Haluk Bey, the founder of İmge Sahaf, which has grown steadily from its long history in Kadıköy Çarşı to the present day and has become one of the few second-hand bookshops in Istanbul, is now running it together with his son Orçun Bey and over the years, due to their long history in Kadıköy Historical Bazaar, they have been operating in Kadıköy They were able to see the changes in the bazaar. Imge Sahaf, which can continue its existence today, where the food and beverage industry is gaining more and more importance, has been on Mühürdar Caddesi in the 1980s, then on Moda Caddesi and since 1995 in its present place.
Mr. Orçun states that Kadıköy has a large readership that loves books, which is well above Turkey’s average. He states that second-hand booksellers are particularly well-protected in Europe, and that no other work place is allowed to replace a second-hand bookshop that was closed, especially in England, and that only another second-hand booksellers can open a business here.
Besides the existence of many types of books, there are more than 5 thousand books and magazines, especially in Ottoman. There are very rare and very interesting books and magazines among them. For example, the 1923 printed Ottoman Communist Manifesto is available here as a translation of Şefik Hüsnü as “Communist Declaration”. Another interesting example is the Historical Osmani Encümeni Magazine, which is the first history book in Ottoman Turkish as a complete set of 77 numbers.
