City, water, boats

Music

18.50.07

people, birds,

buildings, landscapes, city scenes

Peter George:  It's a city as famous for it's intrigue as it is for it's location.  Crowded along the Bosphorous Strait, straddling the divide between Europe and Asia Minor.

And like any great city Istanbul has two faces - the one visitors love to remember and the sprawl - vast, urban, ugly.

The monuments of the Caliphs and Sultans still stand above it all.  But for me the city's most intriguing story, the history of it's ordinary citizens is being swept away.

B/W stills, street

Music

19.38.15

and houses, George

walking with

Peter George:  Istanbul was once a city of wood, the homes and shops of the lesser mortals, the bureaucrats and the working classes who were it's life blood.

And for decades the houses have been falling into ruin.  In fact they have entirely disappeared, overwhelmed by brick and concrete if it wasn't for one man, Celik Gulersoy.

Peter George:  Tell me about this place, it's a new project?

Celik:  Yes the newest I can say, not the last one. 

Peter George:  What's it called?

Celik:  It was ??? mansion of the highest bureaucrats in the Ottoman period.

Peter George:  Right, so someone rich and powerful.

Celik:  Yes, powerful.

Interior house, George walking through house with Celik, exteriors of houses,

Peter George:  A man of letters, artist, historian and architect Celik Bey as he's known by everyone is Istanbul's Renaissance man.

20.21.13

fountains, hotel

Celik:  They are original furnishing of the late 19th Century.

Peter George:  Like the mirror?

Celik:  Yes, the mirror has the emblem of the sultan.

Peter George:  Driven by a passion for his city's history Celik Bey has transformed entire streets once destined for the bulldozers.

Peter George:  So these were all ruins?

Celik:  Yes, I show you the pictures.  They were ruins during nearly 20-30 years.

Peter George:  One of his earliest and proudest achievements is the Yesil Ev Hotel, a tranquil oasis in the heart of the city.

Photos in book, intv with Celik

A dozen years ago, it looked like this.

21.14.00

Celik:  Modern Istanbul problems are four, sir.  I call them the four horses of the apocalypse.  Modern horses.

Peter George:  According to Celik Bey, the four horsemen are:  unfettered urban growth ... uncaring politicians ... corrupt bureaucrats ... and sheer ignorance.

Peter George:  And what was so special about the wooden houses?

Celik:  Wooden houses I can tell you that the private life, the private settlement of the people, even the palaces were built until the end of the 19th Century from wood. 

Wood was characteristic for the city, it was a speciality and for that reason, it must be protected I said but it was a little late.

Men working on boat, water, horse drawn carriages, George talking with Celik in carriage

Peter George:  Celik Bey says that if I want to see the preservation of a nearly lost lifestyle, there is a nearby island in the Sea of Mamara that is literally an island of tranquillity.

22.01.11

Princes Island is how Istanbul looked 100 years ago - no cars, no noise, no pollution.  Just a few miles off the coast the island got it's name because it was conveniently distant as an exile for royal relatives out of favour with the Caliphs of the Byzantine empire.

Peter George:  It's not very far away from where the Sultan ... where the ruler would be.

Celik:  That's true, that was the reason, to chose this place.  It's not very far from the eye of the emperor and not very close to the palace.  In the middle.

Peter George:  To keep an eye on them.

Celik:  Yes.

Peter George:  The catastrophe that cities call progress has mostly passed by the island - leaving hundreds of old wooden houses to be restored by those with enough money and leisure to enjoy them.

Workers in building, George with Celik coming up stairs

Following the principle that the money that international tourists bring with them should help preserve the city, Celik Bey's mixing a little business with pleasure here.

23.08.13

Celik:  The upper story will be my bedroom and my office, a small one, yes.  The council with a restaurant as I explained to you for the clients of the club.

Peter George:  Sounds like a great idea, a lovely place to live.

Celik:  I'm changing now inside the house.

Peter George:  At 65 it's a close as Celik Bey's likely to get to a final retreat but that still seems a long way off.  And Istanbul's renaissance man has one more trick up his sleeve.

Flowers, musicians

Music

23.49.09

tourists, people

walking along, int with woman

Peter George:  In the past few years, Celik Bey has raised money to overhaul some of this city's once magnificent long neglected public parks to return them to the people.

Woman:  He developed this whole thing.  I feel myself in Central Park, do you know Central Park in New York City?  I feel myself in Central Park.

Peter George:  She is a complete stranger but she immediately recognises him and is quick to acknowledge her gratitude.

Peter George:  Do people recognise you for the work you've done everywhere?

Celik:  Yeah.

Peter George:  I should think that would be very pleasing. 

Peter George:  And what do you think of the work that he's done here?

Woman:  Wonderful, gorgeous, just gorgeous.

Tree, pan down to musicians, intv with Celik

Peter George:  It seems to me that sometimes you are not really a man of this era, what era do you really belong to?

24.42.15

Celik:  Ah, I think I am basically, I was and I am still a romantic, you can say a Turkish Don Quixote.

Peter George:  A Turkish Don Quixote.

Music and clapping

George Negus

Negus: Peter George thoroughly enjoying himself with Celik Bey, clearly not the only romantic in that story, and what about Istanbul, must get there one day soon.  That's the program for this week, join us at the same time next week for another Foreign Correspondent.  See you then.

25.26.00