ISTANBUL // At 82, Halil Dagli has been crafting high quality footwear by hand in his small shop on Istanbul’s famous Istiklal Avenue for 66 years, but the veteran cobbler is on the verge of hanging up his laces.
“If I were paying rent, I would close today. And I’m still thinking of closing. Since this morning I’ve only sold one pair of shoes!” Mr Dagli told The National over tea.
It was almost 6pm.
Mr Dagli is among the last of the esnaflar (tradesmen) on the city’s iconic pedestrian-only street. Built in the 19th century, Istiklal was once home to a host of foreign embassies during the Ottoman period that became consulates following the foundation of the Turkish Republic. It was closed off to traffic in the early 1990s, in an effort rejuvenate the area, which had declined into seedy dishevelment from the 1970s after most of its large Greek and Armenian population left the country following decades of persecution. Once a hub for pharmacies, butchers, optometrists and pastry shops, these establishments have disappeared amid rising rents. Fast food restaurants and name brand clothing retailers quickly moved in, forcing Mr Dagli to compete with Nike and New Balance.
But now even the big brand stores are closing down, prompting a wave of coverage in local media proclaiming the demise of the central district of Beyoglu, home to Istiklal Avenue.
If Mr Dagli – who cuts a gentlemanly figure with spectacles, slicked-back grey hair and a neatly trimmed moustache — decides to close, the street will lose one of the remaining stalwarts of its historic legacy of craftsmen. For 25 years, Mr Dagli was the cobbler of choice for Ismet Inonu, Turkey’s second president. His former boss Mahmut Soyman, the namesake of the tiny shop, made shoes for Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Turkish republic.
Beyoglu was until recently the heart of nightlife in Istanbul, but it has been steadily losing that status amid a drawn-out process that began in the summer of 2011 when the municipality, in a snap decision, rounded up the tables and chairs that lined the cafes and bars of the districts backstreets.
City officials claimed the tables were blocking traffic and pedestrians, but cafe employees claim the crackdown came after a car carrying president Recep Tayyip Erdogan became stuck on one narrow Asmalimescit street late in the evening.
The decision to remove them dealt a deadly blow to the vibe of the area.
Though some streets have managed to bring back the outdoor seating, things have not been the same since, according to Anglo-French musician Jack Butler, 32, a multi-instrumentalist who has earned a living playing jazz in Beyoglu’s bars and back alleys for more than five years.
“That was a bit of trauma and Beyoglu still hasn’t really recovered,” Mr Butler told The National. The neighbourhood of Asmalimescit, a small quarter within the district of Beyoglu, which was packed with hundreds of tables connected to a dense network of popular bar and restaurants, was hit the hardest. Many have since closed and the quarter is a shell of its former self.
Two years later, in 2013, protests over a plan to build a replica of an Ottoman-era barracks on top of Gezi Park, one of central Istanbul’s rare green spaces left Beyoglu literally under a cloud, after police used tear gas against the protesters. Patrons who had nothing to do with the uprisings and were just out for a night on the town were deeply disturbed. That damaged the district’s reputation for good, said Ocal Cetin, 34, manager of the popular bar and venue Peyote.
“After Gezi Park, Beyoglu got spooky. It became difficult to pass through and to spend time here, and it turned into something else entirely,” said Mr Cetin.
Peyote is among Istanbul’s most beloved venues, much sought after for showcasing local, independent music and its sultry terrace, where it was difficult to get a table after 9pm at weekends this time last year. But in 2016, there is empty seating available through to closing time.
“Peyote has the potential to attract a lot of European exchange students and Western tourists. The people we appeal to are not coming and that has directly affected us,” Mr Cetin said. It did not help that the venue is located just around the corner from the an ISIL suicide bomb attack in the middle of Istiklal this March, which killed five people.
Istiklal and Beyoglu’s impressive array of classic European architecture has been marred by the inundation of hotels and shopping malls, projects that have been encouraged and applauded by the ruling Justice and Development Party-led municipality. As the number of locals and Westerners alike has dwindled, tourists from the Arabian Gulf become the key demographic in the district, and a handful of baklava shops and perfume counters have opened up that seem to exclusively cater to these visitors. They are among the only businesses that are booming.
The street itself is in poor condition, a depressing hotch-potch of unconvincing cobblestone and patches of asphalt that have been repeatedly paved over. The new hotels are mostly vacant and the taps at many bars and clubs have run dry. The city’s entertainment hub has shifted to the Asian-side district of Kadikoy, where a staggering number of cafes and bars have opened up in the past couple of years. Kadikoy, which flanks the Sea of Marmara, was for years known as a calm and laid-back alternative to Beyoglu. It can no longer lay claim to that status.
In spite of it all, Mr Butler, the musician, is optimistic that Istanbul’s wounded heart can recover. “We are all hoping Beyoglu nightlife is too big to fail and we are waiting for the annual wave of thirsty students to fuel the club economy,” he said.
