The Keeper of Collective Memory

When in May of 2016 Nazım Hikmet Erkan transported himself and his second-hand bookstore from Istanbul’s bustling Beyoğlu district to Heybeliada – one of the four Princes’ Islands off the coast of the city – his peers and customers thought he had lost it. There seemed no viable answer as to why any sensible shopkeeper would relocate his perfectly established business to a remote location, which hosts 4,325 residents all year round and is a two-hour long ferry ride away from the mainland. ‘It is the journey for me,’ Nazım says. He is in love with the idea of people venturing out to a destination to find rare items. He quotes Che Guevera, ‘Be realistic, demand the impossible!’, to pioneer his decision to do the unfeasible. It is this risk-taking and nonconsequential spirit of his that molded Heybeli Sahaf into a unique island brand.

Becoming a bibliophile

Nazım was both lucky and unlucky to be the son of a school teacher. His formative years were spent moving from one village to another in the Black Sea area. There was no electricity at some of the far-flung locations his father was appointed to but their house always had a stacked library. Like father, like son, he became an avid reader early on.

Although he has been selling second-hand books since university, he never dreamed of becoming a bibliophile. Arriving in 2004 to Istanbul, he landed a job as part of a camera crew shooting a documentary called I Found Dostoyevski in the Trash. It chronicled the life of bibliophile Oktay Çetinkaya. ‘It sparked something in me. That guy was living my dream. I always wanted to be surrounded by books. I had worked at bookstores. I knew what a bookseller was, but never had I heard of a bibliophile.’

To run a second-hand bookstore, which sells items ranging from antique books, rare editions, cassettes, records, posters as well as archival photography, requires one to be well versed in the art of discovery. He is drawn to this profession because he likes being able to give new life to disregarded and tossed out items. The job is mainly uncovering treasures from someone else’s trash. It is more about the instinct of buying rather than selling. When he launched his own shop in 2011, he would visit abandoned paper depots, rummage through antique markets, and chase under the radar auctions, but today customers find him. He has built a reputation. ‘People want to know that their belongings, in spite of having discarded them, are safe with you. It is a bond of unspoken trust.’

The location

Almost all businesses on the Princes’ islands cater to the needs of daily tourists visiting on weekends. Nazım’s rationale was simple, like becoming a bibliophile, he wanted to break the mold. ‘You need spirit to do what I do. You are touching peoples’ lives. You are giving new life to things that have been used. It is not for the faint hearted, who are locked in traditional modes of living and thinking. I asked myself what Istanbul was actually providing me with. I preferred a much smaller, intimate and calmer life. I don’t need much and that is sort of the mentality one needs to have to be here.’

His only criteria to do so was that his shop would be nestled in a space representative of the island’s historical past. Once he sealed the lease for a marvelous wooden edifice dating back to 1906, he set sail to Heybeliada.

To Nazım’s surprise, more than a thousand people step foot into the small store on weekends. ‘At first I was taken aback. In Beyoğlu, I had maybe six customers a day.’ The allure of the building, the choice of his picks and through the power of social media, Heybeli Sahaf has become a shop people traveled to see. The moderately inaccessible nature of the island might seem as unfavorable at first glance, but it is what has given his brand an edge. It has also not caused complications on the commerce side. There are daily cargo ships to and from the island, which make sending out online purchases or receiving them possible. ‘I have individuals sending all of the content of their libraries from places such as Bodrum,’ he adds.

The shop that sells time

Much of Nazım’s intention with his business in the context of Heybeliada is to help preserve the island’s memory. For him, a bookstore is the natural vessel that holds the identity of its surroundings. ‘I have collected photographs, documents, books, just anything I can find about Heybeliada because I believe in the continuity of memory.’ Most recently, he uncovered a photography album of former Heybeliada resident, and founder of Turkey’s first paper factory Mehmet Ali Kağıtçı. He is passionate to extend the reach of Heybeli Sahaf by publishing books on island personalities and culture under soon-to-be-launched Halki (the island’s former Greek name) Publications.