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Capital: Ankara
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This part of the world was inhabited 6000 years ago by indigenous Hurrian and later, Hattian tribes. Around 4 000 years ago, small groups of Indo-European immigrants from the east, became the the aristocracy of Hittite, Mittani and Urartu kingdoms. They were followed a millennium later by a flood of Medes, Persians, Sythians, Samarthians and Sagarthians who blended with the indigenous tribes to form the genetic basis of the people of Anatolia who were later dominated by Greek, Roman, Byzantine and eventually Turkish overlords. There was nothing Turkish about Turkey until minor turkic tribes from north of the Aral Sea, the Muslim Seljuk , expanded vigorously to take control of Khorassan, Persia, Iraq and Turkey in the 11th century. The Mongols ( of Altaic culture related to Turkic cultures), destroyed the Seljuk empire in the 13th century but out of its ashes arose the Ottoman Empire that was to last until the 20th century. The Ottomans had such a profound influence on the countries I visited in 2003 that I felt it necessary to draft " Notes on the Ottoman Empire" to put dates on the most important events of their 600 year hegemony. Naturally, I added a few other relevant dates to sketch the history of Turkey and its neighbours. |
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This interesting mosque in Antakya was prosperous thanks to the rent paid by all the shops that surrounded it completely. I had not planned to visit Antakya but the cold wave that engulfed Europe in March 2003 forced me to forego visiting the mountainous Eastern Turkey that was experiencing sub zero weather.
I had intended to cross the border near Mardin to visit Diyarbakir, Van and Erzurum so as to see for myself the situation the Kurds were in before heading to Cappadocia. I have been curious about the Kurds for some time because they are the largest nation in the world, (about 25 million), that does not have their own country (Jews number about 14 million of which almost 5 are in Israel).
The western media seldom mention the Kurds in ways other than derogatory echoing the Turks who call them "Mountain Turks" and dismiss them as "terrorists". The most superficial examination reveals the falsehood of the expression "Mountain Turks". The Kurdish idiom is an Indo-European language completely unrelated to Turkish which is an Altaic language. As a matter of fact, Kurds can trace their roots to the original Hurrians who occupied the Zagros and Taurus mountain ranges 6000 years ago, long before the arrival of the Turks only 1000 years ago.
As for calling them "terrorists", it might be useful to anyone pursuing critical thinking to remember that terrorism was not so violently decried as it is today when it was used by Zionists (Irgun, Stern group), to advance their struggle to establish the state of Israel. The Zionists "wrote the manual" on the modern use of terrorism in the pursuit of political goals. In fact, zionists were only following an ancient tradition set by the "Sicaris" that spread terror by assasinating Roman occupants with knives 2000 years ago. The Zionist example inspired the IRA, the OAS, the Tamil Tigers and many others including today's Chechens. To say so is not antisemitism, these are historical facts.
The cold wave was also affecting Cappadocia when I arrived in Göreme at this bus terminal.
Ten million years ago, a persistant volcanic activity deposited a thick layer of ash on the Anatolian plateau north of the Taurus mountain range. The ash solidified into a soft porous stone called tufa which gradually eroded into pinacles (now called fairy chimneys), some of which can be seen here.
The large pinacle on the right in this picture, called "Roma Kalesi", features the remains of a Roman temple carved into the rock with hanging columns whose lower halves are missing!
March was the off season and I was the only guest at the Walnut House where I had a well heated room with bath and TV for 14 $US. The hotel was named after the Walnut tree in front of which you can see one of the branches in this picture.
The small village of Göreme was very quiet when I was there. It consists mostly of tour agencies, hotels, pensions, camping grounds, restaurants and bars catering to the tourists who are attracted here by the nearby open air troglodyte museum where the pictures that follow were taken.
Below, two fairy chimneys at the entrance of the open air museum. Continued erosion has broken through the outer walls of the rooms carved into the soft tufa revealing a complex maze of passages similar to the interior of an termite hill.
Most of the man made cavities were living space and storerooms but some were used as churches. This is the famous Elmali Kilise or Apple church with its remarkably well preserved frescoes.
Here is another underground church showing the wear and tear of long use.
And still another one whose decorations have almost dissapeared.
There obviously was an important concentration of people living here at one time.
Man made caverns are found in a large area in the valley where the museum was established but there are many other concentrations of troglodyte ruins in nearby valleys that can be visited with the help of local tour agencies.
It snowed all through the night and the town was white when I looked out my hotel window the next morning. After a good breakfast, I took a minibus to Nevsehir where I got on a comfortable bus to Ankara.
Bus travel is comfortable and cheap in Turkey (about 1.50$ per hour). There is a lot of competition between many companies and the bus stations (otogar) are generally modern and clean like this one in Ankara.
I had a bad chest cold when I arrived so I went to get Amoxicillin at the "Ankara" pharmacy close to my hotel ("As", 10 $US), where I met the owner, Musa Duran who was a computer nerd like me. I don't understand a word of Turkish and he spoke little English but he had a good English - Turkish translator on his machine so we managed to communicate through the keyboard. It was a novel experience we both enjoyed.
I had enjoyed a week in Ankara back in 1965 but this time it was too cold for my taste and I rushed through a quick visit to the National Museum and the Hisar (citadel), before heading south to the Mediterranean coast.
Below, a couple of 4000 year old stone bas reliefs of Hittite warriors.
The outer walls of the Ankara Hisar were erected in the 9th century by the Byzantine emperor Michael II, reinforcing an earlier fortress dating from the 7th century.
Below, views of the small streets inside the fortress.
Ankara was cold and windy so I was glad to move away towards the sun. Here we are approaching the western tail of the Taurus range on the way to Antalya on the coast.
The practice of carving troglodyte houses out of cliffs was not limited to Cappadocia. It extended also over south-west Anatolia as you can see in this picture taken not very far from the coast.
