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Published: August 6th 2007
Pondering
Where is this country headed?EASTERN EXPRESS
Train from Kars
A Turkish seater (pullman) wagon, nearly full. The train is coming from Kars on the eastern border, traveling 1950km to get to Istanbul in 36 hours. Most passengers at this point have gotten on much later, after Ankara, and are dressed in "secular" "modern" dress: sports shirts and jeans on men; most women uncovered and also wearing jeans. It's early afternoon and most passengers are dozing or chatting in small groups.
Somewhere towards the middle, Adam - a middle aged local-looking man - is re-reading a book he finished minutes ago. He has been on the train since its departure from Kars, and the seat has grown increasingly uncomfortable in the past 30 hours. He occasionally looks up to pay attention to conversations that go into politics or religion. Short hair, a bit of a beard, scruffy, dirty, bored, and tired.
From the rear door enters a young man (22-25) with shaved head, long scraggly beard, white skullcap, shalwar pants (too short... in typical Salafi fashion), the very personification of a
Tarikatci (a term incorrectly used to denote religious fundamentalists). He addresses the passengers:
Tarikatci: You now how the unbelievers seem to have it all good, they're out there having fun while we're struggling. Well, pay no attention to them.
Adam turns around and smiles, making eye contact with the speaker who begins to preach directly at Adam.
Tarikatci (continuing): They have traded eternity for this life. But for us this world is a test, so don't be distracted by unbelievers. See, some of our girls don't cover up -- some women in my family included -- in the other life they will say "if only we had worn sackcloth!" And look! Their names are Aisha, Fatma, Khadija.. the names of the family of the Prophet. So what does this mean...
A general commotion interrupts him. People turning in their seats, muttering, some standing and shouting.
Young man looking textbook-educated and secular: How dare you preach here?! Go preach in a mosque! We don't want to hear you!
Tarikatci: Some people are listening. I'm speaking for their benefit.
Secularist: Then go speak to them somewhere else.
Two young men also secular-looking, mutter with disgust: Let him talk! He's telling the truths! Don't missionaries preach freely? Why shouldn't he tell us about our own religion?
Artvinli middle-aged man with authority in his voice (to Adam): Read everything! Read about everything and then form your own opinions!
Adam: ?!
Secular Woman (furious): How dare you?! So what if we don't cover? Does that make us infidels? They're trying to turn Turkey into Iran! You know they get money from Iran to cover up? What century is this...
Traditonal looking man in his 50s: It says
"Al hamdu lillahi rabbi l-'alamin". So He's the Lord of the Worlds, not just of the Muslims. Isn't there only one God? And aren't we all His servants? So what's this talk about infidels?
Woman in 50s, traditionally dressed (motioning to Adam): Look, we have our Brother here... isn't it wrong to embarrass him?
Most people turn around and stare at Adam.
Adam (turning red and mumbling): Me? I'm local...
Tarikatci: I'm sorry if I offended anyone. (To Secularist) Forgive me. (Offers his hand)
Secularist: I'll never shake hands with you!
Unidentified voice: Turkey is secular, and will remain secular!
Secular woman: They're trying to politicize religion for their own gain. Turkey used to be modern 20 years ago!
More confused and angry talk ensues.
End of Act 1
The area between two wagons. A group of men are smoking. A door is open and there's a lot of noise.
Adam enters with a hand-rolled cigarette, greets everyone with eye contact and a nod.
Sivasli (continues an existing discussion): It's like I was saying... what they're telling is the truth, but that's not the right way to say it. The hijab is a touchy subject and he shouldn't have mentioned it so soon...
Artvinli: They're trying to stir up trouble. Why else dress like that? (to Adam) Heading to Istanbul? Are you a student there?
Young Man (with a wink to Adam): Is what you're smoking
full or
empty?
Adam: Empty. It's strong enough as it is. Yes, I'm studying at Istanbul Technical University. It's my 2nd year of my MS, and I don't have to go to classes so I'm just vacationing. Just got back from Georgia. (Stops, realizing he's said too much in an attempt to cover his tracks).
Artvinli: Did you take any pictures?
Adam: No. I'm trying to write instead.. but sometimes I wish I had a camera.
Door opens. Conductor enters with a written complaint about the "incident" and asks us if we want to add our names to it.
Sivasli: No. They just wanted to share their beliefs and some people got worked up. Nothing happened.
