Death of a great man

Today is the anniversary of the Ataturk’s death of Ataturk.  This morning, as every year, the klaxon sounded at 9.05 to signal a minute’s silence.  Seventy nine years after his death, Ataturk is still revered in Turkey, his picture everywhere and his actions and legacy constantly discussed.

But he is held in high regard abroad too.  Here are some of the things that have been said about him...

The death of Atatürk, who saved Turkey during the war and revived the Turkish nation, is not only a loss for his country, but it is also a great loss for Europe.

Winston CHURCHILL

 

The name of Atatürk reminds mankind of the historical accomplishments of one of the greatest men of this century.

John F. KENNEDY

He was a soldier-statesman, one of the greatest leaders of our era. He ensured that Turkey got its rightful place among the most advanced nations of the world...I take great pride in being one of Atatürk's loyal friends.
General Douglas MACARTHUR, Commander-in-Chief of the Far East Forces, U.S.A.

During a conversation with the Foreign Affairs Minister of the Soviet Union, Litvinov, I asked him who was, according to him, the most valuable and remarkable statesman of Europe. He replied that, the most valuable and interesting leader in the world was the President of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

Franklin D. ROOSEVELT

And this – which I love - from British Prime Minister Lloyd George:

The centuries rarely produce a genius. Look at this bad luck of ours, that the great genius of our era was granted to the Turkish nation.

Finally, this is what Ataturk had to say about the relationship between nations:

Mankind is a single body and each nation a part of that body. We must never say "What does it matter to me if some part of the world is ailing?" If there is such an illness, we must concern ourselves with it as though we were having that illness.

Celebrating 94 years

Sunday was Republic Day in Turkey.  It is 94 years since the formal creation of the Republic of Turkey.  It is hard for us to imagine what a momentous change this was.  For 600 years under the Ottoman Empire the Sultan had enjoyed absolute power.  By contrast, in England the power of the monarchy began to be limited by a constitution in 1688.

In 1908 a group known as ‘The Young Turks’ led a rebellion against the Sultan and introduced a multi-party democracy.  Unfortunately not only did the group quickly start to fragment but, rejected by the Allied Forces, it joined sides with Germany in the First World War.

After the war, the Empire finally collapsed and would have been carved up by the Allied Forces if Ataturk had not organised the struggle for Independence.  As it was, he chased out the occupying forces and in July 1923 the territorial integrity of the new state was recognised in the Treaty of Lausanne.

Then began what might be seen as an even bigger struggle – the transformation of the country into the democratic, secular Republic of Turkey.  This transformation seems to be ongoing...in the 94 years of its history Turkey has experienced two coups (not counting last year’s ‘failed coup’) and a number of military interventions; had three new constitutions, as well as frequent amendments to the constitution (the last following the referendum earlier this year).

 

Ataturk Statue in Beskaza Square, Fethiye

The words of Ataturk’s famous ‘Address to Youth’ given in 1927 and still taught to school children are beginning to seem rather prophetic:

“Turkish Youth, Your first duty is to preserve and to defend TURKISH INDEPENDENCE and the TURKISH REPUBLIC forever. This is the very foundation of your existence and your future... In the future, too, there may be malevolent people at home and abroad, who will wish to deprive you of this treasure.....And sadder and graver than all these circumstances, those who hold power within the country may be in error, misguided and may even be traitors. The country may be impoverished, ruined and exhausted. Youth of Turkey's future, even in such circumstances it is your duty to save Turkish Independence and the Republic.”

There is certainly a strong national pride and there were celebrations all over the country yesterday.  Cem and Kaan went to the Fethiye celebrations - a sea-front walk and a concert in the large square with the statue of Ataturk (above photo).  Here is a taste of it...

Blue skies in Turkey

The summer season is coming to an end.  Many hotels have closed already and it is quiet everywhere.  At Poppy we have twelve rooms of students along with our last guests.  The weather, though, is glorious with cool evenings and early mornings but daytime temperatures of around 25.  It was perfect weather for the Race for Life yesterday which Cem, Kaan and I all completed (yes all you doubters - Cem REALLY walked 5km, this time without a stop for tea or a cigarette!)

 It’s also great weather for sight-seeing so I had a trip out with my friend Annie to see...more old stones!  This time it was Xanthos and Letoon, two important centres in the ancient civilization of Lycia.  They are about forty minutes drive from Fethiye (just off the road to Kalkan) and jointly form one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites.  I’ve seen them many times before – Cem used to visit both every day when he was doing jeep safari.  But the great thing about these places is that as they are still being excavated there is always something new to see.

