Image by Devrim Erbil.

Much of my life has been defined by movement, by journeys. When the steel industry collapsed in Pittsburgh in the late 1970s, my parents left for Texas, in search of the newly emerging opportunities in cities like Austin and Dallas. They took us kids with them.

Later, I joined the Navy, and ended up in Northern California, and served at a base outside Ferndale (the base is gone now, having been shut down in 1993). I stayed in Northern California for the next decade or so, graduating university and working at the local newspaper.

By 2004, I was restless, ready to hit the road again. So I moved to Europe,and spent the next five years teaching English in Prague, with the money I earned enough to allow for a comfortable living, and trips around the Continent.

I might have stayed in Prague indefinitely, but circumstances intervened (visa troubles). When the global economic crisis hit in 2009, I decided to roll the dice, and accepted a job at a school in Istanbul. Except for the occasional holiday, to Izmir or Rome, I have more or less remained in Istanbul ever since.

Why?

Because it is my home — for now. Funny, all through the years, I never actually imagined myself settling down anywhere permanently. As I said, movement has marked the contours of my life. You can trace the journeys on a map, and each destination holds something. Pittsburgh was my roots; Texas my boyhood; California my education; Prague my adventure …

… and Istanbul, my settling down, I suppose. Istanbul is where my wife lives, and our cat. We are thinking of getting a house in the near future, if we can afford it. But Istanbul is more than these – it’s not merely a nest, I mean. It has also become my canvas, the locale of many of my stories.

The reason I mention all this is that a reader posed the question, in light of recent events. Why would I want to live in Turkey, the reader asked? What, with civil war just south of the border in Syria, a growing threat from Islamic State, an ongoing conflict with the Kurdish minority, and a host of other problems – even the American Embassy in Istanbul was attacked this past week (fortunately only the assailant was killed).

Who in his right mind would want to stay? After all, there are plenty of teaching jobs, in Shanghai, Beijing, Mumbai, anywhere.

The reader has a point: These are dangerous, uncertain times. Not just in Istanbul, or Turkey, but throughout the region. Certainly, it behooves you to keep a constant eye on the news, on the social media – on the street – and to exercise a bit of caution. For instance, I generally avoid places like Taksim Square, where many demonstrations, as well as the occasional terrorist attack, occur.

But there’s only so much you can do in this regard. After all, the Big One could strike California at any time, but I don’t see everyone packing up their bags and leaving. (Earthquakes are a threat here too; in 1999, a huge earthquake in Istanbul killed upwards of 20,000 people, yet the city continues to grow and grow).

Anyway – yes, there are other places I could live. My education, teaching credentials and journalism experience are passports to almost anywhere in the world. Not a week goes by that my email doesn’t contain some offer (usually from China, they have a lot of students who need to learn English). Colleagues in Korea boast of the high salaries, while others post pictures on Facebook of the beautiful sunsets in Singapore.

And there’s always America. My wife and I are planning a trip home this Christmas, with a few days in New York (she’s never been to America, so of course we have to see New York), and then we will spent the holidays with my family in Pittsburgh.

That’s right, in Pittsburgh. In the years I have been away, my family returned to Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh has changed as well, transforming itself from a dying Rust Belt town into a green, liveable 21st Century city. Times change, people change, and cities change as well.

I was always glad to see my family return there, and Pittsburgh’s renaissance makes me proud.

So, maybe hope remains for my new home, Istanbul as well. Despite all the security threats, the very real wars going on at the border, the hordes of refugees, not to mention all the more mundane problems – traffic, escalating costs, angry taxi drivers – Istanbul is still one of the most vibrant and exciting cities in the world. I have been to New York, to Paris, to Rome, to San Francisco, L.A., Chicago, New Orleans, Prague, Budapest, Bratislava, Belgrade, Dresden, and many other places.

These places all have their own brand of style, their own peculiar rhythms and beauty. They have their share of history, the human dream, and carry some of the weight of our destiny.

But none of them – with the exception of New York – have quite the scale, the majesty, of this great city. How many of those cities straddle two continents? How many of them command balcony views of two seas? How many of them could boast of having been home to not one, but three, empires? How many of those cities’ histories trace back tens of thousands of years?

When you live in Istanbul, you sense that you are connected not only with Europe and Asia, but also with the Middle East, North Africa – the entire Mediterranean. Then, to the north, across the Black Sea, there is Ukraine, Russia, and the “Stans” (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, etc). So there is a blend, a crossroads of histories, peoples and cultures, that is endlessly intoxicating. At times, you feel you are a lord of the horizons.

Perhaps that is the reason why I have chosen to stay here, to make Istanbul my home. The city and I suit each other. We are a lot alike, in some ways. We both are a bit chaotic, confused, in large part because of our eclectic backgrounds. Our hearts have been crisscrossed so many times that we have to struggle at times to hold onto them. But they are our hearts.

So in answer to the question – why live in Istanbul? I suppose my reply is, why live anywhere else?

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James Tressler is a writer whose books, including “Lost Coast D.A.,” “Conversations in Prague,” and “The Trumpet Fisherman and Other Istanbul Sketches,” can be found at Lulu.com. He lives in Istanbul.