I am a photographer and university teacher living in Istanbul. Since my father was Turkish and my mother is a foreigner, I was born abroad but lived most of my life in Turkey. I am living in Istanbul with my husband and kids since 1996.
Despite the changes within the last years, this is an amazing place to be.
I love Turkey. To understand why so many people voted for Erdoğan and his party in the last election and the referendum, you have to see what Turkey in fact is: a country between two different worlds. Turkey is neither Western nor Eastern, it is right in the middle. And its in a geography that is right in between several powers and balances, along with internal clashes between religion and western modern values. Especially Istanbul as a city, both on the European an Asian continent shows, how difficult living with such identical conflicts can be.
Most of the people think, that a strong leader could help overcome these conflicts, whether he is in fact good or bad for the country is not as relevant to them.
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