I have written before about the Lycian people.  They were unique at the time for having the first democratic system – a system that allowed each city its freedom (including the city of Telmessos on the site of Fethiye) but saw them join together under a government consisting of representatives from each city for larger matters such as protecting the region.

According to one source I read (and I love this), the contemporary image of the Lycians was like that of the Swiss today – rich, hard-working, conservative and independent.

 

Xanthos theatre

Xanthos was the capital of Lycia.  Some of its warriors took part in the Trojan War and twice when threatened with invasion, the population chose mass suicide instead.

It was chosen as a heritage site for the way it demonstrates the combination of Lycian and Greek styles and particularly for the impressive tombs found here.  These include the Harpy tomb, the original frieze of which is in the British museum and the beautiful Nereid tomb, the whole of which is in the British museum.

These tombs, built for people of a certain class, demonstrate the quality of Lycian stonemasonry.  Their position close to the theatre, also shows that in Lycia the dead were not relegated to cemeteries on the edge of the city but kept close to the centre.

 

Harpy monumnet (right), Xanthos

Letoon was a sacred religious centre and the place where political decisions were announced to the public. It includes three temples dedicated to Artemis, Apollo and their mother Leto and excavations uncovered a plinth (now in Fethiye museum) inscribed in Lycian, Greek and Aramaic, which helped in the understanding of the Lycian language.

 

Letoon

On the subject of old stones, Cem reminded me the other day that the Turkish writer and artist Cevdet Sakir once wrote to our Queen asking for the return to Turkey of pieces like the ‘Xanthos marbles’.  They belonged, he said, under blue skies and could not be properly appreciated under the grey skies of England.  The letter was apparently passed to a curator of the British Museum who thanked him for pointing this out and said that as a result of his letter, the ceiling of the room housing the pieces had been painted blue!

Nereid Monument in the British Museum

Another pile of old stones - Kibyra

Yesterday, on our way back from Salda Lake, I finally got to see a place I’ve wanted to visit for a while.  It’s called Kibyra and it’s about 100km from Fethiye.  It’s basically another pile of old stones – but what a pile!  It has to be one of the most interesting sites I’ve been to (and I’ve been to a lot!)

Stadium

Although it was first identified in the 1840s, excavation only began in the last 30 years and has only been carried out on a regular basis since 2006.  Even so, last year an application was made to include Kibyra on UNESCOs list of World Heritage Sites.

The settlement dates from the 4th century BC and its residents came from an older site 18km away.  The city took 70 years to build, but most of the infrastructure and public buildings were completed BEFORE anybody moved in! An earthquake in 23AD destroyed the original buildings and those there now were built after this, when the Roman Emperor Tiberius granted the city tax relief for 3 years to enable them to rebuild.

Entrance to Agora

In its prime, Kibyra had about 80,000 residents and was the capital of the Kibyratis region.  This federation had a constitution and strong judicial system and brought together two cultures and four languages.  In 83BC the Romans put an end to the federation and Kibyra became part of Phrygia, but its location on the border and trade routes of several regions (Lydia, Phrygia, Caria) ensured its continued importance.  Its army kept order in the area and provided protection to travellers passing through (for a fee!).  It was also known for the quality of the horses bred there and for metal and leatherwork – all vital for equipping an army.

Another earthquake in 417AD caused damage which due to economic conditions could not be repaired and the population declined until Kibyra was abandoned in about the eighth century.  The ruins are extensive and would take several hours to explore properly but here are some of the highlights...

The stadium is 197metres long and could accommodate up to 10,000 spectators.  The uphill seating had 21 rows, while the downhill stand had only five to prevent the structure from blocking the impressive view of the valley.  Sports events, races and gladiatorial combat would all have taken place there.

Stadium

The Odeon is an impressive building situated next to the 8000-seater theatre.  It was a music hall used for concerts, but also housed meetings to discuss economic issues, announce new laws and judicial proceedings.

Odeon

It has seven doors, five along the front wall and two at the top of the seating area to allow people to enter and leave without disturbing events. The area in front is covered by a huge mosaic, mainly geometric patterns and writing which is apparently a promise by the builders to present the city they love with this work. The building would have had a wooden roof that spanned the 36m space with no vertical supports.

