Category Archives: Turkey

Who was Ataturk?

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Ataturk means father of Turkey. Mustafa Kemal was given the name since, like George Washington in the United States, Attaturk is considered the father of modern Turkiye.

When he was born, Turkey (and it was Turkey then) was still part of the Ottoman Empire. Early in his youth, he was arrested for protesting against the Sultan. He joined the Army and was involved in the defense of Gallipoli.

In 1922, the Turkish National Movement, which he directed, overthrew the Ottomans. (They, by the way, ruled for several hundred years.) In 1923, Kamal was given the name Ataturk and appointed President. He ruled until 1938, the year of his death.

He is credited with making Turkiye a secular country, passing many reforms. Religion was pushed back. When one is in the country, the call to prayer is still heard from the minarets but prayer five times a day is not required. The cursive Arabic alphabet was abandoned in favor of the Roman. (This helps an English speaker since you quickly recognize and understand written words.) He opened thousands of schools, and women were given equal rights. He is rightly called the father of the modern Turkiye. Visiting Istanbul is like visiting any large, modern, cosmopolitan city with McDonalds, multi-ethnic restaurants, and many different languages heard in the street.

However, he was a dictator. He governed under one party rule. During the overthrow of the caliphate, the Greeks and Armenians were expelled and many Armenians were massacred. The current relationship with Syria and especially Iran is poor because of the country’s secularism. And Turkiye is an ally of the United States.

The Basilica Cistern and the spice market

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One of the most interesting sights in Istanbul is the Basilica Cistern, an enormous underground cistern. Ancient columns hold up the building above, some very ancient. Prior to the creation of the cistern, a Basilica stood on this spot. This was probably in the 3rd or fourth centuries of the Roman Empire. It is an eerie feeling walking underground (on a new concrete walkway) with water all around.

At the base if two of the columns are Medusa heads. No one is quite sure where they came from or why they are there. However, I wouldn’t be surprised to know they were simply repurposed from older columns. We saw many examples of newer buildings with much older stone blocks or columns.

Locals drew water from the cistern until the mid eighteen hundreds but the cistern is no longer used as a water source.

The other sight we saw was one of the largest spice markets. An indoor market crowded with tiny niches, all with different specialities, this one is one of the largest in Istanbul. It smells powerful of spices. I bought a tea, which came as leaves and berries, and saffron. Even in Turkey, one of the largest exporters of saffron, it was pretty expensive.

This is what the crowd looked like outside; it was even more crowded inside.

Istanbul

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Istanbul was highlight. It is a modern, secular city, divided in two by the Bosphorus Strait. As one would expect, it is filled with mosques. I visited several, including the famous Sofia Hagida. Built as a Christian church, it became a mosque when the Ottomans took over. Christian symbols are still visible on the second floor, which has been turned into a museum.

We visited several mosques. The tile work is amazing.

Turkey – Canakkale

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Pop Quiz: how do you pronounce the above name?

Because Turkey uses the Latin alphabet instead of the cursive Arabic script, it seems as though we should know how to pronounce it. But the Turkish language has some marks on the letters that change the pronunciation. So, the above is pronounced Cha -Knock-lee.

This is the site of Troy, the city featured in the Iliad. To me, the amazing thing about the ruins is the many strata of constant human habitation going all the way back to the Neolithic. Access to water, a fertile plain and elevation, from which to see approaching people, were all necessary features.

Troy was only one of the many communities.

When one walks through the ruins, the different levels are very apparent, although there is some mixing. Sometimes the floors fell through into the lower level. Also, the walls show that newer groups built on the walls and other structures that came before.

The movie, Troy, with Brad Pitt was filmed here in 2003. There are two horses, one in front of the site, and one in town that was gifted by the movie crew. Of the two, the second is the most believable.

Ephesus, Turkey

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Turkey, or Turkiye as they prefer, surprised me in many ways. One of the first surprises was the prevalence of Virgin Mary, or Mother Mary – their name – statues. Turkey is a Moslem country, after all, although very secular. Mary, the story goes, moved with St, John to Turkey after the crucifixion and lived there. No one knows exactly where. But she and St. John proselytized from Turkey. We also saw the ruins of the church where he was buried. The Pope moved the body to the Vatican in the sixties.

Moving to yet another faith, we saw the last remaining pillar for the Temple of Artemis. Some of the posts were used in the Sofia Hagida in Istanbul. The removal of previously used stones, pillars, murals, pretty much anything you can name, and put into new structures has a long and ancient history.

Turkey, all of the Mediterranean countries, are really at the crossroads of civilization and groups have swept over these areas over and over and over. More about Turkiye next post.