TNT Smoke & Mirrors Edition: Fake Police Station in Istanbul (mid-1950s)/Part II

Unkapanı Bridge crosses over the Golden Horn to Unkapanı
where the yellow marker is.  The Küçükpazar neighborhood 
is right there, as well.

So when I read about the skill of my countrymen in opening a fake
U.S. embassy in Ghana, I thought of the story of the Küçükpazar
Karakolu that the late Lütfü Dağtaş wrote years ago in Cumhuriyet
Pazar Dergi (Cumhuriyet Sunday Magazine) and I wanted to re-tell
this hilarious tale.

There is a saying in Anatolia: "sıçandan doğan kendir kemirir" ("like
father, like son") and this has once again proven to be true. We're
still the same folks who can open a fake police station, although the
new generation has taken things a step further abroad and opened an
American embassy in Africa.

So let's get to the story of Küçükpazar Karakolu. Our journalistic
colleague from Izmir Lütfü Dağtaş heard the story from a police chief
nicknamed "Kanun Mustafa", who had come to Istanbul in 1980 for
a police course.  By that time, the Küçükpazar Karakolu had become
a genuine police station but "Kanun Mustafa" was confused as to why
there were three police stations in such a small area.


Unkapanı Sebze Hali (Unkapanı Vegetable Wholesale 
Market) way back when.

Today's young people may not know it but in the old days there was
a vegetable 'hal' (covered wholesale market) at Unkapanı, where
there is now a park.  Thousands of various kinds of workers would
come and go to the 'hal' each day and, consequently, there was plenty
of  thievery and pickpocketing going on.  As a result, the 'Hal
Karakolu' (Hal police station) was established, not far from the
Unkapanı Karakolu, which was nicknamed the 'köprüler karakolu'
(bridges police station.)

So in 1980 "Kanun Mustafa" asked the police chief at Küçükpazar
Karakolu about this oddity of three police stations so close together.
The police chief was glad to oblige and explained that "the story of
the Küçükpazar Karakolu that we're sitting in today goes back to the
1950s - I'd say 1954 or 1955.  At that time there was the Hal Karakolu
nearby and also the Unkapanı Karakolu that was established for the
security of the Unkapanı Bridge when it was being built."


Murder at the 'hal' - one of a number of reasons necessitating 
a police station there.

"The 'establishment' of the Küçükpazar Karakolu happened between
the times of the establishment of the Hal and Unkapanı police stations.
What happened was that three policemen at the Sirkeci Police HQS
retired but they were still on the young side and worried about how
they'd supplement their incomes henceforth.  They thought about a
number of possible jobs for themselves but couldn't settle on anything.
Then one of them had a bright idea:  'let's set up our own police
station!'"

//END of PART TWO//