ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

“They are all writing their Turkey books,” says Aunt Dot in Rose Macaulay’s novel The Towers of Trebizond. This one is mine.

Depending on how you count, it has taken three years or twenty-seven. I have been enchanted by Istanbul since I first arrived there—with a backpack and my college roommate, now Kevin Crumpton, MD—in the summer of 1987. It is one place, perhaps the only place, that has seemed entirely fresh and surprising to me on every visit. Across more than a quarter century, I have had many people to thank for acquainting me with it.

Through the kindness of Hakan Altınay, Tony Greenwood, and Kaan Önal, I have had the pleasure of staying in three of Istanbul’s most intriguing neighborhoods: Rumelihisarı, Kuzguncuk, and Arnavutköy. Tony, as director of the indispensable American Research Institute in Turkey, always provided an excuse to return to Arnavutköy for insightful conversation and good fish. Michael Thumann and Susanne Landwehr were fonts of wisdom about contemporary politics and society. I have learned a great deal from two former students of mine, Dr. Lerna Yanık and Dr. Nora Fisher Onar, who have made Turkey their passion. A string of Turkish language instructors, most recently Zeynep Gür, have tried to twist my brain around subordinate clauses. Present and former colleagues Gábor Ágoston, Mustafa Aksakal, Sylvia Önder, Scott Redford, Sabri Sayarı, and the late Faruk Tabak were unfailingly kind to a novice in their field.

This book relies in part on the work of specialists from a variety of different domains that are not normally put together, such as Turkey, Trotsky, and tango. I am grateful to the many historians and others whose writings are acknowledged in the notes and bibliography, in particular Rıfat Bali, who has made available to the public so many primary sources from a forgotten era. I have also benefited from conversations with Gökhan Akçura, Ozan Arslan, Sava Arslan, Murat Belge, Elif Batuman, Andrew Finkel, Caroline Finkel, Corry Guttstadt, Hope Harrison, Brian Johnson, Tuna Aksoy Köprülü, Steve Lagerfeld, Ansel Mullins, Cullen Nutt, Yigal Schleifer, Douglas Smith, Gerald Steinacher, Ronald Grigor Suny, Leon Taranto, Frances Trix, Thomas de Waal, Sufian Zhemukhov, and my dear companion, Margaret Paxson, who has always steered me true—bay mir bist du sheyn. Lawrence and Amy Tal, Anatol and Sasha Lieven, and Leslie Vinjamuri and Oliver Wright were welcoming hosts during research trips to London. (Thanks also to Matthew, Luke, Phoebe, Misha, Katya, Alex, Henry, Olivia, and Scrubby, whose space I occasionally borrowed.)

I am especially grateful to Abdullah Gül and Ayhan Uçar of the Yapı Kredi archive in Istanbul, who facilitated access to the Selahattin Giz photograph collection. Fra Lorenzo Piretto, OP, educated me about the Latin community and showed me the wonders of the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul. Fıstık Ahmet Tanrıverdi shared childhood memories of Trotsky’s bodyguards and helped me find both of Trotsky’s houses on Büyükada. In his Manhattan violin shop, Harold Hagopian re-created the Istanbul music scene of the 1920s and 1930s. I sadly missed speaking with Keriman Halis Ece, who died only a few months before I began this book, but her daughter and granddaughter, Ece Sarpyener and Aye Torfilli, graciously shared recollections of her. Meral Muhayye took Margaret and me on a magical Bosphorus boat ride and told family stories of her great-uncle Misbah. Pınar Kartal Timer, general manager of the Pera Palace Jumeirah, and Suzan Toma of the marketing department, enlightened me about the hotel’s restoration and its recent history.

Fırat Kaya offered his extensive knowledge of Istanbul’s architecture and urban landscape; our walks through the city—sometimes with a 1934 guidebook in hand—were the closest I will ever come to experiencing a time machine. Ekin Özbakkalolu carefully read through more than two decades of Turkish newspapers and uncovered some gems. Fatima Abushanab tracked down references and taught me about women and Islam. Ronen Plechnin helped with a valuable source in Hebrew, as did M. Fatih Çalıır with one in Ottoman Turkish. This is the fifth book of mine for which Chris Robinson has drawn the excellent maps.

Archivists and librarians at the institutions listed in the bibliography guided me through their collections. Special thanks to Shalimar White and Rona Razon of the Dumbarton Oaks Image Collections and Fieldwork Archives, who helped me understand the life and career of Thomas Whittemore. I am lucky enough to live within walking distance of two of the world’s treasures: the Library of Congress and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. At the latter, Ronald Coleman, Rebecca Erbelding, Krista Hegburg, and Vincent Slatt provided superb guidance.

All or part of the manuscript came under the careful eyes of Mustafa Aksakal, Julia Phillips Cohen, Rebecca Erbelding, Ryan Gingeras, Corry Guttstadt, Andrea Orzoff, Mogens Pelt, Michael Reynolds, and Shalimar White. I am very thankful indeed for their criticisms and corrections, although I alone am responsible for any shortcomings that remain.

In 1998, a Fulbright senior fellowship in Turkey and Romania sparked some of the ideas that eventually led to this book. A fellowship from the Wilson Center enabled me to spend the academic year 2012–2013 focusing on Turkey’s past and present. The center’s library staff—Janet Spikes, Michelle Kamalich, and Dagne Gizaw—were models of energy and friendly responsiveness. Research funds provided by Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and the Department of Government allowed repeated visits to Istanbul. Thanks to Dean Carol Lancaster, Senior Associate Dean James Reardon-Anderson, faculty chairs David Edelstein and Jeffrey Anderson, and department chairs George Shambaugh and Michael Bailey for their leadership.

This is the second book I have completed with William Lippincott of Lippincott Massie McQuilkin. I would be adrift without his enthusiasm and counsel. I have twice been privileged to work with Alane Salierno Mason at W. W. Norton, a dream of an editor who has taught me so much about writing with a reader in mind. Anna Mageras, Eleen Cheung, Nancy Palmquist, and Kathleen Brandes were essential partners in the journey from typescript to book.

Ctlin Partenie is acknowledged on the dedication page. More than twenty years ago, a chance encounter with him via an Oxford bulletin board started me on a career in the other half of Europe.