Istanbul publishing house releases Armenian writer’s book in Turkish

Istanbul’s Aras publishing house has released the Turkish edition of “Istanbul Memoirs” by Hakob Mndzuri, a prominent Western-Armenian writer.


Founded in 1993, the publishing house managed, within a short period, to become a “window to the Armenian literature” for many by publishing the classical Armenian writers, as well as books on the Armenian history and the Armenian Genocide in the Turkish language, making the editions available to wide classes of the Turkish society. Aras has also published books in Western Armenian.

“Istanbul Memoirs” is based upon the author’s memories depicting the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the foundation of the Turkish Republic and the landmark developments that followed. In also introduces the reader to human narratives combined with the local traditions and flavor specific to each region. Mndzuri portrays the lives of bakers, and ethnic Armenian, Greek, Turkish, Albanian and Macedonian craftsmen who once resided in Constantinople, Beshiktash and Hisari.

The book was first published in 1993.

Born in 1886 in Erzurum, Mndzuri died in 1978 in Istanbul aged 92. He publised his first story, “Daughter-in-law and Mother-in-Law”, in 1906.