Istanbul, a City That Remembers

The streets, stairways, squares, and buildings of Istanbul are imbued with multiple layers of history. Together, these layers bear witness to periods of coexistence and conflict, reform and political violence, resistance and erasure. Yet much of this past has been systematically obscured, transformed, or removed from public view. In official narratives, history is often simplified and presented as a seamless and harmonious continuum.

For decades, civil society initiatives in Turkey have sought to recover stories and experiences that have been excluded from the city’s collective memory. Within this context, projects such as A City That Remembers offer a critical intervention. Through memory-based physical and digital tours, they bring neglected and marginalized histories back into view, inviting participants to engage with the city not merely as a repository of cultural heritage, but as a landscape shaped by complex, contested, and often unresolved pasts.

By uncovering what has been forgotten, silenced, or deliberately erased, such initiatives broaden our understanding of historical heritage and encourage a more reflective encounter with the layered realities that continue to shape urban life.