Kurban Bayrami

Since the last post I have been traveling cross country from the Western coast back to the South East. About two weeks ago I visited Samsun, a very attractive city on the Black Sea. I will tell you more about this last trip in the next posts, for now let me share a few thoughts about my first trip on the Aegean coast.  This trip coincided with the Kurban Bayram holiday, the most important religious celebration in Turkey. The significance of this celebration which takes place 70 days after the end of Ramazan, relates to Ibrahim's willingness to sacrifice his son Ishmael for Allah. To celebrate the feast of sacrifice, a sheep or cow is butchered and meat is distributed among family members, friends, and poor people.
During this week celebration I had the opportunity to visit Izmir, a wonderful and modern city located on the Aegean coast that beautifully shows its Hellenistic and early Roman past in the nice "agora" across the Jewish market. Differently from Istanbul, Izmir does not show a pronounced Islamic and Christian architectural outlook; however, similarly to the old Constantinople, it embodies the fluid identity of port cities, spaces that historically opened to trade and exchange were embedded of multicultural interconnections.

I later traveled to Seljuk, a nice small city outside Izmir and an excellent location to reach two amazing old Greek and Roman sites. First I went to Ephesus which contains what was the third largest library in ancient civilization after Alexandria and Pergamon, along with a well preserved archeological area whose Greek legacy, magnificence, and impressive architectural genius is simply breathtaking. From there it was easy to reach something surprising, the last house where the Virgin Mary lived after escaping from Jerusalem, today place of veneration and mass Christian pilgrimage every 15th of August.    

The jovial and peaceful atmosphere that surround such a holy place located within the borders of an Islamic state seems to invite the visitor to rethink the universal and unifying rather than dividing appeal of religion in its multiple forms and expressions.  After this visit, I explored Pamukkale and its terraces immersed into natural hot springs.  Such area, extending from the wonderful ancient theater to the massive sixth century Christian basilica hosted the ancient ruins of the Greek-Roman city of Hierapolis, another example of the lasting legacy of the classic civilizations.
Afterwards, I slowly made my way back toward Malatya. First, I stopped in Fethiye, a beautiful and small touristic city. The sea is simply gorgeous and there are multiple cruises you can take to explore the Mediterranean. At the same time, you can also run into the incredible massive Lycian rock tombs dating back to the period prior to Alexander the Great, an outstanding example of ancient architecture which features the centrality of the ancient practice of burying.

Unfortunately, the weather was unusually ugly and because of that I decided to take a trip to Kayakoy, a ghost city located about 30 minutes from Fethiye. It was the best idea I could ever have. This city serves nowadays as a historical museum and was largely abandoned after the Greek-Turkish war of 1923 and its following people exchange agreement. It vividly embodies the legacy of WWI and the downsides of the principle of self-determination when forced upon communities that for long time peacefully lived in bordering states.  The earthquake of 1957 almost completely destroyed the village and what is left is a few hundred houses and the Greek orthodox Church to remind us of its Greek past. From the top of the little church you can admire the sea, somehow accessible by walking through the bushes and following some red signals on the rocks.

After this brief trip to explore the ghost village, I began my 26 hours bus ride to return Malatya. Bus in Turkey are excellent and very cheap as compared to any other means of transportation; however, trips are generally long and roads are not made for a fast ride. Anyway, the exploration of the Aegean coast was worth the long hours in bus! People were very friendly as usual, night life was like that of any big summer tourist place in Europe and food was simply fantastic. So, after visiting the western and western southern coast of the country is now time to move north and south east to explore another side of this wonderful nation!

At the Court of the Ottomans: Exploring Istanbul

“If the world had a single Empire, Istanbul would be its capital”.

 

            It is said that Napoleon pronounced these words talking about the capital of the old Ottoman Empire. Istanbul is an incredible melting pot of cultures and religions. Only when walking through its narrow and crowded streets, did I finally understand Napoleon’s words. This city magnificently embodies the idea of a crossing point between Christianity and Islam and expresses it by means of its gorgeous and massive historical buildings of rare beauty. Facing each other, the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia best exemplify the coexistence and mutual understanding between competing faiths that uninterruptedly ruled over these lands for the last two thousand years.   

