Turkey & Greece

Edirne

Fri, 1 Feb 2008 15:13:35 -0500

Like a fine dessert, our final road trip in Turkey rewarded us with the sweetest of sights: a mosque considered the masterpiece of the Ottoman empire's master architect, Sinan. Located in Edirne, nestled three hours from Istanbul at the corner of Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria, the Selimiye Mosque is smaller than the grandest buildings of Istanbul. But its breathtakingly exquisite interior and its intriguing domes explain instantly why architect Mimar Sinan himself considered it his best work. Few tourists visit this masterpiece, because it is off the beaten path of most visitors. We strolled its nooks and crannies, visited the "womens gallery" and basked in the abundant morning light streaming through its stained glass windows. Every turn produced new and intriguing insights into Sinan's engineering prowess. Behind the mosque, artisans who produced its towering minarets and its fine-art tile and mosaic work are buried in a small cemetery, tributes to their work on the 16th century Selimiye.
Edirne itself offered us a glimpse of another aspect of Turkey; its rural poverty. Although the small city was once an Ottoman capital, when the empire was stretching into Europe, today Edirne is a poor agricultural community. Men still carry their produce to market in donkey carts, and beggars we had not previously seen in Turkey seemed much more prevalent. We walked across an ornate stone bridge, also designed by Sinan, but it's poorly preserved.
Our return to Istanbul seemed somehow subdued, as many of us began to realize our monthlong adventure in Turkey and Greece was drawing to a close.

Odds and Ends

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Nearing the end of our study-travel experience in Turkey and Greece seems like a good time to observe a few odds and ends about our visit:

Food - We have enjoyed a kaleidoscope of colorful and savory Turkish cuisine, with many dishes featuring cheese, lamb and beef. The ubiquitous doner (shaved lamb or chicken piled atop pita often served as a Greek style gyro in the United States), and kebap (skewered lamb or chicken) were staples, along with rice and patates (potatoes) - often served together. Round Simit (large circles of fresh-baked bread encrusted with sesame seeds, pictured above) and other fresh breads have been plentiful, along with eggplant and fresh sweet peppers. Our lunches have often been served from steam-table fast-food joints which pride themselves in home-style, freshly made dishes.

Water - Even Turks don't drink tap water, so despite recent concerns in the West about the environmental costs of plastic bottled water, it's been our mainstay here, even for brushing our teeth. There are several brands of bottled spring water, including a some boasting of clear water from Mount Uludag. We'd found ourselves drinking Uludag water quite regularly... until we got to Bursa, where Uludag is located. There, in the shadow of the snow-covered mountain, the Uludag brand was nowhere to be found. Maybe the grass-is-always-greener principle apples to drinking water?

Smoking - Cigarette smoke is everywhere in Turkey. Despite a government ban looming, Turks of all ages smoke constantly and in every setting. Restaurants and hotel lobbies, in particular, are thick with second-hand smoke, with no escape, inside or out. Smoke-free areas are virtually nonexistent, except in the airport and a very few other public places such as buses and trams. Few of our hotels have had smoke-free rooms, and even the ones which had them included ash trays and matches in those rooms. Although Turkey does produce its own brand of cigarettes, fashion-conscious Turks seem mostly to smoke American tobacco exports. Marlboro is the most popular.

Shopping - Istanbul and other major Turkish cities are famous for their bazaars. Everything from washing machines to fine silk scarves are sold in the ancient equivalent of the shopping mall. In a few places, truly unique products such as hand-wrought jewelry or textiles appeal to visitors. But just like tourist traps everywhere, Turkey has its share of "tsotchke" shops selling machine-made souvenirs and (as the Turkish themselves call them) "genuine fakes." Unlike Western shopping meccas, it's common - indeed expected - in Turkey that shop merchants actively approach would-be customers, beseeching them (badgering, actually) to buy. Sales personnel, almost exclusively men, lurk around shop doors, pouncing on passing tourists. The most professional of these sales sharks have perfected their pitches for tourists of various nationalities in various languages. They seem to have a "friend" in whatever state or town a tourist happens to mention. For Americans, our favorite pitches included "Mister, what can you do for me today?" And at one small bazaar near Pergamon, "Cheaper than Wal-mart, better than Target." Our guide taught us a highly effective verbal parry: "Yok!" in Turkish, said with a sneering "tsk," seems to be the most disparaging and successful way of turning off a persistent salesman.

