Gavur Mahallesi

Mıgırdiç Margosyan

translated from Turkish by Matthew Chovanec
London: Gomidas Institute, 2017
Co-published with Aras Yayinevi (Istanbul)
104 pp, photos, pb.
ISBN 978-1-909382-28-2, pb.
Price: UK£12.00 / US$15.00

Through a series of colorful stories, complete with a snuff snorting midwife, a simple-minded church caretaker, and a superhuman blacksmith, Mıgırdiç Margosyan explores the city of Diyarbakir, Turkey as it existed in his childhood. It was a time when the city was still home to a diverse population of faiths, languages and characters, resembling what New Yorker Staff Writer Rafﬁ Khatchadourian calls a kind of "Anatolian Macondo.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Mıgırdiç Margosyan is a native of Diyarbakir and a popular, award winning author. His works include "Söyle Margos Nerelisen?” (1995), "Biletimiz İstanbul’a Kesildi” (1998), and "Dikrisi Aperen (Dicle Kıyılarından)” (1999). The current title, Gavur Mahallesi, was first published in Turkish (1992), then Kurdish (1999) and now appears in English (2017).

ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR: Matthew Chovanec is a PhD student at the University of Texas at Austin, where he studies modern Turkish and Arabic literature.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword to English Translation    v
Photographs: Gâvur Mahallesi cir. 1910-1990    vii-xiv

The Gavur Quarter    1
Kure Mama    7
Dove    13
The Rain in Shishli    25
"How Happy are the Poor”    31
Dikran, Nazar, Hacho and Others    39
Tumas’ Daughter    47
Us    53
Bread, Bread, Bread    59
Yucky Silva    67
Hacho

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