I am a fan of old İstanbul mostly because of stories of my mom and dad when they were growing up in old İstanbul in the 1940s and 1950s. Their stories of old İstanbul used to sound like a fairy tale to me where neatly dressed up men and women would meet in garden parties and dance at ballrooms, where women in gloves and hats met gentleman in suits and hats at patisseries . Istanbul used to sound like a fairy tale land to me when I was growing up. An Istanbul where it was all about elegance, kindness, refinement and entertainment with its ballrooms, jazz bands and garden parties.
Beyoğlu was at the heart of all this elegance with its movie theatres, theatre halls, patisseries, elegant ballrooms, private clubs and luxurious hotels.
Then I came across a TV series on Netflix called Kulüp where the story takes place in the 1940s and 1950s Beyoğlu. It is an incredibly touching story which centers around the 6-7 September 1955 incidents which targeted minorities such as Istanbulite Greeks, Armenians and the Jews.
The incident led to the destruction of properties, holy places and even lives of minorities across Istanbul. My mom used to remember this incident so vividly and used to describe how devastating Beyoğlu was right after the incident with broken glasses, smashed objects and piles of clothes and fabrics kidnapped from stores and scattered around the main avenue. This incident lives in the memory of Istanbul as a dark stain. There are tours in Istanbul on the 6-7 of September each year for the commemoration of this tragic incident.
I understand from what I read and from what my parents said is that Istanbul was never the same again as minorities started to live in fear and in disguise and eventually left forever.
I miss that old Istanbul which I never had a chance to see and which will never be.
I recommend you to watch Kulüp (which literally means Club) to see an İstanbul so vastly different than today and how it tragically ended. But don’t forget that Kulüp is also a love story based on a true and impossible love story between a Turkish guy and a young Jewish girl.
