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Part IWhat do you know about the Land and its people?Turkey’s mainland is divided into six administrative regions:1)Western Turkey – boarders Bulgaria and Greece 2) Black sea coast Region - shares the sea with Georgia, Russia, Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria 3)Aegean coast 4) Mediterranean coast 5) central Anatolia 6) Eastern Anatolia – has land borders with Armenia, Iran, Iraq and Syria 7) South Eastern Anatolia The popular holiday destinations are concentrated on the Aegean Sea coast, the Mediterranean coast, the black sea coast, and to some extend to central Anatolia (See the map) Turkey was once a formidable Islamic Empire that during the reign of Sultan Suleyman(1520 – 66) her territories included Greece and Cyprus and extended into the Balkans as far as Belgrade and to the south Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Arabia and to Africa. In a single military campaign, the Ottoman port thus became the guardian of the three holy places of Islam: Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem. Through a lot of reforms and trials the Ottoman Empire ended in defeat during the WW1.
Upon the official establishment of the Turkish Republic in 1923, Mustafa Kamal, who fought against all odds to safe Turkey’s territorial integrity, was designated president. As a part of his campaign to westernise Turkey, he created a mandatory programme wherein all Turks were constrained to adopt surnames. He himself led the way, adopting the surname Ataturk, or “father of the Turks.” Ataturk’s reform agenda used a wholly western model, and his program was revolutionary. Attaturk oversaw the adoption of a western style constitution in 1924, abolished (Islam sanctioned) polygamy and prohibited the use of Fes, traditional Islamic headgear, in 1925. He instituted a program wherein secular law codes would replace all vestiges of Sharia, and he adopted the Gregorian calendar, closed religious schools and abolished Islamic courts. He effectively secularised the Turkish government through the abolition of the caliphate and the removal of Islam as the official state religion in 1928. He mandated the Turkification of city names; thus Angora was changed to Ankara, Smyrna to Izmir and etc. He stepped up his Turkification program with attempt to purge Turkish of all Arabic and Persian influences (a process whose efforts are ongoing even today), the replacement of the Arabic alphabet with a modified Latin version, and the declaration that the Adhan (call to prayer) would be recited in Turkish instead of in classical Arabic.
About 97% of Turks are Muslim however Orthodox Christians of Greek, Armenian, and Syrian (backgrounds, and Jews compose the remaining population. Though Turkey doesn’t have an official state religion, every Turkish citizen’s national identification card states his or her creed. While Ataturk (father of Turkey) set modern Turkey on a secular course, Islam continues to play a key role in the country’s political and Cultural Revolution. Unlike the regressive Wahabi that destroyed Somalia and most of the Islamic world they subscribe to peaceful Sunni sect – Hanafi/ Shafi sect and Suffi Dervish sect.
Majority of the Turks are of the opinions that believe in Islam is in the heart and that what counts beyond this are one’s deeds. Sufficient to them is to do well and help others instead of attaching so much on the outer appearance and rituals which according to them devastates the cohesion and undermines the development of the society. Despite the westernization revolution that has been in force since modern Turkey was founded; there is a large neighbourhood in Istanbul called fatih “the conqueror” in Turkish, which is an Island of strict Muslim conservatism surrounded on all sides by secular, modern Istanbul. As such it’s a pretty insular community, holding very fast to such Muslim traditions as full chador with headscarves for women including little girls, and wool caps and beards for men earning it the nickname “kucukan Iran”(little Iran). It is also a stronghold of the Rafah Party, Turkey’s most conservative Islamic party. The majority of the Turks are secular people; moreover you will rarely, in the Mediterranean coast hear Adaan (Prayer Call) or see people dressed in the Islamic attire or practicing any act remotely connected to Islamic culture. I was lucky to be in Turkey during the beginning of the month of Ramadan(fasting Month) but to my astonishment it was treated just like any other month- nothing changed and everyone was carrying his life as usual. They behave, dress and think like Christian Europe. Those who retain Islamic culture and practice Islam are locked away in Eastern Anatolia region where tourism rarely touched, where development bypassed, where the goats outnumber the people, where you need to walk three days to find somebody who can speak English, where military rule is in force. The Kurds QuestionAn estimated 15 to 20 million Kurds live in the region – Eastern Turkey, Northern Syria, Northern Iraq and Northern Iran. The largest Minority in Turkey are the Kurds who are estimated to number around 10 million in turkey alone. The government considers them as” mountain Turks” refusing to recognize their distinct ethnicity. After the Kurds joined Ataturk’s forces to fight for modern Turkey State, they were repaid, not with the foundation of an independent Kurdistan, but with the new Turkish government’s policy of enforced Kurdish assimilation. Kurdish revolt in the 20 and 30s were met with execution, deportments, and razing of villages which sparked the beginning of the armed control of Eastern Turkey that continues today. The Kurdish language was outlawed, traditional dress forbidden in large cities; Kurdish migration to the more urbanized western regions of the country was encouraged. The publication of Kurdish newspapers and the broadcast of Kurdish television and radio were also prohibited. This oppression gave birth to the most extremist leftist movement - the PKK or worker’s party of Kurdistan founded by the political science student Abdullah Oclan in 1978 although he was caught and arrested latter. International perception of the Kurdish issue in recent years has changed from anti PKK sentiment to criticism of Turkey’s human rights policies. The state is torn apart between its desire to completely quell separatism and its interest in pacifying the international community and the European Union. Though there have been some progresses for the Kurdish in recent years, including the legalization of Kurdish songs and language and of radio and TV broadcasts in Kurdish but still violence continues. Turkish Customs and EtiquetteTurks value hospitality and will frequently go out of their way on behalf of