Sivasli (continuing to Adam): I don't know about Georgia but I'll never go to Artvin again. It snowed in June! And they don't have a university or an airport; what kind of city is that? (winks)
Artvinli: It's true what you're saying my brother. Very true. I prefer the desert-like barrenness of Sivas, and especially the donkeys there. (To Adam) Have you ever seen a Donkey from Sivas?
Sivasli: You yourself admitted that the biggest bear in the Middle East was shot in Artvin!
Artvinli: Have you been to India? Is it true what they say about cows there? What about donkeys? If our friend from Sivas were to go there... what do you think?
General laughter.
Artvinli (takes Adam aside): Listen, you aren't a missionary are you? Are you traveling to these places to share your faith?
Adam (knowing that denial only reinforces belief): ?!
Artvinli: I'm just saying... learn about everything but don't get too carried away by any particular one.
Secular Woman (enters and stressfully lights a cigarette): Can you believe the nerve!
Sivasli: They didn't mean anything personal, sister.
Secular Woman: What? Am I an infidel because I show my hair? Because I don't degrade myself by huddling in sheets? How contrary to human dignity is that? (She is dressed casually but very unattractively. Her teeth are stained from cigarettes and the makeup on her face doesn't hide the sallowness of her cheeks).
Artvinli (corners Adam and begins speaking rapidly): Listen. If you're traveling and writing you might as well find a way to finance your travels. Have you considered publishing a travel magazine? I used to work in advertising. Believe me, it's easy. All you need to do is....
Adam tries to follow the conversation but is getting extremely tired.
End of Scene 2.
Remembrance
May 19. Remembrance of Ataturk, Youth and Sports Festival. Posof. A town near the Georgian border. A fair is taking place. Villagers arriving by the truck- and tractor-load. A regular market is set up, selling everything from kilms and Islamic tapes to fruits and vegetables to tupperware. The gendarme is frisking young men on their way in.
Adam appears with backpack and daypack, a Georgian hat embroidered with crosses, and looking something between a local and foreigner. The gendarme, a boy of 18-20 doing his military service, looks at Adam with confusion as if to say "what are you?"
Adam: If you're planning on searching me you're screwed.
Gendarme: Why's that?
Adam: Well, to begin with... I have a knife.
Gendarme: Lets see it...
Adam produces a large but dull-looking folding knife with blackened blade and a wood handle. He smiles in anticipation of what's coming.
Gendarme (contemplates it for a while, measures the blade against Adam's middle finger): This is a multi-purpose knife!
Adam: All knives are...
Policemen standing apart motion for Adam to come over. The first sign of authority: making you come to them.
Police: Where are you coming from?
Adam: Georgia. I just crossed the border an hour ago.
Police: Aren't you ashamed of what you're doing? And on such a day too?
Adam (genuinely confused): ?!
Police: Let me have a look at you... you have blue eyes too.. are you some kind of missionary?
Adam (denial is pointless): A missionary with a knife, right?
Police#2: 88 years ago Ataturk set foot in Samsun to begin the National Struggle, and look at what you're doing! Shame on you!
Police#1 (with a conspiratorial nod): If you're a missionary, it's OK.. just let us know.
Adam: My grandfather is from Samsun. (To Gendarme) It's too peel cucumbers (then chuckles at his own joke).
Gendarme: That's a pretty big knife to peel cucumbers!
Adam: There are some pretty big cucumbers out there....
Adam walks through the picnicking napping tagball-playing tea-drinking families and sits down in an empty spot. He takes off his shoes and is visibly disgusted by the state of his socks.
An old man with leathery face and big nose stumbles over and plops himself down as Adam is rolling a cigarette. Adam offers him tobacco.
Old Man: Where are you coming from with these bags like this? Is this empty or full?
Adam: Georgia.
Old Man: Georgia, huh? (winks slyly) Did you f*ck any girls there?
Adam (disturbed): It's a beautiful country.
Old Man: What are you writing there? Young men in love write a lot.
Adam: It's my diary.
Old Man: Love letters? Are you married?
He reaches over and tries to grab Adam's crotch. Grabs his money belt instead. Adam violently shoves him away and he falls over.
Adam: Get lost! Get lost right now or you'll regret it!
Old Lecher (mumbling): Let me just take a piss..
Adam: Do it somewhere else (looks around for a stick to add force to his argument).
Old Lecher totters away.
Adam sits back and ponders the day's events.
