Turkey: NATO Infrastructure Committees Visit

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We had been looking forward to this Infrastructure Committees visit to exotic Turkey for a long time, as I had only spent a couple days in Ankara, Turkey in relation to a bid dispute prior to this trip. Linda would be coming along, so this meant we had to find a babysitter for the kids. Fortunately, Steve and Carol volunteered.

27 April 1992 Monday. The committee members and their spouses met at NATO headquarters where we boarded a bus to the airport, and caught a flight to Ankara, the capital of Turkey. We arrived late afternoon, and checked into our hotel. We had the evening free, so Linda and I along with Mike and Betty accepted an invitation for dinner from a business associate. We had dinner at the Hilton.

28 April 1992 Tuesday. The committee went to the Ministry of Defense for a briefing, followed by a tour of the Museum of Anatolian Civiliazations. These civilizations covered the following periods: Palaeolithic (8000 BC), Neolithic (8000 - 5500 BC), Chalcolithic (5500 - 3000 BC), Early Bronze Age (3000 - 1950 BC), the Assyrian and Hittite (1950 - 1200 BC), and a whole bunch more up to the present age. They had an amazing collection of artifacts, which we spent hours viewing.

29 April 1992 Wednesday. After breakfast we checked out of our hotel and boarded a bus for the long drive to Nevsehir in Cappadocia. On the way there we stopped to visit an air base, and were briefed on the Infrastructure projects we funded there. We arrived at our hotel by late afternoon and had a delicious Turkish dinner, followed by a visit to an oriental rug store. We were told how these rugs were made, and how long it took, and then we had the opportunity to bargain for what they said would be a special deal. We ended up with one carpet after some hard bargaining. It was Linda's birthday, so this was a special celebration.

30 April 1992 Thursday. The next morning we drove to the Fairy Chimney rock formations in Goreme, Cappadocia. These rocks are riddled with caves which are so extensive they form an underground city. Early Christains used these caves as hiding places until Christainity became the state religion of the Roman Empire. We had lunch there, and then boarded the bus for the long drive through the Taurus Mountains to Adana. We arrived after dark, so after checking into our hotel we had the evening free to find our own restaurant.

1 May 1992 Friday. The committee was taken to the Adana Air Base for briefings, and then we boarded an ancient DC-3 for a flight along the route of a proposed $120,000,000 pipeline that would provide a 75 day supply (they already had an existing pipeline that provided a 60 day supply) of aviation fuel to air bases in eastern Turkey. I hadn't been in a DC-3 since the late 1950's when I flew from Bangkok to Phnom Penh and Saigon, to go to Dalat School. We flew relatively low, so hit all the air pockets...talk about bringing back memories; at least they didn't serve us orange juice!

Unfortunately, when the pipeline project came to the Infrastructure Committee for approval I asked how many days of ammunition storage was at these bases. The answer was three. I suggested that perhaps they should be building more ammunition bunkers, before asking for more fuel capacity.

We returned to Adana and then took at tour of the nearby naval base at Iskenderun, where the pipelines originated.

We returned to our hotel for dinner and an evening on our own.

2 May 1992 Saturday. As this was the weekend, the schedule was devoted to cultural activities. We flew from Adana to Ismir, where we then caught a bus to Ephesus for the rest of the day. Ephesus was a major Greek/Roman city that was an early Christian center. One of the Apostle Paul's books was written to the Ephesians. Tradition holds that the Jesus, while hanging on the Cross, charged the Apostle John with taking care of Mary. He brought her to Ephesus where her house is today. The ruins are very extensive, so we spent a lot of time walking around them; to the library, the ampitheater, the public toilets, and even a brothel. We continued down the Aegean coast to Marmaris where we checked into a hotel for the night.

3 May 1992 Sunday. We were taken on a cruise along the coast for the day. We took the opportunity to swim by diving off the boat. We had a great lunch on board as we continued along the coast. We returned to Marmaris for dinner.

4 May 1992 Monday. The committee went to the nearby naval base for briefings and a tour of Infrastructure funded facilities. After lunch at a lakeside restaurant, we continued back to Ismir for the night.

5 May 1992 Tuesday. The committee visited AFSOUTHEAST headquarters riefings and toured the nearby war headquarters located in a mountain. Then we were off to the air base for a flight to Istanbul. We arrived in time to check into our hotel and have dinner.

6 - 8 May 1992 Wednesday through Friday. Over the next three days we had several business related activities, including a trip to the Greek border. However, mostly it was cultural activities.

We toured the Topkapi Palace, where the sultans ruled the Ottoman Empire; together with the harem and the cisterns under the palace. We visited the Hagia Sophia, originally an Orthodox basilica built in AD 360, then a mosque, but now a museum. We then went to the Blue Mosque, which replaced the Hagia Sophia as the mosque for the Ottoman Empire.

We also took a cruise along the Bosphorus, that is the dividing line for Europe and Asia. We passed several palaces along the waterfront and the city's ancient fortifications. We stopped at a village on the Asian side to sightsee and buy souvenirs.

We also shopped at the Bazaar. Previously in one of our committee meetings, I had mentioned that we were bargaining like at a Turkish bazaar. My Turkish colleague, Ismet, responded that there were no bazaars in Turkey. I took this opportunity to tell Ismet that this was a Turkish bazaar. He gracefully conceded the point. I bought a leather jacket, and Linda bought a few brass candlesticks and oil lamps.

One evening we were hosted for dinner with belly dancing at the top of the Galata Kulesi tower. After this meal and many previous ones, Linda and I had pretty much enough of Turkish food, so the last day we set off in search of an American fast food restaurant. We found a KFC, and enjoed fried chicken for lunch. After lunch we had some free time, so we decided to window shop along the walking street in front of our hotel. As we were looking in a shop window, suddenly there was a scuffle and two men were taken away by undercover security men. Until then we had not been aware of how closely were we being guarded, and our unknown security guards had just rescued us from some thieves.

9 May 1992 Saturday. We flew back to Brussels.

10 May 1992 Sunday. We took Steve and Carol to Holland for the day; visiting Keukenhof and Marken.

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