The most impressive feature is a mosaic on the floor area that shows Medusa. Images of Medusa were apparently often used in official buildings as it was believed that her gaze would turn liars to stone!  This one is made up of larger pieces than a normal mosaic (Opus Sectile technique) in five different colours.  It took much work to uncover this mosaic and it is now protected by covers most of the time; I was very lucky to go at one of the rare times that it is on show!

There is also an Agora (market place) with a colonnaded street lined with shops, a huge (2500sqm) bath building with 500sqm of under-floor heating and many tombs.  In fact, an announcement was made yesterday of the uncovering of the biggest tomb on the site.  One of the archaeologists described Kibyra as the ‘Mediterranean Ephesus’ and it is sure to grow in fame and popularity but for now there are so few visitors you can wander round the place undisturbed – and imagine life there two thousand years ago!  

Oh for a boring day!

When I left my job in London twenty-five years ago one of the things I was happy to give up was the routine of an office job.  It’s a bit ironic then that in the last couple of weeks I’ve caught myself longing for a dull, predictable day.  This is why...

You probably heard about the earthquake that struck off the coast between Greece and Turkey on 21 July.  It measured 6.8 and was felt all along both coasts, most strongly in Bodrum and Kos, where two people died and more were injured when the roof of a bar collapsed.  After I posted a complaint on Facebook about the reporting of the event it was suggested that I was downplaying it in order to protect tourism; this was certainly not the case.  However I still don’t see how sensationalising (ie. lying about) the circumstances of the deaths shows respect.  For me the most significant fact, sadly ignored by many locals as well as most of the press, was that in an earthquake of this strength (on the Moment scale used to measure earthquakes, 6 is described as ‘moderate, may cause damage in populated areas’ and 7 is described as ‘strong earthquake with loss of life') there were so little damage and so few casualties.  This shows that building regulations have been successful in raising the standard of construction.

On a more local scale, there was drama at Poppy a few days later when the cleaner and her assistant fell out.  I heard the shouting, but thought it was coming from next door and by the time I realised where it was actually coming from, quite a few of the guests were enjoying the entertainment!  Luckily we found a new assistant cleaner very quickly and she is working out better than I could have hoped.

The following week, there was more excitement when Emre had to jump into the pool to save a Turkish boy.  That same evening we had a visit from the Health Department to say that a Turkish guest who stayed one night at Poppy early in July had died the following week from malaria.  Though he had contracted it in Nigeria where he had been working, a team came out from Mugla (2 hours away) to take blood from all of us to make sure we weren’t infected!

Poppy is NOT impressed!

Then last week, it was the police who turned up at the hotel.  The new security system into which we are required to enter the details of all guests had identified one – barely an hour after he had arrived and within minutes of us entering him into the system – as an army avoider.  I had visions of him being dragged out of the hotel but actually they just gave him a paper and told him to go to his local recruitment office when he got home.

Just when I thought it was calming down, we had a family of 14 arrive in an old Peugeot minibus (ex dolmus).  I asked Kaan to keep an eye on the children who got straight in the pool with arm bands on but half an hour later it was a lady and a teenage girl that we had to rescue from the pool – only ten in the morning and I had to go home to change my sopping wet clothes.

Abidin the crow

In addition to this, we have been enjoying the attentions of a very naughty crow that someone has tamed but which has decided to hang around the hotel.  Cem has named him Abidin and been putting videos of him on Facebook.  He steals cigarettes from packets, pecks at clothes hanging on balconies and squawks loudly at anyone who dares to tell him off.  And today two kittens have turned up in the garden – very cute and quite healthy-looking but Poppy has already had her nose put out by the crow and Mischa chased them up a tree today and the boys had to rescue them.

cute kitties looking for a home

Thankfully, through all this madness we have had some great guests, friends and family staying at the mad house and keeping us laughing.  But you will understand why I am beginning to hope for drama-free days!

The peace and tranquility of Calis!

What is a whirling dervish?

In English, we like to refer to someone who is rushing around as being ‘like a whirling dervish’ but until I came to Turkey I don’t think I had even stopped to wonder what a dervish really is.

Two weeks ago, on our way to Cappadocia, we passed through Konya which, aside from being the seventh largest city in Turkey and the largest in terms of land area of its 81 regions (38,000 sq km – nearly double the size of Wales), is the centre of the Mevlevi order of dervishes.

