Bursa Day Trips

Cherry Tree and Me

This weekend I went on two short trips to places outside the city.  Saturday, we went to a restaurant with an outside tea garden part of the way up Uludag.  The area was surrounded by fruit and nut trees and shrubs with fresh red cherries, plums mulberries and currents ripe for the taking.  These orchards were spread all the way down the mountain side and it was unclear whether they were once part of private farms or if they grew wild.  Local people picked the fruit and sold it by the side of the road to visitors.  After the heat we had been having here, the relatively cool mountainside was a very welcome change.

Sunday, we went to a popular seaside getaway called Mudanya, located a short distance for Bursa city on the Marmara coast.  During Ottoman times, the town was home to a large local Greek-speaking population.  During the population transfers that occurred after the post-WWI war between Greece and Turkey, in which Turkey won its independence and established sovereignty over most of the territory that now comprises the Republic.  All Greek-speaking Christians in Anatolia were relocated to what is now the Greek nation-state and in turn, most of the Muslims in Greece made the reverse journey.  Start here to learn more about the population exchanges between Greece and Turkey.  This article outlines the slight thaw in the tense relationship these two countries have with their shared heritage and gives a sense of the losses the cultural and human losses that have occurred due to this mutual ethnic cleansing.

Mudanya also has another connection to world-changing events of the First World War.  The Armistice of Mudanya was signed here in a seaside home.  The Armistice, between the victorious Turkish military and the First World War Allies, Britain, France and Italy established Turkey's territory in Europe.  The first floor of the house is now a museum and we were able to have a look around.

I love the fishes 'cause they are so delicious.

The sea breeze, beautiful views and Ottoman houses were charming and we had a great meal fresh fish at one of the town's many fish restaurants.  Bony fish are much more popular here and most "seafood" restaurants do not serve shell fish.

Turkey is full of tasty foods and dinner at home is always good.  My host mother is especially proud of this dish, icli kofte.  The outside is made of bulgar wheat and the inside is stuffed with meat and vegetables.  Many of you may know that I love ice cream.  Turkey has some very yummy but slightly different takes on my favorite food.  Traditional Turkish icecream has a chewy, almost taffy-like consistancy due to constant kneeding via a long metal ice cream scoop.  The other night, my host family took me out for ice cream which was not only especially chewy, but made from goats milk.  I still think I prefer cow's milk ice cream but it was certainly something I never have seen in the US!

Bursa'da

Sorry my first post from Turkey has been late in coming.  It has been a crazy couple of days.  We got into Bursa 4 or 5 hours later than expected, meaning I set a new record for number of hours without sleep.

On the vehicle ferry to Bursa

My host family is very gracious but there have been some cultural and linguistic barriers to overcome.  In order to protect their privacy, I am not going to use their names and will avoid detailed descriptions.  My home consists of a mother and father in their 50s and one of their daughters, who is in her late 20s.  The parents only know a few words of English, but my host sister speaks English better than I speak Turkish.  She has been an invaluable intermediary between myself and her parents, explaining some of my American idiosyncratic and translating when necessary.  My host mother is a housewife and is therefore home more than the father and daughter, who both work.  My host mother and I have already had a few good conversations in Turkish about ourselves and our families.  She is also very enthusiastic about helping me learn vocabulary and Turkish customs.  As my host sister puts it, she and her family are "conservative" Muslims.  Elaborating on this, I would add that they are conservative in a traditional, rather than neo-Islamist or Salafi fashion.  The mother covers her hair with a kerchief both in and out of the house but my host sister does not wear hijab and dresses in a manner similar to many American 20-somethings.  All the members of the family in the house pray 5 times a day and follow other important Muslims customs such as not eating pork.  They are very curious and open minded about the culture and religion of Americans and other non-Turks and seemed disappointed and confused when I told them I don't regularly attend church.

A proud Bursa simitci who asked me to take his picture.

Bursa itself is both similar and different from Istanbul.  Many of the street scenes are very similar: bunches of independent shops and street vendors, crowed sidewalks even in the heat of the day, winding narrow streets, crazy drivers and random animals (today I saw a horse grazing by a highway exit).  However, in many ways it is distinctly different.  Bursa has the reputation for being a more pious city and I can see some superficial evidence of this.  There are plenty of people of Western dress but there are more women wearing black, Arab or Iranian style garments and covering their faces with a niqab.

Uludag

The skyline south of the city is dominated by Uludag, which means great or exalted mountain in Turkish.  During Ancient Greek times, Uludag was one of several "Mt. Olympus" (Olympii?) and it's status as a seat of the gods is reflected in its modern Turkish name.  The city also has a much more "Eastern" feel.  There is plenty of Western influence in the newer buildings, stores and fashions but there are also many older buildings and side streets which look like they could be comfortable relocated to any modern Middle Eastern city or even the colonial era "orient."

