I meet Doğan Ülgenciler in a cloud of cigarette smoke in his broken-down but cosy office below road level in Kadiköy, an old district on the Anatolian side of Istanbul. Greying and bespectacled, he relaxes with his three companions around a table. The afternoon sun filters through the window panes as Ülgenciler and his companions sip tea over humorous banter about where they will bury each other in a city which lacks space for cemeteries.
But when the focus of discussion becomes culture, books and the changing face of Istanbul, there is a shift of guard; Ülgenciler’s tone changes, his words reveal an eloquence.