Mevlana museum (once a dervish lodge), Konya

A dervish is a Sufi Muslim holy man who follows an austere religious life and focuses on leaving behind the ego and personal desires in order to reach God.  There are other dervish orders in Pakistan, Afghanistan and north Africa, among other places, but the Mevlevi order is based on the teachings of Celaleddin Rumi and was started by his son.

Rumi – also known as Mevlana (‘the Master’) – was a thirteenth century poet and religious scholar who settled in Konya.  He is little-known in the UK but in the USA he is described as the best-selling poet and a selection of his love poems has been performed by the likes of Madonna, Goldie Hawn and Demi Moore!

In most Sufi orders, some form of physical exertion is used to reach a trance-like state.  Rumi believed passionately in the use of music and dance for this and his spinning developed into the ritual Sema (whirling) practised by the Mevlevi dervishes.

The Semazen (whirling dervish) wears a tall, camel hair hat that represents the tombstone of the ego and a wide, white skirt that represents its shroud.  At the beginning of the Sema, he holds his arms crossed over his chest to resemble the number one, symbolising God’s unity.  Later, his arms open and his right arm reaches to the sky to receive God’s beneficence while his left hand reaches to the earth.  As he turns (from right to left) he embraces all humanity in love.

These days the dervish lodge in Konya is the Mevlana Museum and as the site of Rumi’s tomb, a place of pilgrimage.  Every year in December the Mevlana Festival is held to celebrate Rumi’s birthday with demonstrations of the Sema.  But his teachings are also relevant, nearly eight hundred years later.

Mevlana's tomb

Rumi believed that human beings had been created with God’s love in order to love.  He treated people of different religions exactly the same, believing that they all hold the truth.  Most importantly, he called for peace and tolerance, which is something we could certainly use more of today!

Dervish graves, Mevlana Museum

Our Cappadocia trip

Just got back from a few days away in Cappadocia.  WOW!

 

Goreme, Cappadocia (central Anatolian region of Turkey)

If you’ve visited Turkey, you have probably seen pictures of the ‘fairy chimneys’. The strange landscape is the result of cracks and fissures in the soft rock being eroded by wind and rain to make isolated pillars, whose geological name is hoodoo.  The region forms a 1000m high plateau riddled with valleys and from most parts of it you can see the distant peaks of the extinct volcanoes which formed it.  The largest, at nearly 4000m, is Erciyes Mountain which is a popular ski resort.

hoodoo ('fairy chimney')

The geography is so unusual that Cappadocia is a popular place for filming.  It used to be the place they filmed low-budget Turkish ‘kovboy’ movies (westerns – say it out loud!) but more recently many countries have used it as a location, especially for sci-fi films.  Parts of Nicholas Cage’s Ghost Rider II were shot there.

Besides the incredible scenery, Cappadocia has a fascinating history.  Through the ages, it has been under the control of the Hittites, the Persians, Alexander the Great and the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman Empires, all of which left their mark in some way.

church at Goreme Open Air Museum

As early as the fourth century it became an important centre of Christianity.  Christians fleeing persecution by the Romans arrived in some numbers and established communities here. They dug out the chimneys to make dwellings and churches, which can be seen best at Goreme and Zelve Open Air Museums.

Zelve village

Some of these are decorated with simple motifs – crosses and symbols – from the eighth century when the Eastern Church banned the use of religious images (a period of iconoclasm).  The later ones are decorated with beautiful frescoes which, thanks to the dry air and lack of light in the caves, are well-preserved.

As well as the Christians suffering persecution, the area of Cappadocia has often found itself on the edge of rival empires.  The residents responded by digging underground settlements, which have been found all over the area.  These were not lived in permanently but each house would have access to them and whenever there was a threat the people would disappear underground.  Some of the largest cities housed thousands of people together with their animals!

Underground cities like the ones at Derin Kuyu and Kaymakli were easy to defend as the narrow tunnels made fighting difficult.  There were also stones that were used to block access tunnels and holes through which spears could be dropped!

Apart from visiting the churches and underground cities, the most popular thing to do in Cappadocia is ballooning.  It’s the best way to see the landscape and with 50 or more balloons taking off each morning just before sunrise it is a magical experience.

It’s a long way from Fethiye to Cappadocia (700km) but it’s possible to do it by car (preferably breaking the journey somewhere) or by overnight bus and I would highly recommend it!