The Inevitable Change Of The Cankurtaran District

https://youtu.be/IpbHWCeKQh0

The Interviewer (Nurcan Yalman)-NYalman

-Why do you wish to leave here? But why?

The interviewee, Mukhtar of Cankurtaran District

(Nevin Taş)-NTaş

- I don’t feel comfortable here anymore... even though I was born and bred here.

NYalman

- So, do none of your friends stay in this neighborhood?

N.Taş

-I don’t think so, the residential population is not many anyway. Those who already exist usually have come from outside. The locals are not more than ten houses.

NYalman

-Are they also planning to leave?

NTaş

-Yes. Obviously, they were made to leave from here.

NYalman

-And according to you, how this has happened? Is it Tourism?

NTaş

- I don't blame tourism either, No! No! I get angry with those who allow, I get angry with those who give way.

NYalman

- How do you think it should have been then? Because tourism has to exist, namely Sultanahmet, Topkapı Palace, etc.

NTaş

- Well, it's a place with palaces. Tourism, of course. We are not against tourism anyway.

NYalman

- So what could it be? If you had run this place from the beginning, how would you do it? What would you do?

NTaş

- I would do a lot of things. I would open nice kindergartens, I would open schools, I could do very good things.

NYalman

- So are you saying that you would protect the residential-neighborhood culture?

NTaş

- Of course, I would protect it. The neighborhood culture was something very different here. We would have weddings, we would do it outdoors. It is difficult to explain, I am very emotional, oops, I loved our neighborhood culture very much. We, about 10 families, are still continuing our own neighborhood culture. For example, we have our Roman (gypsy) neighborhood down there, it is Ahırkapı Roman neighborhood. There aren't any people left there either. Now, most of them are the people who came from Taşlıtarla, Gazi Osman Pasha, Mimar Sinan, and such places.

NYalman

- Is there a road connecting to Ahırkapı from here?

NTaş

- Sure, if you go under that bridge, you turn from the first right, you arrive at a square, it's quite a big area.

NYalman

- Living with the Romans (gypsies) must be something fun.

NTaş

-But, we love them.

NYalman

-No need to say “but”, I also like them.

- Our henna nights and weddings are lovely, they are very entertaining people. They enjoy their days, there are no such things as sadness or gloom, and they are very relaxed people, I love them, and I know that they love me too. For example, whether on a wedding day, whether somebody is ill or dead, we stick together in good and hard times. I'm carrying our neighborhood culture down to Ahırkapı as well.

NYalman

- How do they view this situation? (Tourism and the change it brings)

NTaş

- They hardly know the past of this place.

NYalman

Are they new here?

NTaş

- of course, of course. Those old ones are already gone, some of them died, and the rest are very few, but most of them came later and do not know the past/history of this place.