"Water Closet" - Since we spent many hours on our tour coach, rest stops became an important part of our experience. Many of us learned that "WC" was the common designation for "rest room," and we learned to check individual stalls carefully to see if one or two might have western-style seats instead of the much less comfortable "squat" toilets very common in Turkey. Carrying liquid hand-sanitizer and tissues was critical. It became something of a game for us to observe the unusual graphic icons used to designate "Bay" (men) and "Bayan" (women). Among Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's reforms in the 1920's was his ban on the wearing of Ottoman-style "fez" hats. Ataturk preferred European-style headgear, which may have been the inspiration for this much more modern lavatory sign at a rest stop on the way to Edirne.

Scarves - As readers of this blog have already discovered, headscarves on women are extremely common, almost unanimous outside Istanbul and other large cities; Turkey's population is 98% Muslim. At all public universities, Turkish law specifically outlaws the wearing of headscarves. At Marmara University, scarved women stop at a small booth outside the gates to deposit their scarves until they leave the campus. Some Muslim women wear wigs as a substitute while on campus. Those women who want to wear their scarves actually choose to forego higher education in Turkey, often choosing to go to college in Europe or the United States. At one campus we visited, in Ankara, inspectors prowled the classrooms, looking for women violating the law by wearing headscarves.

Back to Istanbul

Sun, 27 Jan 2008 14:43:50 -0500

Our two week "road trip" around western Turkey came to a close today, as we made our way back to Istanbul for our final week of classes and related activities. Crossing the Sea of Marmara by ferry, we couldn't help noticing the intriguing mix of dress, particularly among women, in Turkey. On the crossing, we were surrounded by oil tankers and other cargo vessels, reminding us of Turkey's strategic importance, and mile after mile of factories and warehouses reminded us of the importance of Turkey's western waterways to the nation's economy.
We were swimming against the tide of Istanbulians escaping their city for the mountain ski resort we had just enjoyed in Bursa. It's winter school break for students from elementary through college this week, so Istanbul license plates outnumbered others on the road to Mount Uludag.
By now, our bus had become our home-away-from-home, and we gave our driver, Adil, a long round of applause for his outstanding professional work on our behalf. (Adil maintains a clean, warm and comfortable coach, which we all came to appreciate.) About half of us immediately took off for the laundry (we wondered what the rest were doing about their dirty clothes), to get ourselves set for the last week of our study abroad.
On television, news of a train wreck in Turkey surprised us; we were nowhere near the incident.
We've got classes scheduled this week, plus a possible bonus excursion later in the week to Edirne, the Ottoman Empire's closest capital city to Europe. The pace of this blog will probably slow to match our own.

Bursa

Sat, 26 Jan 2008 15:19:31 -0500

Most foreign tourists in Turkey never visit Bursa, the first capital of the Ottoman Empire, but we decided they're really missing a treat. Bursa is a sprawling, modern city with a bustling, colorful and interesting old city center. Unlike the much larger Istanbul, Bursa seems to reflect much more vividly the diversity of Turkey's cultures, from the hippest, fashion-conscious young people to women of all ages who wear every style of traditional Islamic clothing. We saw women covered in black "hijab," with only small portions of their faces exposed, and women wearing bright and trendy silk scarves. We also saw a scarved woman wearing a long tailored denim coat, embroidered and adorned with rhinestones.
We strolled Bursa's Grand Covered Bazaar, more like a department store than a tourist trap (and, unlike Istanbul's bazaar, clearly aimed more at Turks than foreigners). But we also found, just a few steps from the old bazaar, one of Turkey's most up-to-date shopping malls, which, except for the price tags and signs, is just like malls in Western Europe or the United States, with many of the same designer brands. At the silk market, some of us indulged in the city's famous special designs, made from silk spun by worms raised on silk farms in Bursa.
We sampled Bursa's famous special beef kebab, generously soaking in a rich bath of butter, yoghurt and tomato sauce.
Homemade preserves and freshly baked walnut bread greeted us in the morning as we squeezed through the narrow cobblestone streets of Bursa's oldest neighborhood, a settlement snaking its way up toward Mount Uludag and continuously occupied for some 700 years. The village became famous in Turkey a few years ago when producers started using it to tape a popular television drama. Its stone-and-wood houses, many in disrepair, are slowly being restored with funds produced by television fame. An old cemetery intrigued us with its unusual headstones.
Bursa proved warmer than we had expected, but about a dozen of us made our way up to the ski resort on Uludag, where we discovered modest but excellent ski runs (and equally modest equipment and lift prices). Others took a cable car ride up the mountain to 1600 meters above sea level for a spectacular view of the Bursa valley below, where we glimpsed what seemed like a hundred minarets, and the twenty domes of Bursa's central mosque.
The mosque, and another we visited in town, proved to be fascinating interactions with both modern and ancient Islam. For the first time on our travels, women in our group were required to cover their heads out of respect to the devout Muslims praying around us (our previous mosque encounters had never included this experience, though we have always taken off our shoes upon entering mosques). Interestingly, we were encouraged to enter the mosque about an hour after the call-to-prayer, even though some worshippers were still inside.
The haunting sounds of the call-to-prayer have followed us throughout Turkey, which is about 98% Muslim, and the artistry and quiet beauty of Bursa's mosques are destined to remain in our minds long after we leave this country.

