First prize Premio Bruno Boschin 2015 - Festival of Travel Writing, Rome. Published in  The Post Internazionale    National Geographic Italia    Witness Journal

   Along the Bosphorus Strait and the northern shore of the Sea of Marmara lies Istanbul, a unique city located in-between of Asia and Europe, thus simultaneously belonging to each one of these two continents, very different in their history, culture and civilization.         
Counting more than 13 million inhabitants, Istanbul represents the urban face of modern Turkey, and serves as an example for the recent economical rise of the country. However, in its uncontrolled building growth, savage real estate speculation and public corruption tied with building trade, Turkey’s capital also embodies the deepest contradictions derived from such wild race towards the progress.          

Istanbul intends to prove the contemporary world its will of being a vibrant and westernized metropolis, yet facing the risk to forget and betray its history and time-honoured traditions. Minaret and skyscrapers contend the city skyline of Istanbul, representing the existing contrast between tradition and modernity, between the glory of ancient times and the unavoidable signs of modern globalization.     

Located a few hundred meters from the central Taksim Square and the promenade of Istiklal Caddesi, the  neighbourhood of Tarlabasi is one of those areas of the city were Turks rarely set foot. In recent years, this area has been target of a broad project of urban regeneration, which aims to the creation of modern shopping centres and financial offices, by demolishing the oldest buildings.               

The neighbourhood, mainly inhabited by Kurds, is separated from the touristic area of Istiklal by an avenue rich in huge panels announcing Tarlabasi’s outlook: new houses, shops and prosperity, along with the denomination of Yeni Tarlabasi, “new Tarabasi”. Nevertheless, these panels promising the future of this district cannot fully hide the construction sites, nor can distract the visitor from the narrow lanes nearby, which offer a unique chance to enter a new vibrant dimension of Istanbul, a rare trace of the traditional rural culture of Turkey.

The neighbourhood of Tarlabasi is just a disappearing side of the many-sided portrait of Istanbul, leaving space for the modernity, with a construction fury that day by day covers the traditional panorama under thick layers of concrete.

Last but not least, being also the urban ghetto for the Kurdish minority, Tarlabasi embodies the unsettled question between Turks and Kurds, representing a metaphor of the Kurdish everlasting resistance.