Poor pervert got confused by the lack of beard. Welcome to Turkey, indeed! What was that policeman going on about? Why can't they be like the Syrians: peaceful and accepting of Others' Beliefs? A dogmatic and intolerant lot. You're either with us or you're with Them! I guess I was arrogant to think they wouldn't notice the crosses on the hat. Can't wear my keffiyeh either. Why did I have to lose my Afghan hat?
Wait... I wonder... I wonder if for them the National Struggle was to get rid of the infidel, and the "nation" was the Muslim nation? After all, there were no ethnic distinctions a hundred years ago, and even now in Georgia the local Azeris call their language "Muslim language". The Greek-speaking Muslims of Thrace became "Turks" and the Turkish-speaking Christians of Anatolia became "Greeks" overnight. Even now people talk of adherents of religions as "nations"... and the difference between an Azeri in Kars and a Turk is that the former is Shia and the latter Sunni. In school we're taught differently, but popular perception is more important than official history.
This is a country made up of "minorities" that officially don't exist -- only the Kurds have been getting some degree of recognition lately, and have become some kind of a bandwagon. The official line formerly was "there are no Kurds; only Mountain Turks". Now people say "I don't like Kurds". Better? I don't think so. People kick up a fuss if you use the term
Turkiyeli (from Turkey) instead of
Turk. But scratch the surface and everyone is a Kurd or Hemshin or Laz or Cherkes or Arab or Yoruk or Thracian. But we prefer to hold on to outdated notions of Nation-Statehood and a myth of racial homogeneity, ignoring the facts that speak for themselves in the different physical characteristics of people from different regions. A man from Siirt looks nothing like a Hemshin. And both speak Turkish as a second language and with a heavy foreigner accent.
The hero-worship cult associated with the man who single-handedly defeated the Greeks and other would-be invaders, then went on to give this happy nation what it (unknowingly) had been pining for for centuries, even as they fought for the restoration of the Sultanate: namely a secular democratic (single-party) state that is still under the constant thread of military intervention. The one person who can do no wrong, whose every word is gold, whose policies cannot be criticised but must be continued without questioning. His is the only face on all currency, his bust in every school, every workplace is legally required to exhibit a portrait of him, left- and right-wing alike claim to be "in his footsteps" and the *true* heirs of his infallible teachings. And now we've taken to flying enormous flags from all conspicuous points, as if to prove to the world that we are a 3rd World Country, and at first glance too.
So is it any wonder that history is blurred? That college-educated intelligent people speak of "those thousands of non-Muslim Ottoman subjects who loyally died in Chanakkale during the National Struggle," or "Ataturk's policies against the Armenians (who were revolting in collaboration with the Kurds) and was later termed Genocide"? Just to point out facts: there was no fighting in Chanakkale during the National Struggle, and non-Muslims didn't bear arms during WWI. By the time Ataturk came to power the whole Armenian population of Eastern Anatolia was dead or deported. And the Armenians didn't team up with their historical enemies, the Kurds. It's confusing. I think there's a deliberate plot to keep the populace ignorant and uninformed of their own history, while rabidly paranoid and nationalistic.
Same with the issue of the
hijab: why has it become such a rallying cry and a polarizing issue? If you want to show your hair you should be able to, and no-one should interfere if you choose to conceal it. Imagine a law that says all women must wear mini skirts! Isn't that sexist? And what about a law that defines what kind of hat one can or can't wear, and enforced with the death penalty (oops... nevermind). I think Secularism/Islamism is a smoke-screen to keep people from worrying about What Really Matters. Keep people with a siege mentality and then ram everything down their throats. We're slowly learning, O Leader of the Free World!
*****
But what am I doing here? I'm responding to constructive criticism and trying to be more spontaneous and whimsical: I've convinced myself that I have undetermined Unfinished Business in Istanbul, and that the Universe is sending me back. Just For a Week, of course. Until I get replacement shoes and my passport and visa to Abkhazia get sorted out -- and I'll know I'm doing the Right Thing as the pieces fall into place. How long can I sustain a life of such solitude? I didn't speak to anyone for at least 2 weeks; surely that's not natural. The longer I stay away the harder it gets to adjust to human company and relationships that last longer than a couple of hours. Who was it that said "A day spent in the company of the Saints is worth more than 10 years spent on a mountaintop without sinning"? Or something like that.
Alright, time to get up. Gotta hitch a ride into Kars and take the train to Istanbul tomorrow morning. And what's up with this paranoia about missionaries???
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Keep writing
Very interesting stuff - I enjoyed reading it. Good luck on your travels.