{"id":106738,"date":"2014-03-09T10:52:26","date_gmt":"2014-03-09T08:52:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/?p=106738"},"modified":"2014-03-09T10:52:26","modified_gmt":"2014-03-09T08:52:26","slug":"a-death-in-istanbul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2014\/03\/09\/a-death-in-istanbul\/","title":{"rendered":"A death in Istanbul"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 itemprop=\"name\"><span style=\"font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5em;\">The death of an Istanbul homeless man illustrates to a Monitor correspondent the precariousness of life on the fringe of a city growing by leaps and bounds.\u00a0<\/span><\/h1>\n<p>By\u00a0Scott Peterson,\u00a0Staff writer\u00a0\/ March 8, 2014<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<ul id=\"pgallerycarousel\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Istanbul-construction_full_600.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-106739\" alt=\"Istanbul-construction_full_600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Istanbul-construction_full_600.jpg\" width=\"600\" height=\"352\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Istanbul-construction_full_600.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Istanbul-construction_full_600-300x176.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p id=\"pgallerycarousel_caption\" title=\"Photo Caption\">Modern skyscrapers compete for attention with the iconic Suleymaniye mosque along Istanbul&#8217;s skyline. The city of 14 million is brimming with new construction \u2013 but has many dark pockets as well. MURAD SEZER\/REUTERS<\/p>\n<p id=\"pgallerycarousel_credit\" title=\"Photo Credit\"><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">ISTANBUL<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Scott Peterson has been The Christian Science Monitor&#8217;s\u00a0Istanbul\u00a0bureau chief since August 2005. The city has developed rapidly in the last few years, but the growth cannot completely obscure the darker side of the metropolis, where a person can easily slip through the cracks.<\/p>\n<p>The long sidewalk that passed by Ramazan\u2019s slap-together \u201cdwelling\u201d is one of the longest and flattest pavements in Istanbul. Over the years I have run along it hundreds of times, often with my running partner \u2013\u00a0Ivan Watson of CNN \u2013\u00a0and often alone, sometimes very late after deadlines.<\/p>\n<p>Istanbul\u00a0is a\u00a0city of ever-rising glass buildings, brimming with cultural energy and packed with ancient delights and endlessly fascinating architecture. And Turks could not be more welcoming.<\/p>\n<p>But Istanbul, the\u00a0bulwark that joins \u2013 and separates \u2013\u00a0Asia and Europe,\u00a0is also a megacity of more than 14 million people, with dark pockets and fissures. It is a locus of human trafficking and drug routes that feed European addictions, a place where people from across the region pile up in their bid to get into Europe; or if from the Persian Gulf countries and Iran, to let their hair down and party in the anonymity of the city.<\/p>\n<p>The coastal road is not be the safest\u00a0area\u00a0after hours, and Turkish friends gave warning. The American tourist Sarai Sierra was\u00a0killed by a homeless man and found at the base of the ancient city walls more than a year ago, literally across the street from Ramazan\u2019s hideaway. In September a Swedish tourist was stabbed to death in the same district, while trying to break up an argument.<\/p>\n<p>There were other men who set up makeshift camps along the breakwater, but they were seasonal and more about casting a rod or swimming in the fast current than about survival on the fringes of a megacity.<\/p>\n<p>Ramazan was permanent. And over time we developed a habit of greeting each other as I passed, shouting Islamic greetings in praise of God, with him responding in kind when I kissed my hand and raised it toward him.<\/p>\n<p>If I were running on my own, I would stop to shake hands, and we would share smiles and encouragement.<\/p>\n<p>During the summer, it could appear idyllic: From his bench, Ramazan looked beyond the black boulders to the water\u2019s edge, where gulls wheeled and a pod of dolphins often played, and sea traffic was endless. During the long,\u00a0warm\u00a0nights, Ramazan cooked small fresh-caught fish and sometimes had visitors, usually fellow homeless men sitting around his stone table, beside a smoky fire.<\/p>\n<p>During the winter, conditions could be grim. Ramazan was often alone as storms roared down from the north, their waves crashing on the breakwater, the hard winds and sleet and snow often driving like nails into the face, freezing hard into my beard as I ran past Ramazan hunkered behind his wall.<\/p>\n<p>Inevitably we would be alone on such days and nights, for a short time sharing the same space against the elements.<\/p>\n<p>There are few hard facts about Istanbul\u2019s homeless, but estimates range from 7,000 to 10,000 people. Ramazan was one of them until one night last October, during the religious holiday known as the \u201cfeast of the sacrifice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I was in a taxi coming home from the airport when we zipped by Ramazan\u2019s spot and I saw two ambulances and policemen \u2013 not an uncommon sight. My concern raised, I stopped by on my next run. Ramazan was not there. The men who were drew their fingers across their throats \u2013\u00a0Ramazan had been murdered, his throat slit.<\/p>\n<p>I found Tommy, a man who spent time along the breakwater, and who, with his bicycle sometime bought the homeless groceries. He had argued with Ramazan and not seen him for two months.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was\u00a0an angel,\u201d Tommy told me. \u201cBut when he was drinking, he could be a devil. I warned him about it; he made many people angry. I told him it could be dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Turkish media quoted a man taken into custody by police, a homeless man who admitted to the murder, identified as \u201cMehmet S.\u201d\u00a0He said he had killed Ramazan for religious reasons, as though he were an animal, and would have kept on killing had he not been caught:\u00a0\u201cI did not kill anybody. I do not know the person you are talking about, but I sacrificed him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The \u201cfeast of sacrifice\u201d is a Muslim tradition that commemorates the legend of Abraham being asked by God to sacrifice his son Isaac, and then, instead an animal. By tradition these days the wealthy can sacrifice animals and share the meat with the poor, gaining prestige along the way.<\/p>\n<p>Days later, near\u00a0midnight, I was running along the breakwater and it was absolutely barren of people. I stopped at Ramazan\u2019s place and was surprised to find everything burned \u2013 the umbrella, the bedding, the splintered bench, a sack of clothing. The ashes were still warm; whoever lit that fire had not been gone long.<\/p>\n<p>A handful of charred pots and Ramazan\u2019s kettle had been tossed aside, dented or crushed; empty alcohol bottles had fallen between cracks in the rocks or been smashed.<\/p>\n<p>Every time I passed\u00a0by on a run,\u00a0more and more memory of Ramazan was dismantled. First it was the small concrete table, upended and broken on the rocks. The stone wall was pulled down a little, then completely. Every trace of Ramazan was being erased, except for the words I am writing now, the police report, and the memories of those who knew him \u2013\u00a0most of them homeless.<\/p>\n<p>I was profoundly moved by Ramazan\u2019s passing. I have covered atrocious conflicts in my career, from Somalia and the genocide in Rwanda to the Iraq war, year in and year out. And yet Ramazan\u2019s loss also brought tears to my eyes.<\/p>\n<p>These days when I run along that breakwater, I still bring my fingers to my lips, and throw a kiss toward the charred remains, to a man I hardly knew, who is no longer there.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The death of an Istanbul homeless man illustrates to a Monitor correspondent the precariousness of life on the fringe of a city growing by leaps and bounds.\u00a0 By\u00a0Scott Peterson,\u00a0Staff writer\u00a0\/ March 8, 2014 Modern skyscrapers compete for attention with the iconic Suleymaniye mosque along Istanbul&#8217;s skyline. The city of 14 million is brimming with new [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":106739,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1094],"tags":[102],"class_list":["post-106738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tourism","tag-istanbul"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}