Time of uncertainty on a notorious street

In the early hours in Istanbul’s Karaköy neighborhood, street cleaners sweep the cobblestone streets. A new day is just starting and the street awakes as women with tired and weary faces arrive. They enter one by one through the doors of 18 still operating brothels. One hundred and twenty women work on this street and make their bodies available to more than 5,000 men each day. Some 6,000 women are waiting in line to work in these brothels.

"If this street were closed down, we would be left alone in the street. The state should give us a house, food and a job, and then let them close down. The idea to move the brothels is ridiculous," said one of the women working on the street for six years, requesting anonymity. Another woman, nicknamed Banu and in her 30s, said she was not against the idea of closing down the street as long as the future of her two children could be guaranteed.

The debate on moving or closing down the street is not new. But it has recently returned as a topic of debate. In reconstruction plans to protect the BeyoÄŸlu district, where Karaköy lies, the street is marked to be a park and resting area. The plan was approved by a metropolitan municipality assembly in May. However, Mayor Kadir TopbaÅŸ last week said there was no plan to move or close down the brothels. Â

A man who has earned his living for over 30 years by holding the street’s "customers’" belongings said although it was a bad idea to close down the brothels for the rest of society, it might be good for the neighborhood.

"It would be bad if this place closed down. Prostitution will be open in the street. However, maybe for the sake of the area, the idea could be good," he said.

A local artisan also thought the rehabilitation of the area would highly boost tourism in the region. "If the vermin stop coming to the brothel, the tourists coming here would feel comfortable," said another artisan, Tufan TaÅŸ.

The numbers that one of the "agents" (those who run the brothels) gave disclose the enormous magnitude of the prostitution industry in the region. The cost of buying a brothel from a former owner can be up to 2 to 3 million Turkish Liras, and it can even be as much as 5 million if the location of the brothel is good. "Around 5,000 or 7,000 people come here each day. There are busier days too. Among 42 houses, only 18 are actively working because the owner of 24 houses, Kerope Çilingir, who is the son of famous brothel boss Matild Manukyan, neither runs the houses nor sells them," an agent said. The agent is also against the idea to close down the street. "We get health control twice a week and regularly pay our taxes, and then the municipality wants to build a park in this street," he said. The agent did not let a Referans reporter talk with women, and said: "Their job is not talking." The owner of the only restaurant on the street said: "This place holds this region on its feet. It has a history. If the brothels are moved, the number of customers, which is already down due to the economic crisis, will decrease more," he said.

Numbers make mafia drool

Hayrettin Bulan, the head of Åžefkat Der, a civil association founded to help the marginalized segments of society, said it was dreadful that 6,000 women were waiting in line to be registered as prostitutes. "If 6,000 women are waiting to register with the Interior Ministry for prostitution, this is because the mafia got stronger. Women of course want the house to be closed down, but also demand a guarantee to live under humane conditions. No one wants to be a prostitute voluntarily," he said. The mafia forces women to register, Bulan argued. "Women are sold at numbers changing from 20,000 to 200,000 liras. In developed countries the state protects people who are sold by force, they do not tax this income. This is called modern slavery. The state should close all brothels," he said.