Blogs from Central Anatolia, Turkey, Middle East - page 39

Picking up where I left off a few entries ago, there are a few more things I should add about the headscarf. Başörtüsü, I am told, refers to the headscarf worn (often by older women) which allows the hair to be visible around the top of the forehead, by the neck, etc. The türban, which is at the heart of this debate, is something different. The word turban makes me think of hairy Sikh men wearing UFO-shaped lengths of fabric twisted on top of their heads. Here in Turkey, türban has come to mean a başörtüsü worn over something-like-a-swimming-cap, which completely hides all hair from sight. I was also (wrongly) under the impression that the new rules would allow female university students to wear their headscarves in the classroom. Those students do now have the freedom ... read more

Here are a few pictures from Ankara. The Kocatepe Camii is certainly impressive, though it is not breathtaking the way İstanbul's massive mosques are. It's a big new mosque in a big new city. Anıtkabir, is a much more powerful place to visit. Anyone who has traveled to Turkey will no doubt remember seeing images of Atatürk everywhere, all day, everyday. An article in today's NY Times mentions Anıtkabir and concisely sums up Mustafa Kemal's legacy: "In these confusing times, Ataturk is apple pie, Washington and Jefferson all in one. A brilliant military strategist, he led the Turkish uprising against occupying European powers at the end of World War I, driving them from the land they had seized from the dying Ottoman Empire. He was also a statesman, imposing a radical secular revolution on a poor, ... read more

'' ıt ıs possıble to recognıze the prescence of god ın what we see, ıt would be temptıng to thınk that god lıved ın the natıon of the cappadocıans, rather than ın foreign places. . . . .how many sanctuarıes ın all the rest of the world? '' -gegory of nyssa ... read more

Mehabah (hello) The team and I have moved on from Eğırdır to Goreme ın Cappadocıa and then on to my current locatıon ın Amasya. We've been really busy ın the mean tıme too! We left Eğırdır a couple of days ago. They told us the only bus left at 9pm, so we decıded to back track to a larger transport hub to get a better tıme. But when we caught the earlıest bus, sure enough ıt passed straıght through Eğırdır and stopped to pıck up passengers (d,oh!!). We eventually arrıved ın Goreme at about 10 pm after taxı rıde ın an ancıent Renault, pıloted by a guy who seemed about 12 (ok he was probably older, but stıll, not real old). We stayed 3 nıghts ın Goreme at a wee place called the Köse Pensıon (and ... read more

Any traveler that has ever considered a trip to Turkey has at least heard of Cappadocia. It is a famous place because of its strange, early Christian history and unique, subterranean architecture. It is a sparse landscape of unsurpassed beauty and boundless mystery located in central Turkey and it is the perfect place for any adventurous tourist to explore at a leisurely pace, provided that they are not too claustrophobic. Everything I had heard about Cappadocia excited me greatly. Being a troglodyte at heart, the stories of intricately decorated rock-cut churches, mysterious subterranean cities reaching several levels underground and the virtually unknown, thousand year old culture that built it all made my imagination run wild. My excitement began to build when the maniacal bus driver slammed the bus into a lower gear, throwing us forward in ... read more