Simply put, it’s a mix of a name and a property type. Figen Hanım refers to a property owner or landlady named Figen, and garsoniyer is the Turkish term for a studio apartment (a single room with a small kitchen and bathroom). This blog post breaks down what that means for renters, buyers, and the curious.

So, is simply Ms. Figen . When you see “Figen Hanım garsoniyer,” it almost always means:

To understand the legend, we must separate fact from folklore. Figen Han (Han is a Turkish honorific for "lady" or "madam," similar to "Ms.") is believed to have been a retired Turkish literature teacher or, according to some accounts, a former set designer for Yeşilçam (Turkish old cinema). She was born in Kadıköy in the late 1950s and inherited a modest two-story building in the Cihangir or Moda neighborhood sometime in the early 2000s.