"First of all, being from the City is considered a privilege by both Greeks and Citizens. Because here we are talking about the city of cities, right? We are talking about belonging to a community with very old and very great traditions, which go deep into the past. Anyway, you feel connected in some way to all those works that this community has created in recent history as well as in ancient and medieval times. Because you have been inside these churches, you have experienced things, you have memories. [...] The City is a beautiful place. Apart from history, philosophy, and the like, it is beautiful on its own. It is beautiful even today. [...] Although many things have changed, it continues to be beautiful, to attract, it is a core of charm. And therefore, it gives you a reason to be proud of it."

This book primarily opens a window into the world of perceptions and emotions of the Greeks of Constantinople. It narrates and allows its characters to narrate the role that living or having lived in the City plays, but also the role of the City itself in shaping their identity. It narrates through the mouths of the people of the Greek Orthodox community how identity is reproduced in space, in myths, in rituals, and in memory. The history of this book inevitably speaks also of the decay that the political identity suffered from successive nationalist abuses, from the brutality of the September events of 1955, from the exiles, and more. It is also the story of the changes that Istanbul and the identity of the City Woman and the Citizen have gone through and continue to go through. Nurdan Turker, by avoiding and rejecting the trap of nostalgia that lurks in the narrative of this specific identity, gives us the example of a vibrant and analytical gaze on the subject she investigates."