Mustafa Ziyalan - Istanbul Noir

This collection is comprised of works of fiction. All names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the authors imaginations. Any resemblance to real events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Published by Akashic Books
2008 Akashic Books

Series concept by Tim McLoughlin and Johnny Temple
Istanbul map by Ayegl zer

eISBN-13: 978-1-617-75006-9

ISBN-13: 978-1-933354-62-0
Library of Congress Control Number: 2008925932
All rights reserved

Akashic Books
PO Box 1456
New York, NY 10009
info@akashicbooks.com
www.akashicbooks.com

ALSO IN THE AKASHIC NOIR SERIES:

Baltimore Noir, edited by Laura Lippman

Bronx Noir, edited by S.J. Rozan

Brooklyn Noir, edited by Tim McLoughlin

Brooklyn Noir 2: The Classics, edited by Tim McLoughlin

Brooklyn Noir 3: Nothing but the Truth,
edited by Tim McLoughlin & Thomas Adcock

Chicago Noir, edited by Neal Pollack

D.C. Noir, edited by George Pelecanos

D.C. Noir 2: The Classics, edited by George Pelecanos

Detroit Noir, edited by E.J. Olsen & John C. Hocking

Dublin Noir (Ireland), edited by Ken Bruen

Havana Noir (Cuba), edited by Achy Obejas

Las Vegas Noir, edited by Jarret Keene & Todd James Pierce

London Noir (England), edited by Cathi Unsworth

Los Angeles Noir, edited by Denise Hamilton

Manhattan Noir, edited by Lawrence Block

Manhattan Noir 2: The Classics, edited by Lawrence Block

Miami Noir, edited by Les Standiford

New Orleans Noir, edited by Julie Smith

Queens Noir, edited by Robert Knightly

San Francisco Noir, edited by Peter Maravelis

Toronto Noir, edited by Janine Armin & Nathaniel G. Moore

Trinidad Noir, edited by Lisa Allen-Agostini & Jeanne Mason

Twin Cities Noir, edited by Julie Schaper & Steven Horwitz

Wall Street Noir, edited by Peter Spiegelman

FORTHCOMING:

Barcelona Noir (Spain), edited by Adriana Lopez & Carmen Ospina

Copenhagen Noir (Denmark), edited by Bo Tao Michaelis

Delhi Noir (India), edited by Hirsh Sawhney

Indian Country Noir, edited by Liz Martnez & Sarah Cortez

Lagos Noir (Nigeria), edited by Chris Abani

Mexico City Noir (Mexico), edited by Paco I. Taibo II

Moscow Noir (Russia), edited by Natalia Smirnova & Julia Goumen

Paris Noir (France), edited by Aurlien Masson

Phoenix Noir, edited by Patrick Millikin

Portland Noir, edited by Kevin Sampsell

Richmond Noir, edited by Andrew Blossom,

Brian Castleberry & Tom De Haven

Rome Noir (Italy), edited by Chiara Stangalino & Maxim Jakubowski

San Francisco Noir 2: The Classics, edited by Peter Maravelis

Seattle Noir, edited by Curt Colbert

Acknowledgments

Mustafa thanks Pnar Yeilolu for giving him such a good reason to live, and for not so simply bearing with him through those Istanbul Noir times; Cem Mumcu for encouraging him to plunge into the project; Murat Eybolu for making him look good in his photographs; his aunt Nil Taneri for inspiring him with her street map of Istanbul which she autographed for him in 1967; and Re-fike Trker, his aunt from Kumkap, whose death was the death of Istanbul a little bit.

Amy thanks Dilek Akdemir for, well, everything. She also thanks Tansel Demirel for being a translators best friend; Irene Gates for valuable feedback; dil Aydoan for blatant honesty, bold encouragement, and Foa; participants of the Cunda International Workshop for Translators of Turkish Literature for input and motivation; Tlin Er for constant reassurance; and her mother for reading to her while she was still in the womb.

Both Mustafa and Amy would also like to thank the tough-lovin (but not necessarily tough to love) folks at Akashic; Ayegl zer for the killer map; Deniz Ourlu for the stark and striking cover photo (and Murat Ourlu and Deniz Akkol for helping us find it); and Mel Kenne for making connections.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TRANSGRESSION AND THE STRAIT: POLITICS, PASSION, AND PAIN

I stanbul is the place where East meets West, literally. It is, as convention would have it, a meeting point, a crossroads. At the same time, it marks the spot where geography is irreparably rent in two; it is a fissure in the continuum, a seething rupture, so to speak. The only city in the world to lie smack dab at the junction of two continents, Europe and Asia, Istanbul is split down the middle by the Bosphorus Strait, pierced by the Golden Horn, and caressed by the Black and Marmara seas. In short, with her tough love, Mother Nature has pummeled and groomed this place into one of the most stunning geographical locations on earth.

Indeed, Istanbul has been the site of the collision and collusion, of the fracturing and the fusion of cultures, for millennia. Capital of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) and Ottoman empires, the city formerly known as Byzantium and then Constantinople became Istanbul (incidentally, a word derived from the Greek term for in the city) after being conquered by the Ottomans in 1453. Many Christian Greeks remained and even flourished in Istanbul following Byzantiums defeat at the hands of the Muslim Ottomans. Under Ottoman rule, Istanbul became known as alem-penahrefuge of the universe, a haven for myriad religious and ethnic groups. When the Jews were expelled during the Spanish Inquisition in 1492 by the Spanish king, the Ottoman Sultan welcomed them with open arms. As the capital of the Ottoman Empire, Istanbul attracted hundreds of thousands of people for centuries from within the empires vast territories and beyond. In the wake of the empires demise, the Turkish Republic (founded in 1923) has served this legacy well. Waves of immigration, especially since the 1950s, have increased the citys population by more than tenfold: Turks, Kurds, Laz, Alevis, Circassians, Bosnians, Albanians, Macedonians, etc. You get the picture. A mosaic, a melting pot, a vat of oil and watercall it what you will, there is no denying that Istanbul has always been ethnically, socially, and religiously cosmopolitan to the core.