The Bastard of Istanbul

It’s Saturday, March 19, and “an unusually sunny” day (244). Asya and Armanoush are heading to Zeliha’s tattoo parlor to meet Aram, “Auntie Zeliha’s significant other” (245). Armanoush asks why the couple won’t marry. Asya thinks that Aram would be open to marriage, but Zeliha would never oblige, possibly because of her experience with Asya’s father. 

Aram is of Armenian descent and was raised in Istanbul. Asya and Armanoush enter the noisy parlor and watch the artists work. Zeliha is there and tells the story of how she gave herself a nose-piercing when she was 19 to outrage her mother. 

Zeliha and Aram take the girls to a Turkish tavern so that Armanoush can experience “a typical evening of drinking” (252). On the way, they pass a group of transgender prostitutes. One of them, a redhead, admires Asya’s bracelets. Asya gives the redhead her beaded bracelet. 

At the tavern, Armanoush asks why Aram has remained in Istanbul when he could find a broader Armenian community in the United States, particularly in California. He gives her an exasperated smile and explains that his family’s history in Istanbul goes back for half a millennium. He goes on to say that Armenians in the diaspora have no Turkish friends.