A Turkish secret hiding in plain sight

On Wednesday and Saturday nights, if you follow the narrow, stone streets in Gaziantep, Turkey’s old Armenian district to an unmarked silver door and knock three times, you’re in for a treat. 

Moments later, a man with a long white ponytail and round glasses will appear, welcoming you to his cafe, Jazz ve Kahve, and whisking you away for a night of food and traditional Middle Eastern music. Inside a room filled with Persian carpets, locals will be listening to the melody of a ney (a Turkish wind instrument) intertwining with that of a Syrian lute-like oud in a 19th-Century Armenian mansion overlooking a scenic courtyardstrewn with dangling lights. 

“Gaziantep is a city at a crossroads in the heart of old Mesopotamia. When they were under the same empire, Armenians, Turks and Arabs all coexisted peacefully,” said Murad Uçaner, the ponytailed cafe’s owner. “In these few square metres, we are trying to revive that ancient vibe.”

In the past few years, Uçaner’s intimate cafe has become an institution in Gaziantep – one of the cities impacted by the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck the Turkish-Syrian border in February 2023. Several buildings around this old Armenian neighbourhood of Kayacık were damaged or collapsed, but Jazz ve Kahve is still standing, and Uçaner is motivated to preserve its legacy. 

“This is not just a place where people eat and drink,” he said. “It is also a place where people from different cultures and countries meet, exchange information and get to know each other’s cultures.”