Osman Gazi, first Ottoman Sultan

Bursa has a relatively large and significant historic center.  Yesterday, I walked to the Ulu Cami (great mosque) and market area with some fellow CLS students.

 Ulu Cami was built in 1399, a time when Bursa was the capital of the expanding Ottoman Empire.  It was built by the architect Ali Neccar under orders from Sultan Beyazdi I.

The most interesting and unusual feature of the mosque is the ablution fountain which dominates the center of the space.  Normally, these fountains for ritual purification are found outside or in the courtyard of the mosque.

The market is different from the covered bazaars in Istanbul.  It is more of a commercial district with covered markets on some streets and others without.  Parts have been refurbished and covered with a glass canopy that shades the entire road.

There are fewer sokak kediler and kopekler in Bursa than there are in Istanbul.  Apparently they send many stray animals to a sanctuary outside of town, which is certainly a humane solution to the stray problem.  However, I did manage to spot this pretty kedi hanging out with the underwear in a shop in the market quarter.  Unfortunately for me, like other cities in Turkey, Bursa has a lenient policy when it comes to urban livestock.  The last two days, I have been woken up every hour starting at 4 am by a very determined rooster.  Even with my legendary ability to sleep through noise, my rooster friend is going to pose a challenge to my REM.

In other poultry news, the host parent of one of the other CLS students brought these adorable baby chicks (civ civ) with him to the language school on our first full day.

I am beginning to realize that I may not have as much time for writing as I did when I was in Istanbul.  The CLS program requires more of my time and I also need to make time for my host family.  However, I will do my best to update with pictures and news as much as I can.

Back to Turkey

In a week, I will be arriving back in Turkey for two months of intensive language study.  I will be living and learning in Bursa, a city in northwestern Anatolia near the Marmara coast.  This year my study is sponsored by the US Department of State.  I was fortunate enough to win a Critical Language Scholarship.  This series of scholarships are designed to aid students wishing to learn languages deemed critical to US government interests overseas.  As a recipient of this scholarship, my experience in Turkey will differ in several ways from the time I spent there last year.  Not only will I be in a different city, I will be living with a host family, which will more deeply immerse me in Turkish language and culture.  The CLS program will also provide additional cultural programs and field trips.  I am extremely excited and grateful for this opportunity and will do my best to keep everyone updated on my adventures.

As I did last year, I will also be blogging about current events, politics and social issues in Turkey.  If you were reading my blog last year, you might remember that the party of Turkey's Prime Minister, Recip Tayyip Erdogan, was elected to a majority for a third straight election.  The Prime Minister's party, the AKP, is rooted in Islamist politics but has explicitly denounced religiously-based government.  Despite, or perhaps because of, the AKP's years of governing, the secular elites who had dominated the country until recently continue to worry about the socially conservative leanings and authoritarian tendencies of the AKP and Erodogan in particular.  This recent article in the New York Times on the recent conflict between the government and the state theater and its employees epitomizes the the complicated and contradictory social politics in contemporary Turkey.

In my final post last summer, I discussed what was then the newly developing situation in Syria. The situation deteriorated in the past nine months.  There are at least 24,000 Syrian refugees in camps in Turkey and Syrian forces have at times crossed the boarder to strike at Syrians in Turkey.  Without interference from Turkey, Syrian resistance fighters have used the refugee camps  as a base for strikes into Syria.  Bursa is almost as far as you can get from the Syrian boarder in Turkey so the situation should have little direct affect on my life there.  However, I will be interested to observe how much people are interested in the situation in Syria and how much it dominates media coverage.

There goes the neighborhood...

Tons of news on the Turkish international relations and diplomatic front in the past few weeks.

Turkey and Israel have been in talks all summer to try to heal the breach caused by the Israeli raid on the Mavi Marmara last year, which resulted in the deaths of 9 Turkish activists.  The Mavi Marmara was supposed to join another run on the Gaza blockade this summer, but technical problems with the ship prevented its sailing.  Turkey has continued to ask for an apology and compensation for the families of those killed, and Israel has continued to refuse.

