They sit in tea gardens. They sit outside barbershops. They sit on plastic chairs placed directly on the sidewalk. They sit in front of grocery stores. Sometimes they sit in places that do not appear designed for sitting at all.
And they sit for a very long time.
At first, you assume they are taking a short break. Then you walk past again an hour later. They are still there. The next day, they are there again.
A week later, they appear to be sitting in exactly the same place. This is usually the moment when visitors begin asking questions.
Do Turkish men have jobs?
Yesterday, we found ourselves discussing exactly this question in the office. What is actually going on with these men?
As expected, several theories emerged.
The first came from a colleague from the region, who looked at us, laughed, and said:
„Guys, they are not the same men. They just all look alike.“
This immediately created even more questions than it answered. Because what if she is right?
What if the man we think has been sitting outside the same tea garden for three days is actually an entirely different person? What if we have spent years assuming these men never move, when in reality we are simply unable to tell them apart? Maybe they only sit there for five minutes. Maybe they sit there for an hour. Maybe they leave immediately after we walk away.
And maybe, after enough years in Istanbul, every tea-drinking man with a moustache and a dark jacket starts to blend into one giant collective memory.
The second theory came from one of the men in the room. His explanation was simple.
They are waiting for their wives.
Anybody familiar with Turkish shopping culture knows that this is not entirely impossible. Faced with the prospect of several hours spent wandering through stores, perhaps the wiser option is to find a tea garden, order a tea, and wait patiently for a phone call.
Again, we have no evidence.
Personally, we suspect the truth is probably much less exciting. They likely have jobs. Some are probably retired. Some are meeting friends. Some are taking a break before heading somewhere else.
But somehow that explanation feels less satisfying. Because despite years of observation, the mystery remains.
No matter how often we see them, we still find ourselves wondering the same thing:
Have they been sitting there all day?
Or is that just what Istanbul wants us to think?
