Istanbul: Glimpses of a Megacity

Istanbul fascinates me. So do its people. In this work I explore how do the people of Istanbul feel where they belong. Was it to this huge city? To a neighborhood? To an ancestral village? I have looked for an answer to this question by talking to people at length, and the result is a group of personal accounts of Istanbul. I have included myself, an Istanbul native, in the center of the research. Both by telling my own story and sometimes by appearing in the narratives I have written about others. I have deliberately chosen to tell the stories of people I know well, not of strangers. Although being derived from an academic study, what you are about to read is not a scholarly work. This, in short, is a subjective yet informative study that will help “the intellectually curious to explore Istanbul”. I hope these stories, along with the introductory chapter, offer glimpses from different angles of the different parts of the city. The individuals whose stories are depicted here do not represent any group, strategy or political view. They speak only for themselves. I invite you to join me in the quest to understand how we, Istanbulis, reply to the question, “Where are you from?”