Crimes With a View In Istanbul Neighborhood
Gulsuyu, a run-down Istanbul neighborhood with spectacular views and rampant crime, was neglected by the authorities until a recent murder.
The name Gülsuyu means “rosewater” in Turkish, but there is nothing particularly rosy about the view up from the bottom of the hills on which this suddenly newsworthy shantytown of Istanbul’s Asian side stands. Nor are the reasons for the place’s newfound fame a cause for celebration.
But a steep climb through mostly four- and five-story apartment buildings that all look either prematurely aged in their graying façades or somewhat naked in plain brick and mortar takes you to a rather special neighborhood.
There, at the top, as soon as you turn around to look down, the hazy silhouette of the Princes’ Islands that seem to float in the pearly blue waters of the Marmara Sea holds you spellbound for a brief moment. Then, you realize that the place is teeming with the promise of a better life and, paradoxically, this could explain why crime has not been the exception but the rule here.
Not that outsiders cared. Not until a couple of weeks ago when the locals of Gülsuyu decided to raise their voices, that is.
