Hey, Niko – I stumbled on your blogposts about Tarlambasi, Beyoglu (Tarlabaşı I, Tarlabaşı II: Elif Batuman, Beşiktaş, Kuzguncuk and “diversity”, Tarlabaşı III: Kyra Smaro, the Kurdish taxi-driver and Orhan Pamuk
. Just wanted to write you to say excellent work. Great style, very learned. The quip about Smaragdo the “almost cliché” Politissa was poignant. Is there anywhere else online I can follow your stuff? Are you a journalist or scholar? Myself, I’m a 1st-gen American. Colombian-Polish Queens, NY native who now lives in Greenpoint with the other effete millennial hipsters, clutching onto my shitty rent stabilized unit. As such, I felt very at home in Istanbul…that one time I was able to visit for a week in Cihangir. Heh. That must sound stupidly trite. I apologize preemptively. But I can’t be the first to remark on the psychogeographic parallels of the two cities, with the harbor setting and the throngs and how all the intimate and fine-grained urban areas are being gobbled up by gentrification. But I guess that’s everywhere/nowhere now.
Regards,
Steve
Jadde: from Bosnia to Bengal 
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