ARTICLE - Canadian businesswoman sells traditional textiles in Istanbul

When Jennifer Gaudet travelled to Turkey in the autumn of 2005 she had little idea that the trip would change her life. “The place was hopping,” says the Canadian, who grew up in Edmonton, Alberta. “At the same time, I saw certain things were missing. I got the idea that Turkey would be a good place to set up a business.” Today Gaudet is the owner of three handicraft shops in Istanbul and a resident of the historic Sultanahmet district on the European side of the city. At the time of her Turkish holiday, Gaudet was living in Thailand, teaching English in Nakhon Sawan, a provincial city north of Bangkok. She had wanted to open her own business there but her status as a foreigner presented too many complications. “A foreigner setting up a company in Thailand is always at risk, as the law only allows you to hold 49 per cent of your business,” says Gaudet. “In Turkey you can own all but a tiny fraction of your company. It felt like a fairer system.” Gaudet’s first venture in Istanbul was a coffee shop and art gallery in Sultanahmet, close to the Hagia Sophia, a former church, then a mosque and now a museum, and one of the city’s most loved monuments. In the steep, narrow backstreets of the neighbourhood, boys dragging carts piled with fruit compete for space with gleaming new SUVs – a juxtaposition of old and modern that is a constant throughout Istanbul. Some of the produce dragged through the streets of Sultanahmet winds up at the local Wednesday market. “I love walking ....
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