Ankara-Gordion

Sat, 26 Jan 2008 14:46:10 -0500

In Ankara, Turkey's capital, we came face-to-face with the geopolitics of the Mediterranean when we - and Greece's Prime Minister - paid our respects at the same moment to modern Turkey's founder, Kemal Mustafa Ataturk. Honor guards and international news media were on hand at the Ataturk mausoleum when we arrived, followed just minutes later by the Greek Prime Minister, who laid a wreath at Ataturk's grave. It was the first visit by a Greek leader to Turkey in half a century, perhaps signaling a major reduction in tensions between these two historic enemies.
Our visit to the mausoleum helped us understand Turkey's unusual hero-worship of Ataturk, the military and political leader who set Turkey on its path of secularism and turned the nation away from the Arab world and toward Europe in the 1920's. Ataturk is revered by Turks for his vision of the modern nation; we have seen his likeness almost everywhere, on flags, in shops and market streets, amid the nearly complete absence of tribute any other Turkish leader.
Before leaving Ankara, we saw some of Turkey's most highly valued archaeological relics at the national museum, including cave paintings carbon-dated to more than 7,000 years before Christ. That set the stage for our brief visit to the excavations of Gordion, where Alexander the Great once untied the legendary knot of the same name, and where, today, archeologists are unearthing scores of ancient civilization burial mounds and finding extensive remnants of those cities. While we were there, local media reporters interviewed us about our experiences in Turkey (they also grilled us about the U.S. role in the war in Iraq).
Our incredibly skilled driver, Adil, carried us over the mountains through snow and ice to the Ottoman Empire's first capital city, Bursa, our next stop.

Ankara

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 15:43:17 -0500

Our heads were bursting with political information today as we visited in Turkey's capital city with government officials of both Turkey and the United States. After morning classes featuring discussions of Turkey's effort to gain entry to the European Union and its political disputes with Greece over Cyprus and other issues, we traveled to the brand new headquarters building of Turkey's ruling "Justice & Development Party.
There we talked at length with a member of Turkey's parliament, Mr. Reha Denemec, one of the founder of Turkey's current ruling party. Mr. Denemec reviewed a full range of international and domestic issues, and answered our many questions about Turkey's ban on public speech which might "insult Turkishness," about the country's ban on wearing headscarves at universities and other issues. Mr. Denemec received his masters degree in economics from the University of Delaware and greeted us warmly.
A warm welcome also awaited us at the personal residence of the U.S. Ambassador to Turkey, Amb. Ross Wilson. He showed us a letter of ambassadorial credentials signed by Abraham Lincoln, still kept at the embassy in Ankara, and he, too, answered many questions about the U.S. relationship with Turkey and about Turkey's political importance in the Middle East. We also learned about his career postings, from the Soviet Union to Azerbeijan and Australia, and those of his wife, Margo Squires, who works for U.S. Information Agency and its successor organization representing the U.S. image abroad.