For example, the defaced images of the Christian saints provide a glance into the historical tension that marked the relation between the two religions in times of war and conquest. At the same time, the underground cistern built during the early Roman age to guarantee the city adequate water supplies, represents an element of continuity between Roman and Ottoman rule and stresses past rulers’ concern for people’s needs. Not only virtues but also vices and luxury made Istanbul the “new Rome”. The Sultan’s palace, Topkapi, best exemplifies this contradiction showing personal pleasure in the extravagantly decorated Harem, wealth in its treasury which contains the 5^th largest diamond in the world, and religious relics. 

Yet, in Istanbul, images and conceptualizations of West and East dissolve into a single mainstream that combines rather than divides traditional categories of “us vs. other”.  Western electronic music reverberates from the bars of the city only to stop when the daily prayers are broadcasted from nearby mosques. Conservatively dressed women walk side by side with friends dressed in mini-skirts and high heeled shoes. Traditional Turkish dishes and “cay” is listed on the same menu as European cuisine and alcoholic beverages. Not to mention the Grand Bazaar, a micro-cosmos of human interconnections and economic interdependence that largely anticipated the globalization era. These examples are just a drop in the ocean of the multicultural identity of a city whose geographical position and European-Asian halves further complicates traditional categories of West and East.

Does East or West make any sense in Turkey?  Right now, based on my experiences during my first month living in the Eastern side of the country and traveling West, I am still undecided. Istanbul itself embodies the dual face of the same coin, depending on one’s geographical location, because fluid and undefined borders disprove the rigid categorization of political scientists.  Taking a cruise on the Bosporus further reinforces the ambiguous and contested identity of the port city that, undisputed in terms of its national and Turkish territorial belonging, leaves room for debate of its supranational dimension. Such a problematic definition provides further evidence of the tensions and contradictions of this marvelous country that throughout its multiple cultural facets points out the existence of an ongoing process of reconciliation between secularism and religion, a significant issue on its path to democracy.

Malatya and its Neighbor “Gods”

Hello everybody! After a pleasant trip from Ankara to Malatya, I finally arrived at my final destination, Inonu University! This medium size university, named after  the second Turkish President, is located about fifteen minutes from downtown Malatya, a city which has approximately 400,000 people and is famous for its delicious apricots.

Moving from Ankara to Malatya one of the first things you’ll notice is the incredible amount of  construction. Everywhere you turn, new roads are being built, apartment buildings and offices are being renovated and dust is inescapable. You get the feeling of a city in continuous motion and transformation and a state that is constantly building up its infrastructure, not just here but in many small towns in the region.  

So far everyone has been incredibly  friendly and curious about foreigners, though it appears they separate Americans from the general category of westerners and Italians  from  all other Europeans. Despite this, all categories seem to be a rarity in the area and we have been welcomed with excitement and curiosity. We have had long dinners with our amazing neighbors, frequent chats over  warm cups of çay and Turkish kahve with people we have just met. Once more, the warm welcome of Turkish neighbors has reminded me of Southern Italy and its people. At the same time, I have  also noticed two other interesting parallels with Italian society:  the relaxed pace of life and the bureaucratic inefficiency.

Although my  permanence in Ankara was too short to even acquire a superficial sense of it,  Malatya definitively  seems to offer a more conservative  outlook,  especially inside its urban centre.  Differently from Ankara, there seems to be an equal amount of ‘covered’ and uncovered women on campus, which is slightly different from Malatya’s city center where a slight majority of women wear headscarves. The legality of wearing headscarves in public offices and universities has been a highly debated issue over the years and exemplifies the problematic reconciliation between Kemalist secularism and religious practice in Turkey.  

Even though exercising doesn’t seem to be a common habit among Turkish youth, some people also play volleyball or basketball on some of the numerous courts built inside the campus.  In terms of infrastructures and student services you could again easily exchange the Inonu campus for any other US campus, which is visibly oriented toward the students’ happiness and success. What instead contrasts with American universities is the massive veneration of Turkey’s President Ataturk, which resembles past and consolidated forms of political liturgy and surrounds the memory.  The cult of personality of the WWI war hero and President of national independence is best symbolized by his Mausoleum, an outstanding architectural construction whose dimension and authoritarian outlook impressively magnifies the myth of Kemal Ataturk.  

