FROM TATAVLA TO KURTULUS |
Social Events and Daily Life
TATAVLA CARNIVAL
Every year in Tatavla before the 'big fast’, traditional carnival entertainments were organised. Although such carnivals also took place in Galata and Pera, the first carnival that came to mind in association with Istanbul was Tatavla. In the festivities that the Rum called 'Apokria' that sometimes lasted for days, the last Monday in February or the first Monday in March depending on annual fluctuations in the calendar would be 'Kathara Deftera' day, or 'Baklahorani' as the people of Istanbul also called it.
According to some the carnival festivities were clean entertainment where people could go over the top for a few days to let off steam. However, according to others they were a scourge that paid no heed to religious or social rules.
On Kathara Deftera day, just like the people of Tatavla, Rum folk from other districts of Istanbul would flock to drinking establishments and outdoor cafes like Ararat, Panorama, Akropolis, Paris, and Lemonia to have the time of their life.
Maria Yordanidu describes the Tatavla carnival as follows in her book entitled 'Loksandra':
"When it got to Baklahorani day before the big fast, Rum from all over Istanbul would sing their way with songs and folk songs to meet in Tatavla. Groups of young girls would sing songs, and children would swing on gondolier swings or ride on merry go rounds decorated with bands and flags. The young men of Tatavla would give displays of their unique dances and games to the Istanbul Rum. When the entertainment started to get into the swing of things, Barba Todori’s hurdy gurdy would belt out the cheerful strains and songs that were the flavour of the year:
Büyükdere and Tarabya; Tatavla and Yeniköy
These are the four villages that make Istanbul beautiful "
The Tatavla carnival was suspended during the First World War years and then it started up again. Even though it lost some of the former impetus, it continued until the Second World War.
The carnival days also found their way into the news of the day:
"The spring sunshine yesterday gave a boost to the carnival festivities. Thousands of people flooded from Akarca Yokuşu and Kurtuluş Caddesi to Tatavla. The road was crowded to bursting point from the Pangaltı Catholic Cemetery to Ayios Dimitrios Church in Kurtuluş. The centre of the festivities was as always around the Ararat gazino. While the square in front of the church was turned into a fairground with lilting tunes, the itinerant photographers were also doing a roaring trade taking souvenir photos of people waiting in front of the church."
(Apoyevmatini Newspaper, Istanbul, 8 March 1938)
"This year, the carnival festivities came to an end in a melancholic atmosphere. As evening fell yesterday, the big square in front of Ayios Dimitrios Church was almost empty. The trams were also bringing very few passengers to Kurtuluş Square. And at the Ararat Gazinosu this year, the customer of some 45 years, the teacher of Pera, and the abundantly powdered Eleniça did not put in an appearance. No one put on a mask, and there was a low turn out of customers in the cafes. The only lively spot was in the vicinity of Akarca Yokuşu and Ayios Athanasios Church where people were making house visits on friends and family. The windows of these houses still sparkled with their customary cleanliness. In short, there was no carnival yesterday. Now the carnival only lives on in our memories".
(Apoyevmatini Newspaper, Istanbul, 17 February 1942)
SPORTS ACTIVITIES
The İraklis Gymnastics Club founded on 6th April 1896 in Tatavla has gone down in history as the first sports club to be established in the Ottoman capital. 10 years after its foundation, the said institution evolved into a club and was invited by the committee to participate in the Olympic games to be staged in Athens in 1906. The Ottoman State granted permission for a few sportsmen from the Tatavla İraklis Club to go to Athens under their own resources to join the Olympics in an official capacity. At these Olympic games, the unexpected winning of a gold medal in the apparatus gymnastics branch by Galatasaray Sultanisi student Nikola Alibrandi of Ottoman nationality caused momentary confusion over which flag should be raised on the honours mast and caused a diplomatic incident between the two countries.
SOCIAL LIFE
In the early years of the 20th century, Tatavla was the district with the greatest density of Rum population in Istanbul after Pera. The 7 or 8 years of the sultanate of Sultan Abdülhamit II that ran over into the 20th century were an era when the people of Tatavla saw the greatest development and comfort.
Some of the Tatavla news conveyed in one of the newspapers printed in Rum in the Istanbul of the era, Tahidromos, is as follows:
"The renowned architect from Tatavlal, Yeorgios Limoncuoğlu, left those he loved from this world yesterday. The death of Limoncuoğlu, who was more than eighty years old, caused great sorrow in Tatavla and in the district of Evangelistrias."
Tahidromos, 14.2.1900
"This evening an interesting conference on the Covered Bazaar will be held by Bay Spanudis in the hall of the Association for Friends of the Poor in Tatavla."
Tahidromos, 29.11.1901
"The construction of the sewage system that will collect Tatavla’s waste water will commence on 10th August, the anniversary of the day the Sultan came to the throne." Tahidromos ,19.6.1903
"With reference to the ball of the Tatavla Association for the Friends of the Poor organised under the patronage of the Russian Ambassador His Excellency Zinovief, the royal sultan has made a donation of 25 Ottoman lira to be used for the benevolent fund of the association."
Tahidromos, 12.2.1904
"Further information has been obtained in connection with the accident that occurred involving a tram approaching the square in Tatavla the other day. The accident causing the death of the yoghurt seller named Hüseyin happened at 18:40 last Tuesday. The driver of the tram stationary at the end stop in Tatavla intended to switch on his lights and inadvertently released the brake, whereupon the tram sped off the track and crashed into the wooden house of D. Pandazidis several meters away. Following the incident, Mr. Pandazidis’s wife Onorina was treated for shock. Three years prior to this incident, the same wooden house in Tatavla was damaged in a tram accident when it was hit by another tram jumping the track."
Apoyevmatini, 9.2.1928