Capadoccia's "Fairy Chimneys"

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 13:30:16 -0500

The Turks call them "fairy chimneys," but they reminded us of the homes of gnomes, trolls or smurfs. Ancient volcanic eruptions and millennia of erosion have created one of the most unusual - perhaps even unique - natural landscapes in the world in Capadoccia. (The name is spelled various ways, both in Turkish and English.) Deep beneath the surface, we explored kitchens and corridors, air shafts and sophisticated security systems built by civilizations underground long before Christianity settled in central Turkey. When the Christians finally did arrive, they carved vaulted churches into the rock chimneys, and painted elaborate frescos using vegetable dyes - still vivid today, centuries later.
Those same rich dyes still are the colors used in Capadoccia's famous hand-woven carpets, many created using silk from one of the cities we are yet to visit, Bursa. Hard to believe, but we ate Turkish "pide" (a variation of pizza) and drank apple tea while admiring carpets worth up to $20,000 being unfurled before us at a local school for apprentice weavers. We saw fibers being spun out of silk, and some of us sat on benches beside skilled women weavers as they meticulously tied hundreds of knots to create their masterpieces. (Some of the rugs we saw consume as much as 7 months of a woman's labor to create, which helps explain their value.)
At a famous local pottery, we saw another kind of incredible artistry, as we peered over the shoulders of men and women painstakingly creating unique pointillist designs on ceramics.
Capadoccia's climate surprised us. The daytime's bright sun daily burns away some of the thickest fog we've ever seen, which enshrouds the region from sunset until mid-morning. Temperatures in the mild 40's during the day plummet to well below freezing overnight, leaving early-morning frost covering trees and bushes when we set out on our explorations in the morning.
The fantasy-landscape was our playground as we climbed and crawled among the mounds and cubbies of the mountain villages, while learning about the sequential civilizations which inhabited this land.
A logistics note: Our trip from the warm Mediterranean to frozen Capadoccia was marred by a minor travel glitch. Flights into Turkey's capital city, Ankara (on our route) were completely canceled because of heavy fog on the day we were traveling, so we were transported by cross-country coach to catch up to our itinerary. Capadoccia's incredible scenery has all but erased that glitch from our minds.

Secular vs Religious Turkey

Sat, 19 Jan 2008 05:25:08 -0500

Throughout our three weeks (so far) in Turkey, we have witnessed a raging political debate underway over Turkey's nine-decades-long tradition of secularism. Since Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's decision in the 1920's to establish firm rules keeping religion out of government, Turks have passionately defended the secular character of their country.

Under current and longstanding law, Muslim women are forbidden from wearing headscarves in public buildings, including schools and universities. Some Turks we've met, including expressively-religious ones with whom we've had dinner, believe that kind of "secularism" amounts to discrimination against expressive Muslims. Other Turks with whom we've talked believe secularism is fundamental to the Turkish national soul, and that Muslims who want to change that are driving a political wedge between Turks.

All Turks we've met seem to agree on one thing: Turkey has an ancient tradition of openness to and acceptance of all religions, and should continue that tradition. Turks speak proudly of the Ottoman history of welcoming to safety many thousands of Jews expelled from Europe during the inquisition, and they also are proud of the many Christian and Jewish religious sites which are carefully preserved side-by-side with Muslim sites. Turkey's population is 98% Muslim. There are tiny minorities of Christians and Jews. Mosques of every shape and size are everywhere in Turkey, just as churches seem ubiquitous in Europe and the United States.

Since the election of a Prime Minister and President who express their religion more openly (their wives wear headscarves in public, for instance, which is unusual in Turkey), have in the past couple of weeks been engaged in an intense public debate over this subject while we have been touring Turkey. These leaders, from a religious party in Turkey, now control the government and parliament. Newspapers are filled with full-page articles and features about the statements of these political leaders and with commentary about their activities and motives. Photos of their wives, wearing headscarves, have been published prominently along with that commentary. A high court, representing the Turkish secular tradition, this week issued a warning against using the headscarf issue as a political statement. It's unclear, at this moment, what effect that court statement might have.