The continued boycott the Turkish parliament by the member of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy party has not made much progress since the election in July.  The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has accused the Peace and Democracy party of being a wing of the Kurdish separatist movement, the P.K.K.  The members of parliament elected from the Peace and Democracy party, some of them jailed because of their alleged P.K.K. ties, have continuously denied involvement with the P.K.K.'s violent campaign for an independent Kurdistan.  The P.K.K. is only made the situation worse for the Peace and Democracy party.  In retaliation for the AKP's continued refusal to meet the demands of the boycotting Peace and Democracy politicians, the P.K.K. has stepped up its terrorist activity and has bombed both civilian and military targets.  In retaliation, Turkey, in partnership with Iran, has bombed suspected insurgent positions inside Iraqi Kurdistan.  The Turkish government says the strikes will continue for the immediate future.  As with any operation of this kind, there have been reports of civilian casualties.  The P.K.K.'s latest round of attacks are not only counter-productive but also possibly lethal to the reputations of the politicians associated with the Peace and Democracy Party.  Their efforts up till now may have seemed to be ineffectual against the powerful AKP, but their peaceful protest gave them the moral upper hand.  Now, no matter how innocent the Peace and Democracy Party and its members are of involvement with the Kurdish separatist movement, they will most likely will never be able to live down the violent "support" the P.K.K. is supplying.

For the last few years, Turkey has been pursuing a policy of "zero problems toward neighbors". It was an attempt to not only have good relations with the diverse range of countries in Southern Europe, the Caucuses and the Middle East, but to take advantage of its unique geography and history to become a leader and role model for this long troubled region.  Last year, the Mavi Marmar incident dealt a serious blow to the long-term sustainability of this policy.  This year, revolutionary movements of the Arab Spring have made "zero problems" completely untenable.  In the last six months, Turkey has been scrambling to revise and in some cases completely reverse its diplomatic position in light of recent developments.  No where has this been as evident as in Syria, with whose government Turkey until recently enjoyed friendly relations.  Turkey is now leading the international condemnation of President Assad's attacks against his own people, but stopping just short of demanding he step down.  The change in foreign policy was outlined by President Erdogan in his post-election victory speech.  Turkey still sees itself as a regional leader, but a leader of the peoples, not just the governments that rule them.  Erdogan puts Turkey forward as an example of open and democratic government for the Arab countries in political transition to look up to.  I just hope that Erdogan remains as committed to cultivating democracy in his own country as he seems to be about cultivating it in the Arab world.  Turkey may look like a bastion of freedom in the chaotic and ruthless world of Middle East politics, but as we have seen it has plenty of room for improvement.

The End of an Era?

Huge news on the political front in Turkey.  In what has been described by many analysts as a last-ditch effort to assert power over the government, the top leaders of the Turkish military simultaneously resigned Friday.  The Turkish military, particularly its leadership, have historically been considered the guardians of the country's democratic institutions and secular nature.  They have used their unofficial but very real status to depose Turkey's democratically elected governments four times since 1950.  However, military rule in each of these cases was only temporary.  In what are truly exceptional incidences in the history of modern military coups, the military government has always voluntarily stepped down after calling for new elections. 

However, since Prime Minister Erdogan's party, the AKP, was elected in 2002, Mr. Erdogan has made it a priority to curb the power of the military over Turkish politics.  One of his greatest triumphs came in 2004 when a Constitutional amendment gave real power for the first time to the civilian members of the Turkish National Security Council.  The National Security Council was a body created by members of the military government after the 1980 coup to ensure it had a permanent place in the government after it reverted to civilian hands.  The  Council for many years played the role of an oversight committee for any reforms made by Grand National Assembly.  The few civilian members of the Council were there as simple "yes" men until 2004.

The most recent and probably the most damaging challenge to the military's power has come through the investigation of the alleged coup plot, discovered in 2008 and continuing through the present.  As a direct result, at least 10% of the military's top brass has been arrested this year alone.  The imprisonment of so much of its leadership has effectively prevented the military from wielding the influence it once had.  Though I don't doubt that there was a coup plot in the works against the AKP government, I believe the government has used it as a serendipitous excuse to swiftly and effectively silence the military.

The simultaneous resignation of all of the country's top military officers has been explained as protest against the coup plot related arrests in particular and their loss of power more generally.  Unfortunately for them, what was meant to be an exhibit power has in reality been the coup-de-gras for the era of military intervention in Turkish politics.  Without the staunchly secular military checking the power of the Islamist-leaning civilian government, many are afraid of what the future could hold for Turkey.  Mr. Erdogan has been accused of harboring authoritarian tendencies and the desire to impose Shariah-inspired reforms on the Turkish public.  However, since coming to power almost 10 years ago, the AKP has done little to impose Islamic values upon secular or non-Muslim Turks.  If Turkey continues to function as the vibrant democracy it has shown itself to be, then the removal of military influence in the government can only be a positive in the long run.  However, the continued incarceration of elected officials and journalists with opinions unpopular with the ruling party does give cause for worry.  The removal of the military from the sphere of politics gives me great hope for the continued liberalization and democratization of Turkish society but the Turks must remain vigilant and not become complacent about the on going violations of freedom of speech and due process.

