Tatavla (Agios Dimitrios St.
Dimitrius, Küçük Atina, Little Athens)
North of
Pera, the great hill’s incline lessens. The urbane elegance of embassies and
mansions quickly changes into the pleasant middle-class suburb of Tatavla at
the hill's crest. Tiered houses and cobbler or seamstress shops line the rocky
lanes winding around and over hills. No
trace of devastation remains from the 1832 fire that destroyed over 600 houses. Tatavla is
primarily a Greek quarter, but its Greek inhabitants exclusively call their
home “St. Dimitrius” after the famous church at the center of their community.
The Turks refer to the neighborhood as Tatavla, (or more insultingly Giaour Tatavla)
because Genoese merchants kept their stables on the land long ago, Tatavla
being Greek for “horse stables”. Colloquially, they also name the quarter Küçük
Atina, meaning Little Athens.
In the
mid-1500s, the Ottoman navy populated Tatavla with captured Greek sailors from
the Aegean Sea, brought to Constantinople as slaves for the shipyards of Kassim
Pasha. Soon after, the Ottoman Empire obtained the Greek island of Chios. As
its denizens immigrated to Constantinople, they chose to settle near their countrymen
in the idyllic and beautiful quarter of Tatavla. Under the protection of the
Kapitan-I Deryas needing Greek labor in their shipyards, the quarter grew in
relative tranquility. In 1793, a proclamation from the Sultan prohibited
followers of religions other than Greek Aluminat living in Tatavla much to the
approval of quarter’s population.
Both
Greeks and non-Greeks patronize the tavernas and wineries of Tatavla. Small
communities of Armenians, Jews, Turks, and Englishmen live in the southern slopes
of Tatavla. The relaxing holiday atmosphere attracts Europeans escaping the
bustling pace of Pera or the often impenetrable ways of Stambul. Music and
singing flow from the windows of houses and the doors of coffee houses.
Colorful festivals and carnivals frequently fill the streets and bring visitors
of all nations and faiths across Constantinople to Tatavla.
Although
it sees far less of the Turkish reprisals and bigotry than the Greek
communities across the Golden Horn in Stambul, an atmosphere of unease and
revolt rises up from Tatavla’s narrow upward-sloping streets. If the Greek War
for Independence lurks in recent memory, so much more does the massacre of
Chios back in 1822. Thousands of rebellious Greeks died at the hand of the
Ottoman army on the island from whence descends much of Tatavla’s population,
and their children taken into Ottoman families. Many Greek
Aluminates would rather ally with their fellow believers in Russia than fight
for a Nithamiyeen Sultan but the Russian influence in Tatavla lies deeper than
that. Long before the outbreak of war, the Russian Embassy funded several
charities, community associations, and schools serving the Greek population of
Constantinople. While the Czarina closed the embassy’s doors and recalled the
staff, some of the charities remain. For example, the Tatavla Philanthropic
Society still operates a free clinic and arranges loans to growing businesses.
Tatavla’s
physical and ethnic distance from Ottoman authority made some sections of the
quarter a criminal haven. Bandits and rouges stealing from travelers along the
roads to Constantinople find safety or even veneration in Tatavla as a sort of
philanthropic protector of the Greeks. Houses of ill repute and sordid tavernas
offer dangerous distractions.
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