http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/KG25Ak02.html
Jul 25, 2009 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. (Copyright 2009 Fazile Zahir.) [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