Being located in Southeastern Turkey, Malatya is a great location to begin exploring the Eastern Turkish border. After making friends on a Turkish “Dolmus”, we were led to Battalgazi, a small village outside Malatya that hosts the Grand Mosque or Ulu Camii! Such mosque, situated next to an old Ottoman caravan serai , a wonderful and well preserved site still used for amazing handcraft production, is simply breathtaking.  The tiles inside the mosque courtyard are unique and still show an intense light that recalls a mythical past.

After this first visit, I headed to Mount Nemrut, a UNESCO World heritage Site of rare beauty.  Before reaching the site, the bus stopped in two other historical sites. First, the ancient city of Perre which was part of the Commagene kingdom and offers an incredible landscape made of ruins and burial caves carved into the rocks, all dating back to the first B.C.   

Next, I went to the Septimus Severus bridge,  built in honor of the Roman Emperor in 3 B.C. with Corinthians columns, massive blocs, and an impressive arch.  Finally, after driving up through the mountains and walking about 500 meters, we reached the summit, which hosts the stone bodies and heads of old Kings and Gods dating the reign of Antiochus. The faces of the colossal bodies are well preserved and accessible, transmitting a sense of respect and majesty for all visitors.  

In returning to Malatya I couldn’t stop thinking about the incredible combination of religious and political symbols that I encountered in a few days.  Within a week, in an area stretching from Battalgazi to Mount Nemrut I ran into one of the oldest mosques of Islam, a pre-Roman city, a Roman bridge that reminded me of its imperial past, and a pagan site representing the polytheist past of human civilization. All of this coexisted within the same geographical space in separate moments in history, exemplifying the changing and fluid nature of human societies.  But how did people adjust to such changes over time and which legacies still affect modern Turkey?

First impressions from Ankara

Merhaba! This is the first (and hopefully not the last) word I have learned so far in this new and exciting experience in Turkey. I left Rome on Saturday afternoon and took a short and surprisingly relaxing flight to Ankara. Once I got in, I hailed a cab and went to the Niza Park Hotel, watching the incredible amount of lights which illuminated the trees as we drove down the street. There were so many that it almost felt like being at home during Christmas time. And so arose my first thought in this beautiful country, as trivial as it was: Turkish people must really people love lights.

During the first four days in Ankara I walked around the city and tried to learn some basic Turkish, which was a complete disaster, or as we say in Italian, "una Caporetto!" The Turkish language is by far the hardest obstacle I have met in some time but luckily through body language and a sense of humor I have been able to make up for my complete lack of linguistic knowledge.

The second impression I had about Turkey was how friendly and warm the local people have been to me. The hospitality and courtesy again reminded me of home, specifically Southern Italy and its lovely people. I would argue that this immense hospitality must somehow be related to the Mediterranean culture because I experienced something similar during my trips to Greece and Spain. Food, too, is another common element that seems to connect these Mediterranean societies. Delicious meat and fresh vegetables definitively represent the cornerstone of Southern European cuisine and Turkey deserves its place within this category. Other great culinary surprises were the flavorful fruits and desserts, especially since the only Turkish dish I knew before coming here was the stereotypical “kebab”.

The last thing I have realized in the few days I have been here is just how little knew about Turkey before coming. Like many I viewed it as a society pervaded by strong religious practices and traditions. I was aware of Ataturk and his reforms but was unaware of the extent to which they impacted the country and its people. Walking along the bustling streets of Ankara you hear both traditional Turkish music and contemporary American music booming from car stereos and store fronts. You see women with veils walking arm in arm with women dressed in the latest Western fashions. You can hear daily prayers coming from university mosques and see students dancing until 2am, just like any college town in the US. These unique peaceful contradictions between tradition and modernity are proof that in order to fully understand Turkey and its role as a bridge between the so called West and East, the country must not only be explored or examined, but lived in, so here I go.