Holiday №391 – Istanbul

On February 6, terrible earthquakes struck southern Turkey and northwestern Syria. This catastrophic event shattered the lives of millions of people, with tens of thousands of victims, and wiped out entire towns. And, at the time of writing, the same areas and populations have now been subjected to deadly floods, which have taken dozens of lives. Faced with such destruction, sadness and fear, it has never been more difficult to complete an issue of Holiday. For a time, they thought they’d give up, out of respect, on this issue devoted to Istanbul, which they’d been working on since October, putting into it the patience the city deserves and the fascination it inspires. Despite everything, however, they wanted to pay tribute to the battered beauty of Turkey and of a city straddling two continents that has blended cultures, religions, aesthetics and, above all, lives like no other place for centuries.