Received by Registration Unit 03/ 10/2017 11:53:02 AM @112 {Dashington post Middle East - Fleei a - ger in erica, James Baldwin found solace in 19608 Turkey By Kareem Fahim February 27 ISTANBUL There is no trace of James Baldwin in the four-story building Where-he lived for a time, decades ago, 0.1.1 Ebe Hanim street, and where the mention of his name now draws blank stares. The bar where Baldwin drank up the hill from the apartment has vanished, too, lost in the garish renovation of the old Park Hotel. A plaque in the lobby mentions the hotel?s most notable visitors, including Mustafa Kernel Ataturk, the founder of the Turkish republic, and the and Duchess of'W'in?sor. But n9t.Baldwin, who Was reaching-the height of his istst?etietulfams When he lived in Turkey but was hardly bothered as he the streets of 19698 Istanbul: a star, to be sure, but mostly amonga small firmament of dear- collaborators and friends. A new bv the Haitian director Raoul Peck has tapped?into a broader American revival of interest in Baldwin, whose ?ction, essays and speeches have taken on added relevance in the era of Black! Lives Matter and the fervent debates in the United States over race and identity, diversity and police brutality. "l'odayts Wh atfs mostim'po'rtant frOm Where the world meets 'washin gton Sign up But Baldwin madean impression in Turkey, too, where he lived off and on for a decade or. so, beghming in 1961 though his footprints, these days, can be hard to ?nd. His overlooked sojourn was a period of prodigious creative production-and collaboration with-Turkish artists, in a place-he came to regard as a sanctuary despite Turkey?s own political turbulence from the racism, homophobia and scarring rights struggle back home. He could no longer work in the United States, he .told drama critic Zbynep Oral. ?I'can?t breathe,? she quoted him as saying; have to look from outside.? 1 Istanbul, a refuge fer exiles, immigrants and wanderer's that reminded Baldwin of Harlem, was in many an ideal vantage point. ?Located on themargin of continents between Europe and Asia, in the vicinity of Africa and the Middle East Turkey Received by ARA Registration Unit I 03/ 10/2017 112253;;02 AM Received by Registration Unit 03/10/2017 11:53:02 AM provided a haven where Baldwin worked on some of his most important, and arguably most American, works,? Magdalena Zaborowska, a professor of African American and immigrant literature at the University of Michigan, wrote in her book ?James Baldwinis Turkish Decade: Erotics of Exile.? Baldwin completed the novel ?Another Country? and wrote the essays that became ?No Name in the Street? in Turkey. He directed a play on prison life in Turkey thongh he spoke the language haltineg and supported friends putting on a production of ?Hair.? His salon included the jazz singer Bertice Reading, and trumpeter Don Cherry, who played at Baldwin?s legendary parties in Istanbul. Marlon Brando and Alex Haley visited his home on the Bosporus. He-never wrote'at any length about Turkey itself, but only, perhaps, because ?he was just tremendously busy, ??Zaborowska said in an interview. ?It was all new to him: Islamic culture, the interesting of secularism and religion, the way gender works, the way masculinity works,? she said. FROM NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REAL ESTAYE TRUSTS {ill/IRE?) Why 70 million Americans invest in REITs Real estate investment trusts enhance-quaiity of life by providing newjobs, better infrastructure and'increased economic activity. He ?Arab-J to some in Turkey, a nickname that conveyed the familiar affection of his circle, but also that, as a black man in Turkey or most anywhere else he remained apart. And at one point, while visiting a Turkish village, Baldwin was badly beaten by two men who used a racial and anti-gay epithet, acco rdingto Baldwin?s biographer and friend, David Le'eming. But mostly, Turkey was an escape. In Istanbul, ?we had huge parties, great parties at house,? Oral said. ?Jimmy would dance beautifully? I Istanbul has been transformed in the decades since Baldwin lived here, by political upheaval and stampeding development, concealing his legacy. His novels are dif?cult to ?nd in bookstOres. The-Istanbul theater where he staged the play ?Fortune and 'Men?s Eyes? is long gone. In the tony, waterside neighborhoo d' where Baldwin lived for a time, the gardeners and chauffeurs know the house as the library of a' noted Ottoman-era intellectual, rather than the onetime residence of the famous American write'r; The exiles old Istanbul neighborhood these days are Syrian refugees, lined up at the gates of the German Consulate, trying to reach Europe. Sedat Pakay, a photographer and friend who chronicled Baldwin?s time in Istanbul, died last summer; The Turkish actor Engin Gezzar, one of Baldwin?s oldest friends and a keeper of his memory, died earlier month. Avbliline of their letters'Was published in Turkish, but it is available only on special order. The missives convey Baldwin?s endless focus on injusticeand strife, at home-and abroad. ?The entire world is no longer livable,? he wrote in one letter. Received by Registration Unit 03/ 10/2017 11:53:02 AM ReceiVed by Registration Unit 03/10/2017 1 1 :?53 :02. AM In another, he inquired after a friend, the Kurdish leftist writer Yasar'Kemal, an outspoken advocate in-Turkey for Kurdish rights.- ?As far as I can tell from the French press, you, are-being clamped down by catastrophe,? Baldwin Wrote to Ceazar in 1962. ?Is Yasar still in Turkey or was be able to escape?? Baldwin?s worries echo in Turkey?s current, troubled moment. A con?ict between the state and Kurdish militants has ?ared again, as thegovernment pursues an escalating-crackdown on its perceived enemies, includingwriters, intellectuals-and Kurdish activists the very milieu Baldwin embraced during-his time here. friend Zeynep Oral writes-a column for Cumhuriyet, one of several Turkish media outlets targeted by prosecutors. ?We have passed the limits of being afraid,? she said, speaking at the newspaper?s offices on a recent afternoon, where articles about Can Dundar, Cumhuriyet?s former editor, accused of treason by the state and now living in exile, hang on the walls. But for all of Baldwin?s artistic engagement with Turkey, he was everybit the American expatriate, never Turkish and regarding the-country?s politics and debates as mostly a distant canoern, coinipar'ed'with the troubles in the United States, according to oral and learning. InAmerica, Baldwin was ?overwhelmed,? said Leeming, who met him one memorable night in Istanbul, as the writer was composing the last words of 9Another Country? on a kitchen counter, in the middle of a party. In Istanbul, Baldwin freed somewhat, from the constant demands to speak up about American racism, and from the heartache over the killingsof black leaders in the United States, [eeming said. suppose many people do blamezme for being away from the States as often as I am, Baldwin says in Pakay?sshort ?lm ?James Baldwianrom Another Place,? shot in Istanbul in 1970-, that shows him Wandering a tourist against the famous cityscape, in a scene that would be familiar today. But over time, exile formed a 'part of Baldwin?s identity, in?uencing his critiques of U.S. foreign policy and his ability to see similarities, across borders, in the plight of marginalized people, Zaborowska said. ?One sees it better, from a distance,? Baldwin says in the voice-over for the ?lm, as he is shown sitting in his Istanbul bedroom, peering out the window at the Bosporus, smoking a cigarette in his bathrobe. ?And you can make-comparisons,? he said. ?From another place, from another country.? Zaggnep'Karotas contributed to this reps rt. This material is distributed by Gre'enb?erg Tra orig LLP on behalf of the Rep?blic or Turkey. Additional information is available at the Department of Justice, Washington, DC. Received by Registration Unit 03/10/2017 11:53:02 AM