been attacked, beaten and raped numerous times. But what can you do?”

She added that she would much rather work in a state-run brothel, but that her applications have been denied repeatedly.

Kılıç thinks that the public attitude toward women and transgender people, as well as sex workers, has changed since the AKP came to power in 2002. “To the existing male domination, came an increasing conservatism. It’s a dangerous combination.”

The numbers seem to back her up: according to a 2012 report by the Turkish think-tank International Strategic Research Organization, one woman has died nearly every day in Turkey in recent years as a result of domestic violence. Government statistics report that murders of women increased by 1,400 percent between 2002 and 2009, with nearly 1,000 killed in 2009.

Estimated violence against transgender persons shows a similar trend toward increasing. According to Kılıç, citing data from LGBT groups, 45 transgender persons were likely murdered between 2008 and 2010, but 40 transgender individuals were killed in 2011 alone.

The government, as yet, has not monitored or reported on violence against sex workers or transgender people, she added. “It’s a taboo issue, and remains invisible.”

Government officials were not available for response.

Police harassment has become ever more visible over the past decade, commented Berna, a transgender woman who formerly worked in the state-run brothels in Istanbul’s famous Karaköy red light district. “They constantly pass new laws to force us into invisibility,” she said. “It happens that I eat lunch in a restaurant when the police come and fine me for ‘disturbing the public peace.’ It costs me 82 lira [$47.46] every time. I have to work more to be able to pay all my fines.”

Healthcare could prove a further cost if the state-run brothels close, Berna continued. “In the brothels, a doctor would come every week for obligatory health checks. It was safe. But without a license, it costs a lot of money to go and see a doctor for a check-up. Which girl can afford to pay 150 lira ($83.69) every week?”

Berna cited personal reasons as why she was forced to give up her much-coveted spot in a state-run brothel. Now it is impossible to return, she said. “You have to apply for a government license, but the AKP stopped granting licenses a few years ago. If they don’t close the brothels down, they will simply die out.”

In January, sex workers from the Karaköy brothels demonstrated against the danger of being pushed onto the streets. Their plight has won the sympathy of one of the security personnel monitoring the entrance to the district. “[I]t is hard to work in this milieu. It’s not easy for any woman, not good,” said the young man.

To date, the government has no answer; no work has been done on facilitating sex workers’ transition out of the state-run brothels. “If prostitution is a problem, they are not really trying to solve it,” said Kılıç. “All they do is to sweep dirt under the carpet.”

Editor’s note: Constanze Letsch is a freelance writer based in Istanbul.

via Turkey: Could Closure of State-Run Brothels Endanger Sex Workers’ Lives? | EurasiaNet.org.

February 23, 2013
Book Review: Istanbul – WSJ.com

By Orhan Pamuk (2003)

5 Orhan Pamuk has written, for most of his life, at a desk overlooking both Asia and Europe—and the bridge over the Bosporus that links them—and all his work is about the identity of people close enough to the West to realize just how far away they remain. But none of Pamuk’s intricate novels has quite the emotional directness and poignancy of this memoir in disguise. Roaming around the back streets and forgotten corners of his beloved hometown, he takes us into its very heart—of melancholy and neglectedness—and tries to rescue its secrets from the many notions that foreigners have projected upon it. As the latest rap song from some Hollywood blockbuster overlaps with the call to prayer outside his window, Pamuk cannot turn away from the so-called clash of civilizations. But in “Istanbul” he gives us his most rooted and soulful work, asking us what it is to have a home and providing us with the most haunting, heartfelt travel book of our young global century.

Refik Anadol

An exhibit at Istanbul’s Museum of Innocence, created by Orhan Pamuk to chronicle the city’s life during the era evoked by his novel of the same name. Its collection is documented in ‘The Innocence of Objects’ (Abrams, 272 pages, $35).

via Book Review: The English Patient | The Quiet American | Ghostwritten | Fugitive Pieces | Istanbul – WSJ.com.

February 23, 2013
Istanbul Municipality Forces Neighborhood To Make Way For Planned Gentrification

Until a recent urban renewal project that forced most residents out, the neighborhood of Tarlabaşı was home to a diverse array of Istanbul’s minority populations.

In the early 20th century, Tarlabaşı’s winding streets and colorful buildings were home to many of the city’s Greek residents. After violence against the Greek population their mass emigration from Turkey, Roma and Kurdish families moved in. But today, a municipal plan to turn the area into a wealthier, more mainstream neighborhood has forced out most families — and is making life miserable for the residents who refuse to leave, reports independent media agency Bianet.

Forced to collect rainwater for drinking

The Ber family profiled by three Bianet reporters are, like many modern residents of the neighborhood, recent immigrants to Istanbul from Turkey’s eastern regions.

Their house is certified as cultural heritage by the Istanbul municipality. But because it stands in the way of the urban renewal plans, they were offered approximately 35,000 Euros two years ago to leave and move to a different part of the city. For a family of ten, it will be impossible to find a suitable house for that amount on today’s market, so they refused the offer and stayed.

Other Tarlabaşı residents who demanded more money for their houses were personally threatened, so most of them caved in, took the money, and left, says Ali Ber.

The city is already sending the Bers threatening messages. Recently, their water was cut, forcing the family to collect rainwater for drinking. When Ali Ber asked the municipality why, he was simply informed that the family “could have already been evicted.”

More information about the ongoing gentrification of Tarlabaşı can be found at Tarlabaşı Istanbul.

A recurring problem

“Urban renewal” projects in Istanbul rarely renew their target areas.

The neighborhood of Sulukule was also predominantly inhabited by Roma until the city evicted most residents to make way for planned gentrification. By the time an Istanbul court annulled the project last year, saying it violated the area’s heritage protections and the residents’ rights, most houses had already been destroyed and hundreds of new villas were under construction.

In the city’s main square, Taksim, a more high-profile controversial renovation has begun. The Taksim Project, as it’s known, will replace the square’s adjacent park with a reproduction of old military barracks and a shopping mall, and will isolate the square from surrounding neighborhoods by transforming streets into highways.

Construction on the Taksim Project is now underway, despite the protests of many urban planners, environmentalists, and citizens, none of whom were consulted on the project.

via Istanbul Municipality Forces Neighborhood To Make Way For Planned Gentrification | Green Prophet.

February 22, 2013