2017-02-04 - Marc Semo - Le Monde
Jean-François Pérouse portraiture Istanbul, hors de toute polémique, d’une manière finement renseignée et lucide. C’est tout l’intérêt d’un livre qui explique les réalités stupéfiantes du moment par une vision idéologique affirmée : l’islamisme conservateur. Ainsi, ce qui peut sembler aberrant – les constructions géantes, les projets pharaoniques, l’indifférence au patrimoine historique réel, l’étalement urbain sans frein – s’explique parfaitement dans le cadre d’une volonté de bâtir un nouveau biotope pour une famille turque modèle.
2017-03-30 - Jean-Paul Champseix - En attendant Nadeau
Today’s Istanbul, with 15 million inhabitants and an indefinable number of people passing through, is nothing like it was barely 20 years ago. A megalopolis nurtured by powers that have turned it into a showcase for their power and restyled identity, Istanbul has changed greatly in terms of size and function. This book offers a unique, fascinated and fascinating portrait of it.
The author is a geographer who has lived in Istanbul since the end of the 1990s. He has been a direct witness of this dramatic metamorphosis. In sharing his experience in the field he provides a portrait of Istanbul which is out of step with conventional discourse, while avoiding orientalist, cultural and pessimistic cliches.
Jean-François Pérouse is an urban geographer specialising in Turkey. He has lived in Istanbul since the beginning of the 1990s.