The magazine of the art-form of the photo-essay
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Oct 2015 back issue
by Esa Ylijaasko
In November 2013, a Syrian Kurdish refugee community found a new home a thousand miles from the horrors of
the civil war. They settled into ruined houses, abandoned by original inhabitants years ago, in the historical Ottoman
district around the Süleymaniye Mosque on top of Istanbul's Third Hill.
With limited language skills and missing official refugee documents, it’s hard, almost impossible, to apply for work.
Men spend days hanging around, drinking tea, watching TV and smoking. Woman do laundry, cook and take care of
the youngest children while older kids play or beg on the streets. As they speak only Kurdish, they can’t attend a
Turkish school.
Kindhearted locals bring food and clothes to refugees, helping them to survive. But life stands still. A TV in the corner
of a small room and calls from relatives left still in Syria, tell a hopeless story of the war.