a traveller. Commonly, strangers will offer to buy you a meal or a cup of cay (tea). Don’t refuse tea unless you have very strong objection. If you are invited to a Turkish house as guest, it is customary to bring some form of small gift such as flowers or chocolates. With the Turks, it is wise to not speak with any disrespect or scepticism about Mustafa Kamal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey, and to avoid all discussion of the Kurdish issue and the PKK. In Turkey, body language often matters as much as the spoken word. When a Turk raises his chin and clicks his tongue, he means bjayir (no); sometimes a shutting or uplifting of the eyes accompanies this motion. Shaking your head sideways means anlamadam (I don’t understand). More intuitively, evet (yes) may be abbreviated by a sharp downward nod. If a Turk waves a hand up and down at you, palm towards the ground, she is signalling you to come, not bidding you farewell. Smiling, which is regarded in the west as a sign of confidence and outgoing friendliness, is sometimes associated in Turkey with a lack of sincerity or an element of deception. Turks often stare at one another more than westerners are accustomed to. Don’t feel singled out if you feel you often find yourself being watched. Journey from Dalaman Airport to my ApartmentAfter we cleared from the immigrations and collected our bags we stepped out of the Airport to look out for our prearranged ride to our resort. In the back of my mind, my Cairo experience of last summer was lurking, I was banking that we will spend for a while waiting for our pickup to arrive and on top of that I was contemplating how the driver will extract some tip from me - the Egyptian taxi drivers and people who work in the tourist industry are notoriously famous for excessive begging for tips, lies and lack of respect for time and total disregard for commitments. I learned in the hard way that their common man prefers to lie about anything however mundane it is; in the event you get little bit disoriented and you need to ask the locals for direction it is a must that you ask the same question three different people and only proceed on the advise if at least two answers match – It is forbidden in the Egyptian culture, I understand, to say “I don’t know”. If you ask an Egyptian non – smoker for a lighter, he will start searching the pockets of his cloak for an imaginary lighter and then will go on asking the people in the vicinity for a lighter and for sure he takes all that pain just to avoid the word “I don’t have one or simply I don’t smoke”.
Surprisingly our pick up turned up on time with a clean air-conditioned seven seater car and helped us with loading our baggage in the car. The guy spoke very limited English and rarely spoke with us through out the 45 minute journey to our resort. Upon arrival at the resort he once again unloaded the baggage and took all the baggage to our apartment without saying a word. In the apartment he spoke once, while looking into his printed schedule, to confirm our return date and time and then walked away. I called to give him some tip but unfortunately he quickly disappeared in to the darkness of the early hours of the morning. I thought at the time that he is the odd one out but I latter found that the Turks are proud people who would not stoop down to the level of the Egyptians and during my stay in Turkey I didn’t come across beggars on the streets or people asking for tips for everything as practiced in Egypt . The Weather and prices in FathiyeThe Western Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea region is the choice of British holiday makers and where ever you go in the summer you will hardly notice that you are in a foreign country. You will be excused if you assume the land is British protectorate of some sort. The union flag is flying all over the shops, restaurants and etc. Prices are denominated in British pounds, British daily newspapers are available in every corner shop and even the real state property market is in British currency - a lot of British people have holiday homes in the area. The temperature ranges between 38c to 42c in most of the time but is not as scorching as that of Cairo because there is a consistent sea breath which modulates the temperature. The area is blessed with good accommodation, wider roads, nice town planning. Unlike Cairo where traffic congestion and poor housing stress related adds 10 years to your age; Fathiye’s spacious, clean and traffic less environment takes 10 years off your age - once experienced the quality of tourism fathiya offers, you will always wish to go Turkey every time you come across an excuse to go away.
Small mini bus services run on five minutes schedule and can take you around the town in comfort. You would hardly need to hire a taxi – mini buses charge TL 1.5(£0.80p) while taxi charge in excess of TL 20(£9.00) for the same journey. Fathiya’s private villas and apartments offer a well looked after lovely swimming pool and a bar as a standard. With £700.00 one can rent a furnished three bedroom apartment in the tourist area for two weeks. Our apartment offers three spacious bedrooms, large kitchen with all the necessary equipments in place and has two bath rooms which rules out the inconvenience associated with queuing for toilet when time is of most essence and especially when you are a large family of seven members. For a family of seven who understandably can’t eat out most of the time because of the restaurant price tag which scoops £50.00 from the family wallet per sitting will also finds the supermarket prices aren’t kind either. There is no better option than to eat out 70% of the time - Fathiya although expensive is still relatively cheaper than the Euro – Zone for a British holiday maker. On a normal shopping trip to London supermarket, £50.00 will buy a full large trolley worth of shopping which one’s car boot could hardly accommodate but amazingly the same amount of money can only buy in Fathiya enough to carry in few small shopping bags which one can contentedly ride on a bus and still walk to his/her apartment in ease. All products like cereals, mouthwash, tooth paste and the likes come in miniature sizes with huge prices and most of the products are labelled in Turk. The supermarket assistants are friendly and will try to assist you in anyway possible but one can’t utilise the services on offer at the shop floor if he/she isn’t fluent in Turkish. The assistants, the manager and the label on the products don’t understand one word of English therefore one must learn to negotiate around the language barrier by setting aside an hour or more to waste in shopping. Stay tuned to Part II with pictures. Abdikarim H. Abdi Buh
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