Istanbul these days is a tragedy, at least it feels like it. One of the three greatest cities in human history, and so many signs of "almost making it back". B

Istanbul these days is a tragedy, at least it feels like it. One of the three greatest cities in human history, and so many signs of "almost making it back". But now, everything has the stench of moving into the wrong direction. Seriously, you can feel it in the people, the shops, the buildings. It makes me really sad never to have been there in its prime. Turkey was never not a troubled country, but Turkish friends tell me Erdogan has sucked the optimism out of the intellectuals and academics that prevailed in years prior. What is left now is the typical Turkish melancholic nostalgia. It seeps through the streets of the city nowadays. Tragic.