Some of our observations while in Turkey:
Women attending Marmara University in Istanbul are required to remove their headscarves before entering the campus. At the entrance, a small, separate gatehouse is provided for Muslim women to check their scarves while attending classes. They retrieves them upon leaving for the day. We've observed no evidence of unhappiness with this procedure, but we have not stopped to discuss it at the gate.
Women in Istanbul, where almost one-third of all Turks live, seem least likely to wear a headscarf at all. Both men's and women's dress in Istanbul seems much more fashionable and trendy than outside the city. Even those women who do wear scarves in Istanbul seem to do so in a "loose" fashion; that is, they don't tie their scarves tightly around their necks and faces, wearing them more as a fashion statement than a religious one. Even in Istanbul, however, we've seen women wearing more traditional Muslim headscarves. Most of the scarves we've seen in Istanbul seem to be multicolored, bright expressions of the wearer's fashion and style.
In Istanbul, at the family homes we visited at the start of our trip, our hostesses all wore headscarves. At one home, the hostess was dressed almost entirely in black scarf and dress. At another, she wore a white scarf and a black dress. At the third, she wore a bright, mostly-red multicolored scarf, but tied tightly in traditional Muslim fashion. All three of the homes we visited were, by our choice, homes of people who belong to the "Gulen" movement, whose goal is to seek more freedom for Islamic expression in Turkey. Regardless of their dress, the women we met have all been animated in their interaction with us, westerners, although each with a different twist. Some joined us at the dinner table, one remained mostly in the kitchen - but engaged enthusiastically there in conversation with our women students.
Outside Istanbul, women almost always seem to be wearing a headscarf; it's hard to recall any women without one. Outside Istanbul, headscarves seem to be mostly used as a head covering, and are rarely tied tightly. Rarely have we seen, outside Istanbul, a plain, white headscarf, or "hijab," tied tightly in Muslim religious fashion. But what's striking is that outside the big city, wearing a headscarf seems to be an almost ubiquitous requirement or tradition.

We have arranged a meeting later this week with a member of parliament from the religious party (the AK Parti) in the capital, Ankara. We hope to discuss the headscarf issue - and the debate over Turkey's secularism - with him at that time. We have also discussed it with U.S. officials in Turkey, and we hope to meet with some journalists next week who are more familiar with the country than we are.

Greece - Island of Rhodes

Sat, 19 Jan 2008 04:50:02 -0500

We hopped continents again, leaving Asia for Europe as we sailed across the Mediterranean toward the Island of Rhodes for an all-too-brief excursion to Greece. Our tiny ferry runs only twice a week in winter, and the voyage took two hours, giving some of a chance to catch up on some sleep, and passing quickly through a rain shower. On Rhodes, we reached a summit (the "acropolis") where we could simultaneously gaze upon the Aegean and Mediterranean seas, while also taking in an ancient hippodrome and the sites of several temples to the ancient Greek gods.
Crossing a medieval moat, complete with wooden drawbridge, we walked into a castle that could have been the model for PlayMobil toys. With its four sequential gates, the 15th century fort has never been conquered, though an earthquake once destroyed it. Inside, a Christian hospital featured a ward with private cubicles that once served patients rich enough - and required - to bequeath their entire fortunes in exchange for exceptional care. We walked a medieval street lined with stone buildings once established by language and cultural societies, now restored to their original appearance. In a museum, we saw wall carvings featuring hospital patients wearing arm slings, and a haunting sculpture of Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty.
Our terrific Greek tour guide was disappointed we had to return to Marmaris in just a couple of hours (because of the ferry schedule). At one point, she subtly demonstrated persistent Greek-Turkish political tensions when she referred to "Constantinople, which the Turks call Istanbul." Earlier in our travels in Turkey, we saw the evidence of repeated Greek-Turkish tensions in the territorial battles over Aegean islands and western lands now part of Turkey. In class, we discussed the continuing political challenge of the divided island of Cyprus, whose fate is partly responsible for Turkey's painstakingly slow accession to the European Union.

Marmaris

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:01:07 -0500

Our first view of the Mediterranean Sea came at sunset on our arrival, but we experienced many more during an off-road vehicle safari into the mountains around Marmaris. The skies opened up again with a downpour and basso thunder accompanied our walk into what looked like a rain forest to see a hidden waterfall. We lunched over a hearty Turkish barbeque near an old corn mill, prepared by a couple who have been serving tourists like us for two dozen years in these deep woods. Our vehicles stopped for picturesque views across the Med, and for some local flute music above steep mountain valleys, in which flocks of sheep grazed below us, and a bright yellow mosque drew our attention. Tiny quaint villages reminded us that half Turkey's population lives outside its big cities, where life is a lot less hectic, less fashionable and much more connected to Turkey's rural past.