Problems in Parliament

I have previously discussed the ongoing struggle of Turkey's Kurdish minority for equal cultural and political rights.  The main Kurdish opposition party, the Peace and Democracy party (BDP), has been accused by the current government of having ties to the PKK.  The Peace and Democracy party did not itself put forth candidates in the recent election.  The leadership knew that they could not reach the existing threshold of at 10% of all votes that is required for a party to have the privilege of sending representatives to the parliament.  Instead, it backed a number of independent candidates, which are not bound by the 10% rule.

Five elected members of the Turkish Grand National Assembly who ran as independents are currently in prison on terrorism related charges.  These five were supported by the Peace and Democracy during their campaign, a fact that was probably central in the circumstances leading to their arrest.  Another recently elected Pro-Kurdish parliamentarian, Hatip Dicle, is barred from taking his seat because of a previous conviction for spreading terrorist propaganda.  Three others who were recently elected are also in jail, accused of being part of the coup conspiracy uncovered last year.  Of these alleged conspirators, two are members of the Republican People's Party (CHP) and one the Nationalist Movement Party.

The newly elected members of parliament associated with the Peace and Democracy Party, as well as those belonging to the Republican People's Party, staged a protest during the opening session of the new parliament on June 28.  In solidarity with their banned and jailed colleagues, 169 of the 550 members of the Assembly refused to be sworn in.  However, the standoff is now coming to an end.  The CHP parliamentarians will be sworn in today despite the fact there has been no real change in the status of their jailed colleagues.  The BDP seems to have been left out the the talks that have taken place between the ruling Justice and Development (AK) party and the CHP.  The continued boycott of the 35 members associated with the BDP will be largely worthless without the more numerous CHP to support them.

I am not surprised to hear about the CHP's unceremonious betrayal of their alliance with the BDP.  Founded by Ataturk, the CHP was the first political party in the Republic of Turkey and enjoyed largely unopposed power from 1923 to 1950.  During this period Kurdish rebellions were brutally suppressed and the laws restricting the public expression of Kurdish language and culture were passed.  There is certainly no love lost between the CHP and the Kurds. I have no doubt that the AK party has jailed the above mentioned Kurdish politicians for largely political reasons.  However, the AK party has also been responsible for the slow but steady improvement in the rights and recognition afforded to Kurds in Turkey over the past decade.  My hope is that this incident is an exception in the AK's largely positive record in the Kurdish issue.  Some Turkish commentators are less than optimistic about the future of the Kurds under the AK party and I can understand their concern.  The Kurds have been the Turkish Republic's go-to scape goats for almost a century and it is much easier to continue on such a deeply rutted path than to forge a new road toward true liberalism and democracy.

Travel tips from me and the NYTimes

Recently, the New York Times published two travel articles on Istanbul (which, indecently, was also voted by readers as the place they most wished to visit in 2011).

The first  is from their Frugal Traveler blog, in which the author attempts (and succeeds) at spending only $100 during a weekend trip to Istanbul.  He stays on a new friend's couch and Kadikoy and enthusiastically recommends the neighborhood as a cheaper and scenic alternative to the European shore.  Having spent a month living in Kadikoy, I would argue that it is one of the best kept tourist secrets in Istanbul.  It is a very young, mostly tourist-free neighborhood full of relaxed bars and restaurants.  The shopping is cheaper and it is home to Istanbul's largest organic food market.  A mix of stores and open stalls, the market runs along several blocks of the pedestrian-only city center and offers a stunning variety of fresh produce, fish, and cheese as well as breads, pastries and other essentials of Turkish cuisine.  Far from being an inconvenience, Kadikoy's location across the Bosphorus actually serves to its advantage.  As you can tell from my pictures, residents of Kadikoy enjoy a spectacular show almost every night as the sunsets behind the landmarks of the old city.  As the Frugal Traveler writes, passenger ferries across the Bosphorus are cheap, frequent and afford more stunning views of both of the city's shores.  Much less crowded that any other form of public transportation, the 20-25 minute trip from shore to shore is just enough time to enjoy a cup of tea and simit from the fully stocked snack bar found on every boat.  I was excited to Kadikoy mentioned  in this article, but at the same time want to remain off the tourist radar for my own selfish reasons.

A second article discusses the time-forgotten beauty of Buyukada, the largest of the Prince's Islands.  You can read about my visit to this island here.  Buyukada is another great budget-friendly destination.  Ferries to the island are inexpensive and it is full of scenic beauty.  Its small size and largely car-free roads make it the perfect place to explore by foot or bicycle.

For more travel tips from the New York Times and its readers, you can explore the Istanbul online travel guide at the NYTimes.com.