Blogs from Middle East - page 1215

This place leaves you lost for words. It is the proudest we have ever been to be a New Zealander Those heroes that shed their blood And lost their lives… You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies And the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side Here in this country of ours… You, the mothers, Who sent their sons from far away countries Wipe away your tears, Your sons are now lying in our bosom And are in peace After having lost their lives on this land. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, 1934... read more

Lest We Forget Turkey: 23rd April - 26th April 2005 “They gave me a tin hat, and they gave me a gun, and they sent me away to the War.” For Australia, New Zealand and Turkey the word “ANZAC” is one that stirs the national pride of even the most unpatriotic citizen. In 1915 both Australia and New Zealand had strong ties to the mother country, Briton and most of their populations considered themselves loyal subjects although many would never have set foot on the British Isles. On April 25th that same year, the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps landed on the beaches of the Gallipoli peninsula to fight a war for their King and Country in what was to become a small part of the Great War (WWI). The land assault on the peninsula ... read more

Hey kids, Q: What do you get when you cross the Aegean wıth six Canadians, an American tour guide, an Australian pharmacist, and a British soon-to-be doctor? A: The love boat, people. And our last four days. So, if it isn't obvious, we ended up taking a cruise with a whole bunch of people we'd met in Cappadocia and Istanbul, and seriously? Such a good decision. We spent four days just lying on the sun deck, drinking Turkish beer, occasionally jumping off to swim, eating amazing food (there was a chef on board), and making no hard decisions. One night we docked at some random island in the middle of nowhere, and there was this completely fabulous disco stuck right on the shore, and we all tarted ourselves up and went dancing. Granted, we were the ... read more

From Istanbul, we left on a three-night excursion into central Turkey, which lies on the Asian side of the Dardanelles. This was foreign territory indeed, as neither Dick nor I knew anything at all about it. I was vaguely aware that it had some interesting archaeological sites and some biblical cities were in it, but that was about it. We were blessed with an expert Turkish guide named Ahmet, who could easily have passed for a university lecturer. There were about 28 of us on the bus tour, and he set about educating us on Turkey. First, he said, Turkey is 98% Muslim, and until 1923 it was more or less indistinguishable from its Sultanate neighbors Iran, Iraq and Syria. But Kemal Attaturk came to power in 1923 and made sweeping changes to westernize it, so ... read more

The idea is gaining power and strength, I feel as focus as ever and waiting for the future to come and show me what it got for me. On the weekend we are going to be in Nazareth to see, feel and meet some people. This is going to be my fourth time in the city since I got back and so far it was better then I could expect. Usually I'm doing plans in my head based on thought, feelings and what I heard. Most of the time the facts and the true are far from the plan as Israel is from NZ. This time everything is proving right and beyond my expectation. For example, there is one Christian hostel in Nazareth. They are fully booked for month and a half from now. They got ... read more