ISTANBUL – For years, Varan Suzem used to visit the Kiral Coffeehouse near his home, where men from his Istanbul neighborhood chatted for hours, parted from the little ones, drank cups and played backgammon and cards.
“I used to come here every day,” said Mr. Suzum, 77, a retired textile salesman. “This is our second home. This is the place I love, I see my friends, and I’m happy and I play sports. “
Until the epidemic. Coffeehouses across the country closed with bars and rest restaurants rento from a lockdown earlier this year, and when the government allowed them to reopen in June, it banned normal games, saying the risk of viral transmission had increased.
Consumers, mostly middle-aged and retired, stopped coming in for fear of the virus, and by banning sports, coffeehouse owners reduced business. Even before the second lockdown took effect this month, they were concerned that the coronavirus would threaten the very existence of many coffeehouses, robbing the essential center of Turkish life.
A unique male defense, the Turkish coffee house has everything from a post office to a social club, filled with a cup of coffee – or these days, the taste changes, the tea. In every neighborhood, from the narrow backs of Istanbul to the ancient towns spread across the country, it is there that men stop at work and on the road, meet pensioners and change gossip, and come to political party campaigns.
“We miss playing our friends and backgammon,” said Mamuk Katkoye, 70, when he was recently interviewed by Kiral Coffeehouse in Isilkoy’s Istanbul neighborhood. “I haven’t seen this man in eight months,” he said, even greeting a 90-year-old friend who stopped by.
Some coffee shop owners complained that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s religiously conservative government was opposing sports because of their association with gambling, and that the ban was more ideological than hygienic.
By the time the epidemic hit, the country was already in an economic recession and many businesses were forced to close for good because of government help.
Some of the famous cafes in Beoglu’s artistic neighborhood have closed in recent months. They had introduced Italian espresso to Istanbul society – the Simdi Caf, now closed, famous for its 1960s espresso machine – and came to represent the flower of Turkey’s intellectual and artistic life.
The traditional Turkish coffeehouse is a more polite affair, where the regulars are mainly working class people, playing cards, backgammon and “Oki”, a game similar to rummy, with numbered tiles. Some coffeehouses charge to run games for hours, while others only make money from what they drink.
But without the games, the business between Le Down Kadown was so weak that most coffeehouses are closed or have few supporters. Owners warn that without further government assistance they may have to close permanently.
“Our business is empty,” said Murat Agaoglu, head of the Turkish Coffee House and Buffets Federation.
It could rob Turkey of the mainstay of its communities that are almost as old as drinking coffee. The custom spread from Arabia to Turkey and Europe in the 16th century.
The first coffeehouses in Turkey were set up by two Syrian merchants in the Tahtakal district, then called Constantinople, near the seat of power of the Ottoman Empire and in the powerful streets of the spice market.
“At the same time, Istanbul was one of the most populous cities in the world,” said Semmel Kafder, a professor of Turkish studies at Harvard University. “Imagine the commercial potential of this innovation. In half a century the city had hundreds of coffeehouses. And since then, we have been able to enjoy the blessed enjoyment of this blessed bean in private or in public. “
The court of the Ottoman sultans adopted coffee drinking. Craftsmen made small, delicate cups and thin-necked coffee pots, women began serving coffee to guests in their homes, and men gathered in coffeehouses, smoking tobacco in extremely long stemmed pipes. Later water pipes became fashionable.
Coffeehouses developed in places where business people mingled, but they also became centers of literary activity and public entertainment. Some had reading rooms or hosted storytellers and puppets. Many still have names that are of their Arabic origin, “kahwahne”, meaning coffeehouse, and “kirathane”, meaning reading house.
Inevitably, coffeehouses became centers of political gossip and activism, as they were all over Europe, and were periodically shut down as political movements grew, Mr Kafdar said.
Over time, they lost their place in the eyes of better-educated urban people and gradually became cheaper conveniences for workers. “Since the middle of the 19th century, modernists have linked them to laziness and backwardness,” Mr Kafdar said.
The government-controlled traditional coffeehouse is licensed to sell tea and other soft drinks, including coffee and sesame, a popular drink made from orchid bulbs that dates back to the Ottoman period.
Drinks and games, along with prices, are listed on the license that is placed on the wall of the coffeehouse. Prices are regulated and set low.
They serve a traditional Turkish serving fee, each cup is brewed individually, small glasses of bitter or sweet and strong black tea to taste. Water pipes are still included in the offer, but Mr Erdogan’s government banned their use indoors more than a decade ago.
For Gwen Kiral, running a coffeehouse is her life. He inherited it from his father and moved it to a new place in the same neighborhood.
He said, ‘This place is like my children.’ “I have one son, but he’s like another son to me.”
On busy days he had people playing, he said, but the epidemic is over, with the sharp click and slap of shuffle cards and backgammon pieces muted.
“If I open, customers come for tea and they sit for a while, but then they say ‘sorry, no games’ and they leave,” said Mr Kirley, who is worried he will be forced to close. Down for good. “We are hurting downhill. The epidemic has taken a heavy toll on us. ”
He demonstrated his antivirus hygiene regime: spreading disposable tablecloths, breaking new deck cards for each game, and soaking backgammon counters in detergent. He said the wide range of tables and distances from each other would be extended to customers.
“The big issue is that sports are banned for both consumers and the people who work in these places,” said Bendevi Palandoken, head of the Turkish Chamber of Art Artisans, which represents owners and workers in 120,000 coffeehouses across the country. “We want the government to reduce the burden with Social Security premiums and cash support for breadwinners.”
Kiral reads a flyer on the wall of the coffeehouse: “We ask the government, do you mind?”
Mr Kiral said he would be heartbroken to lose the business.
“The first thing for my regulars is to be different. They will not see people anymore, ”he said. “We’ll lose our jokes, our laughter.”
Broadly speaking, he said the entire older pay generation would be penalized. “The cost will be to a certain age group. They have nowhere to go. ”