But for Mr Dagli, the elderly cobbler, the once-cosmopolitan, chic district he knew so well is long gone.
“Beyoglu is finished,” he said adamantly.
foreign.desk@thenational.ae
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
Election pledges on migration
CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"
Should late investors consider cryptocurrencies?
Wealth managers recommend late investors to have a balanced portfolio that typically includes traditional assets such as cash, government and corporate bonds, equities, commodities and commercial property.
They do not usually recommend investing in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies due to the risk and volatility associated with them.
“It has produced eye-watering returns for some, whereas others have lost substantially as this has all depended purely on timing and when the buy-in was. If someone still has about 20 to 25 years until retirement, there isn’t any need to take such risks,” Rupert Connor of Abacus Financial Consultant says.
He adds that if a person is interested in owning a business or growing a property portfolio to increase their retirement income, this can be encouraged provided they keep in mind the overall risk profile of these assets.
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
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THE BIO
Ms Al Ameri likes the variety of her job, and the daily environmental challenges she is presented with.
Regular contact with wildlife is the most appealing part of her role at the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi.
She loves to explore new destinations and lives by her motto of being a voice in the world, and not an echo.
She is the youngest of three children, and has a brother and sister.
Her favourite book, Moby Dick by Herman Melville helped inspire her towards a career exploring the natural world.
The biog
Name: Younis Al Balooshi
Nationality: Emirati
Education: Doctorate degree in forensic medicine at the University of Bonn
Hobbies: Drawing and reading books about graphic design
The struggle is on for active managers
David Einhorn closed out 2018 with his biggest annual loss ever for the 22-year-old Greenlight Capital.
The firm’s main hedge fund fell 9 per cent in December, extending this year’s decline to 34 percent, according to an investor update viewed by Bloomberg.
Greenlight posted some of the industry’s best returns in its early years, but has stumbled since losing more than 20 per cent in 2015.
Other value-investing managers have also struggled, as a decade of historically low interest rates and the rise of passive investing and quant trading pushed growth stocks past their inexpensive brethren. Three Bays Capital and SPO Partners & Co., which sought to make wagers on undervalued stocks, closed in 2018. Mr Einhorn has repeatedly expressed his frustration with the poor performance this year, while remaining steadfast in his commitment to value investing.
Greenlight, which posted gains only in May and October, underperformed both the broader market and its peers in 2018. The S&P 500 Index dropped 4.4 per cent, including dividends, while the HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index, an early indicator of industry performance, fell 7 per cent through December. 28.
At the start of the year, Greenlight managed $6.3 billion in assets, according to a regulatory filing. By May, the firm was down to $5.5bn.
MATCH INFO
Manchester City 2 (Mahrez 04', Ake 84')
Leicester City 5 (Vardy 37' pen, 54', 58' pen, Maddison 77', Tielemans 88' pen)
Man of the match: Jamie Vardy (Leicester City)
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The years Ramadan fell in May
THE DETAILS
Kaala
Dir: Pa. Ranjith
Starring: Rajinikanth, Huma Qureshi, Easwari Rao, Nana Patekar
Rating: 1.5/5
The specs
Engine: 1.6-litre 4-cyl turbo
Power: 217hp at 5,750rpm
Torque: 300Nm at 1,900rpm
Transmission: eight-speed auto
Price: from Dh130,000
On sale: now
SQUADS
UAE
Mohammed Naveed (captain), Mohamed Usman (vice-captain), Ashfaq Ahmed, Chirag Suri, Shaiman Anwar, Mohammed Boota, Ghulam Shabber, Imran Haider, Tahir Mughal, Amir Hayat, Zahoor Khan, Qadeer Ahmed, Fahad Nawaz, Abdul Shakoor, Sultan Ahmed, CP Rizwan
Nepal
Paras Khadka (captain), Gyanendra Malla, Dipendra Singh Airee, Pradeep Airee, Binod Bhandari, Avinash Bohara, Sundeep Jora, Sompal Kami, Karan KC, Rohit Paudel, Sandeep Lamichhane, Lalit Rajbanshi, Basant Regmi, Pawan Sarraf, Bhim Sharki, Aarif Sheikh
How the bonus system works
The two riders are among several riders in the UAE to receive the top payment of £10,000 under the Thank You Fund of £16 million (Dh80m), which was announced in conjunction with Deliveroo's £8 billion (Dh40bn) stock market listing earlier this year.
The £10,000 (Dh50,000) payment is made to those riders who have completed the highest number of orders in each market.
There are also riders who will receive payments of £1,000 (Dh5,000) and £500 (Dh2,500).
All riders who have worked with Deliveroo for at least one year and completed 2,000 orders will receive £200 (Dh1,000), the company said when it announced the scheme.
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.