WALKING IN TAKSIM

This photo was taken at Taksim Square in Istanbul in 1939-1940.  I am the one on the left.  The friend beside me is Moiz Atiyas, my best friend ever since childhood.  We are carrying raincoats, so it was probably either spring or fall.  We were walking in Taksim.  I don’t really remember who took this photo.  There must have been another friend with us.

Atiyas, Avigdor and Sages were my best friends from Ortakoy.  We were friends as children, then as youngsters.  There was a period when I was in Spain and then in France that we were separated but as you can see as soon as I came back from abroad in 1937, we took up from where we left off and our friendship continued for long years after that.  None of them is alive today.

Moiz Atiyas, my best friend ever, was born in 1330 [hijri calendar], which means 1914.  He was born in Istanbul.  He used to live on the opposite corner from our house in Ortaköy.  He went to the Italian school as a child.  Then after he finished school, when he was 17-18, he started to work at a transportation firm in Sirkeci.  He worked there all his life and retired from there. 

We were always together from our childhood on.  We used to play football together, then as young men we went out together.  We did our military service at the same time, we even served in the 20 classes in the same place.  We were even staying in the same tent.

We went on going out in the same group after we finished our miltary service.  He married a friend of ours, Elvir Barzel in 1947.  They never had any children.  His wife worked at a pharmacy in Karakoy but she was not a pharmacist herself.  

Our friendship continued until Moiz died.  I don’t really remember what year he died in. His wife also died a few years ago.