KEBABBLE
A little less sex in Istanbul
By Fazile Zahir
FETHIYE, Turkey - Istanbul may be about to enter a less salacious chapter of
its history as infamous brothels in the Karakoy area are to be knocked down to
make way for a children's park. Reports in several daily papers told not just
the news that the Beyoglu area was being rezoned and remapped but seemed to
take great delight in alluding to all the non-Muslim activity taking place
around the brothels.
The Hurriyet newspaper described the physical location of the brothels as
"immediately next to the Armenian Surp Pirgic Church" and then, just in case
anyone had failed to take in the allusions to immoral activities in the
vicinity of Christians, added, "The buildings next to the church operate as
brothels. Brothels number 10, 11 and 12, next to the church belong to Yasar
Ceyhun Miriz, Sumbul Yasar and Matild Manukyan."
Hurriyet also did not mention that the French Saint-Benoit Lise is just round
the corner. What was not said is that within spitting distance are one of
Turkey's main banking areas, the Ottoman Galata Tower and the Turkish Kuledibi
hamam/baths, and that the Galata area has always been the most racially diverse
in the city, home to Greeks, Armenians and Jews for centuries.
The loss of the brothels is sad as they made up part of the rich tapestry of
Istanbul life. Karakoy is one of the oldest boroughs of the Beyoglu district
and has been a center of trade and docks since the Byzantine era. The winding
cobbled streets and narrow alleys are picturesque and safe during the day but
ill lit, seedy and much more dangerous at night. As in all areas serving
sailors, prostitutes have always been part of the onshore service industry
here.
In recent years the area's infamy has grown; in addition to state-sanctioned
brothels, many illegal cathouses have sprung up offering younger, more
attractive, girls primarily from the former-USSR. The entrance to the official
area is guarded by state police, who always check the ID cards of those
entering and sometimes frisk arrivals. The area is generally quiet, as men
stand silently, concentrating on the storefront windows, choosing their
half-naked amours. Most of the activity in the streets themselves comes from
waiters bustling in and out with trays of teas and pastries.
One woman made her family's fortune off the backs of the women working in the
brothels. Matild Manukyan, who owned the majority of houses in the
soon-to-be-demolished Zurafa Sokak of Karakoy, was the descendant of an
aristocratic Armenian Istanbul family. She became involved in the industry of
prostitution when a client who could not pay her business bills offered her a
half share in a brothel. Having discovered just how lucrative male lust could
be, she set about expanding her empire until she owned 37 bordellos.
In an interview in 1994 she boasted that she had "the healthiest, best-behaved
and most beautiful girls in all Istanbul". She herself had little to do with
men on an intimate level, never remarrying after her husband died.
Famed for her riches, she owned over 120 buildings in the Istanbul area, 10
villas in Cyprus and three five-star hotels on the Turkish Mediterranean coast.
For five years running, she was Istanbul's top tax-payer. Involvement in
prostitution came at a cost; she found herself in court for employing underage
women, attracted controversy for forcing girls to convert to Islam so they
wouldn't be Christians working as prostitutes, and finally was blown up in a
car bomb attack linked to murky dealings in the Turkish underworld. Though she
never fully recovered from her injuries she did live to the age of 84.
A brothel was opened to cater to foreigners living in the Beyoglu area in the
time of Emperor Abdulhamit the Second, and moved to its current location in
Zurafa Sokak after the establishment of the republic. Until her death in 2001,
the brothel madam was Matild Manukyan.
Some of the neighbors certainly are not sorry to see the brothels go. The
church mentioned by Hurriyet, Surp Pirgic, and a nearby synagogue have been
complaining for years that the presence of the brothels and working girls has
led to a fall in congregation numbers. In Zurafa Sokak, the pedestrianized area
that is home to church, synagogue and brothels, worshippers have to walk past
call girls to get to church.
According to the priests at Surp Pirgic (established 1834), congregation
numbers have fallen from 500 on a Thursday to only eight or nine individuals.
"Our people are embarrassed to walk past the brothels. It humiliates them so
the numbers have fallen away," said a church spokesman.
The motivation for closing the brothels remains unclear. One might say that it
is the prudish Justice and Development Party (AK Party) moving against dens of
iniquity, but that doesn't explain why only two are going. In other areas like
Isparta, where a brothel was closed by the AK Party mayor in 2008, it was
simply moved out of the center of town onto the main road on the way to
Egirdir. Perhaps the AK Party is trying to appeal to non-Muslim minorities by
improving their urban environment, but again the loss of only two brothels will
hardly make a dent in the reputation of the area.
Whatever the reasons and no matter how valid the complaints of the church next
door, to close the brothels is to deny the sensual nature of Istanbul life
through the ages. They have demonstrated in the most visual way possible the
differences in the application of Islam between Turks and Arabs. Their very
existence marks a continuity in a timeline of bawdy history stretching back
over a thousand years.
Fazile Zahir is of Turkish descent, born and brought up in London. She
moved to live in Turkey in 2005 and has been writing full time since then.
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