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  The Muslim World's Most Modern City: Miniskirts Meet Minarets in the New Istanbul

The Muslim World's Most Modern City Miniskirts Meet Minarets in the New Istanbul

By Annette Grossbongardt in Istanbul

Part 4: Stuck Between Remembering and Amnesia

Now, in the search for a better quality of life and living conditions, something downtown Istanbul can no longer offer, many of the city's affluent residents are being lured out toward the Black Sea, where luxury gated communities are springing up like independent planets.

Göktürk, located about 25 kilometers (16 miles) as the crow flies from downtown Istanbul, has turned in the space of a decade from a village into a satellite city for between 6,000 and 8,000 Istanbulites. Here life is green and pleasant and the bustle of Istanbul seems far away. For several thousand dollars, residents can join the exclusive Kemer Golf and Country Club, complete with golf courses, a manmade lake, stables, a music school, tennis courts, gyms and even an outdoor survival camp.

This is something that more and more Istanbulites can afford, and not just the established upper class. The recent economic boom has produced a new middle class who are intent on showing off their newfound affluence. To serve this new market, international fashion and luxury goods retailers, including Vakko, Harvey Nichols, Ferragamo, Fendi and Louis Vuitton, are coming to Istanbul.

Istanbul's traditional shopping street, Istiklal Caddesi, is lined with colorful little banners that read: "Istanbul, European Capital of Culture 2010." According to the European jury, the city's application for the one-year honorary title was especially "progressive and innovative." Istanbul hopes to make 2010 a magical year for the city, complete with dazzling events for tourists, European creative artists, street theater, floating platforms on the Bosporus and a trip back in time through 7,000 years of history. Dilapidated historical monuments are now being restored, including those from the city's Christian and pre-Christian eras.

"We see the title as an opportunity to recapture the lost, old Istanbul," says Nuri Çolakoglu, the chairman of the 2010 initiative. "We want to show how deep the cultural roots we share with Europe are."

Author Elif Shafak called Istanbul the "stepchild of the modern, secular Turkish republic." With its multicultural heritage, especially of Greeks and Armenians, Christians, Muslims and Jews, it resisted the young republic's myth that all were equal and members of a homogeneous family of proud Turks. Nevertheless, says Shafak, Istanbul still doesn't know exactly where it belongs. "It swings back and forth between cosmopolitanism and nationalism, between remembering and amnesia" -- a city on two continents, between Europe and Asia.

It is now evening in Kagan Gürsel's wooden palace on the Bosporus. The veranda offers a view of the bridge across the Bosporus, on which drivers heading west are greeted by a sign that reads: "Welcome to Europe." There is also a view of the fortress of Rumeli Hisari, from which Mehmed the Conqueror launched his attack on Istanbul in 1453.

Gürsel, the hotelier, studied in the United States and always wanted his country to be part of Europe. But now he is disappointed. "Why should I run after someone who doesn't want me?" he asks irritably.

Just as the Gürsels are making themselves comfortable in the library, where they like to pore over thick volumes on Ottoman history, their house is suddenly plunged into darkness. The power is out once again, another feature of life in Istanbul. And, like most residents, the Gürsels have candles at the ready.

Five minutes later, the bridge and the fortress are brightly lit up once again. Ships glide by on the Bosporus like giant shadows. The beauty of the Bosporus turns satiny black at night, and Kagan Gürsel says that he would not want to live anywhere else but in the center of Istanbul.

Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan

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