While we were in İstanbul, we went to the military museum and were lucky enough to see the Mehter performing. If you don’t know – and I didn’t even after 18 years in Turkey -the Mehter was the Ottoman military band. They marched into war alongside the army serving the dual purpose of rallying their own troops and striking fear into the enemy.
The current band, who give performances all over the world, are extremely smart and their marches really are rousing with their combination of percussion and the plaintive oboe-like zurna. But what really struck me is the fact that they were probably the FIRST military marching band in the world. The Mehter terrified the Crusaders who travelled through Ottoman lands and supported the Ottoman forces as they marched through Europe right up to Vienna. In this way, the idea for military bands was born in other countries.
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| part of the Mehter band |
What’s more, the music of the Mehter – rousing songs and marches written especially for them – was also much admired, and its form was copied by both Mozart and Beethoven. So why have we never heard about them?
Wondering this made me remember that there are actually a whole host of things that Turkey SHOULD be famous for…but isn’t. Here are some of them…
The oldest urban settlement in the world is at Çatalhöyük in Anatolian Turkey, the site of a thriving, planned city nearly 9,000 years ago. The oldest shipwreck was found in 1982 at Kaş – just along the coast from here. It is a late Bronze Age merchant boat with a cargo that included copper, tin, glass, olives and trinkets like tortoise shells and ostrich eggs.
You probably know that the city of Troy, which the Greeks supposedly infiltrated with the help of their Trojan Horse, is in Turkey. Some of you will have seen our own Trojan Horse at Poppy – a winning entry in the Çalış Carnival Parade two years ago. But did you know that Caesar uttered those famous words ‘I came, I saw, I conquered’ here after victory over tribes in the Black Sea area? Or that Noah’s ark is thought to have come to rest as the floods subsided on Mount Ararat in north east Turkey?
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| Yılmaz and our Trojan horse |
Turkey was the birthplace of historic legends like Aesop, Homer, King Midas (of the golden touch) and the apostle Saint Paul, while Cleopatra and Alexander the Great came through here on their travels. By the way, legend has it that Alexander the Great and his men conquered the town of Telmessos (modern Fethiye) by coming ashore disguised as musicians, with their weapons hidden in flute boxes.
Turkey has an estimated 9000 species of flowers, compared to 11,500 in the whole of Europe. Tulips are native to Turkey and it is said that the Turkish sultan sent them as a gift to Holland. It is also suggested that tomatoes and cherries originated here.
Altogether, though I have been raving about İstanbul and what a unique city it is, the same can really be said for the whole of Turkey. It is a country with so much to see and so much to offer and, though I understand that many of the visitors choose it because it is ‘good value’, I hope when they are here they take a little time to look around and see some of the wonders it has to offer!
