Aydın Tiryaki (September 10, 2008)

It was the nineties, and I was in Istanbul for a few days. Moving with short steps through a crowded public bus, I reached the ticket collector and handed over the money. While giving me the ticket and my change, he said, “Your change, Mr. Aydın.” How did he know my name? It immediately occurred to me that there were many people from İnebolu in Istanbul. I thought he probably knew me from there. I examined his face carefully; there was no familiarity at all. When new passengers boarded at the next stop, I moved a bit further back, away from the ticket collector. It was then that I noticed the card pinned to my lapel with my name written in large letters. There was a symposium at ITU that day. I had just left it when I boarded the bus and had forgotten the name tag on my lapel.

After the use of Akbil began in Istanbul, I felt envious because there was no such application in Ankara. It was quite practical. Despite living in Ankara, I had an Akbil to use whenever I visited Istanbul. Later, when I heard about the Akbil corruption scandals, I thought it was a good thing it didn’t exist in Ankara; who knows what kind of corruption would have happened here.

There was a news report: “The Akbil era is ending” (1). The report stated: “Thus, the 5.5 million citizens traveling in Istanbul will board buses, subways, and sea buses using the Vakıfbank World card, which was issued jointly through an agreement between Vakıfbank and Yapı Kredi. The name of the new card will be Istanbulcard.”

I find it difficult to understand why such a beautiful application, which will facilitate city life, is limited to the card of only one bank. Lately, we have been seeing PayPass cards (Contactless payment cards) from İş Bankası, Garanti Bankası, and BankAsya in advertisements. These cards, which will bring great convenience for small change or small amount payments, should be used in all buses, minibuses, and taxis—in short, in all urban transportation. Their use in kiosks and cafeterias should be encouraged. However, restricting it to a single card from a single bank would cause it to be stillborn.

A part of the unregistered economy, which arises from small change and seems innocent but has a high total amount, will also be recorded this way. Even if many people do not like it, a registered economy is good. They must learn not to be bothered by this.

Life will be easier in the days when we no longer have to carry coins.

(1) The Akbil era is ending: http://www.milliyet.com.tr/Yasam/SonDakika.aspx?aType=SonDakika&Kategori=turkiye&KategoriID=&ArticleID=987130&Date=05.09.2008

A Note on Methods and Tools: The original Turkish version of this work was authored entirely by the author, without any assistance from artificial intelligence. (Note: AI was utilized solely as a translation and writing assistant to prepare this English version of the original text.) This text has been prepared within the scope of the “Verbatim” project for the purpose of transferring previously published articles to the present day.

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