Around me in Istanbul there is fear on every face – but I see a resilience that refuses to die | Carolin Würfel
WI visited Istanbul for nearly 20 years, and I spoke with an academic who lived through the military coup in Türkiye and political turmoil – some of which were revealed overnight. He was wise and cautious, and although I did not completely understand the weight of his words, they remained with me. And he warned in 2006: “If we are not keen on that, we will end up under an authoritarian system.”
For two decades, it remained tight, and the surface was hacked sometimes. But last week, the erosion of democratic principles became indispensable. Mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem ̇mamoğluHe was arrested on charges of corruption after the court ruling.
Fear from the future returned to a city that is usually loud and uncomfortable. It is in the streets, in the faces of people, in the air. Tens of thousands gathered outside the city hall next to the Sarashian Park, walked in the streets, and protested outside the çağlayan court. Hundreds of thousands Mobilization at the country levelAnd turmoil – especially in Istanbul – no signs of fading appear. An elderly woman who was interviewed in a protest in Sarhan Park looked at the camera and said: “I believed that the youth were asleep. It turned out, she is awake.” A young man added: “We will not float on the eye.”
since Moving to Istanbul In 2021, you were an observer – half a tourist, half a resident – in a city that may be the most difficult in anything alike, however it is alive. If there is one certain thing, then this will flourish Istanbul on the paradox. It is the only city in the world that was roaming in two continents, and constantly conveying friction between East and West, traditions, modernity, faith and doubt. Dates collide here every day. You do not even need to cross the Bosphorus to see it; A simple picnic through Bioglu is sufficient.
From Galataport – the elegant waterfront designed for nomads and Instagram feed – you can walk through strict religious Tophane, where alcohol remains taboo, butchers screaming Palestinian orders and signs hanging from balconies. After that, suddenly, you are in boats with its Italian structure, or the bustling Tomtom, where customers leak from wine bars to the streets and drag the church with the call to prayer. On ̇stikla Caddesi, contradictions collide directly – advertising clinics sculpted noses and hair transplants next to women in the veil and others in crop tops.
Children outperform shirts outside the major consulates. Elderly men walk his arm in the depths of the conversation. At night, Queer clubs with music are steps away from the fish market. It seems that the city itself insists: I will not give up. I am always everything simultaneously. Or, as the historian EKREM Işın once wrote: “When we look at Istanbul, we always go to pluralism. Because Istanbul had only one civilization, but civilizations, not only one history, but there is not much history; not just one way of life, but is limited to living.”
Daily life here means submission to everything – beauty, struggle, absurdity. Over the past four years, I have seen my share, and I think this flexibility – this refusal to be settled in one or ideological story – is one of the greatest strengths in the city. (Even the language resists the absolute. Turkish, which has not been touched by sex, is liquid and dodging.)
But flexibility is not immunity. I have seen the economic problems and inflation increased. Just four years ago, I bought 10 Turkish Leira 1 euros; Now, 1 euro buys 41 liras. Small currencies are almost value. The minimum wage was determined recently at 22,104 liters per month, but in Bioglu, the rental of an apartment with less than 30,000 pounds is approximately impossible. Many owners demand payment in dollars. In dark days, my Turkish friends, Google, “the Great Depression” of consolation; On light days, they laugh at a casino -like atmosphere. I have noticed everything, fascinated and guilty, and entered the euro that protects me from the struggles that are not in the claim.
I was here when An earthquake in southeastern Türkiye to hit. It had an immediate effect on life in Istanbul. Everyone I am talking to now knows that they should have enough supply for three days, and that the rope stairs are made of light plastic, and that the safest place during the earthquake is the room that contains the lowest number of furniture.
I watched 2023 Presidential elections Beyond – some silence, and others shouted with joy. I saw many friends applying for visas to leave and reject Türkiye. Istanbul is a magnetic, metaphorical and geographical, but the barriers between it and Europe often feel that they are not broken (even with three bridges on the horizon). Apply for a Schengen visa if you are Turkish became a humiliating ritual – endless leaves, and arbitrary rejection. A friend bitterly said: “It is like begging for a vacation, and you are the person who pays it.”
The passport is now not just a privilege but an investment. Current price: 11,281 lesra for 10 years. Many travel plans are completely abandoned-not worthy of being “a third-class citizen.” My German travel is a key that opens the doors that my friends cannot dream about. Their reality reminds me of my Eastern German grandmother, who spent most of her life besieged behind the wall.
But I also saw hope. Hope returned with the municipal elections in 2024. ̇Mamoğlu was re -elected. CHP party Win Unprecedented – even üsküdar, where Erdogan lives by a woman. Exhale people. They started talking again. They even dared to talk about Gezi Park protests Treating this shock, believing that these years, those brutal weeks, will not return. Life continued. Ideas are spread. A type of regeneration, a type of height. There was space to think, to create, to imagine the possibilities. Yes, a lira remained losing value, and life in Istanbul has become unbearable. But fear was afraid – until the mayor was suddenly arrested. History, again, took a sharp turn, brutal.
What is happening now is shock, harsh. However, this is what this city knows closely: nothing safe. Life can change in a moment. Sleeping – the same thing that made me pleased from the first day – is not just a cultural West; It is alive. When I first arrived, my German habit returned for weeks before I baffled my friends in Istanbul. “Who knows how to feel next week?” They were joking. Now I understand. The plans are meaningless. You never know if you are able to keep it.
After the arrest of Imamoglu last week, people immediately adapted, and canceled everything they do in that evening and go to the streets. They challenged the prohibition of the demonstration, flounded on the pots and pans in Bioglu, threw their windows and called for the resistance. They did not leave despair. They were not silent.
Perhaps it is not a coincidence that I notice more and more young women in Istanbul cut their hair into pop- as in the twenties of the last century. This, also, was the time of turmoil, from changing worlds, economic collapse and ideological paths. But we know how this contract ended, what was lost. The course has not yet been set. And changing it, one needs a free neck – to stretch, to know what it is and what it can be. No time to pressure with hair.
