Where East still meets West
By H.D.S. Greenway |

Boston Globe, MA
Dec 24 2004

COME WALK through the ancient streets of Istanbul in the cool days
of an approaching winter. There is a bit of snow on the ground,
and the sun dances on the Bosphorus, that narrow body of water that
traditionally separates Europe from Asia.

When I first visited this thrilling city nearly 50 years ago, I
thought to myself then that this was where the Orient begins. There
is nothing more exotic and lovely than the sounds of the muezzins atop
their minarets calling the faithful to prayer from the most beautiful
mosques in all Islam. Later, when I was living on the shores of the
China seas, Istanbul seemed to represent where the West begins. And
both of those impressions are equally valid today.

In olden days one had to take a ferry to cross over the Bosphorus
onto the Asia shore. Today there are two graceful bridges, perhaps
symbolizing the recent decision of the European Union to begin the
accession process that would expand the borders of Europe to Persia
and the steppes of Central Asia.

As Christmas approaches, however, one begins to realize that Istanbul
is still alive with Christian churches, left over from the Byzantine
days of Constantinople. Roman Catholics and Protestants celebrate
the birth of Christ on Dec. 25. The Greek Orthodox celebrate it too,
but since they use the Gregorian calendar, rather than the Julian,
their Christmas will come in early January. The Armenians will also
wait until January.

And in the season of Hanukkah there are synagogues to drop into,
albeit two were bombed in terrorist incidents that also damaged the
huge Panayia church of the Orthodox. Jews were welcomed by the Ottoman
sultan after their expulsion from Spain in 1492, and many still speak
Ladino, which is to the Jews of Spain what Yiddish is to the Jews
of Eastern Europe. When I asked a friend where he learned Spanish,
which Ladino closely resembles, he said: “In Spain 500 years ago.”

There was a day when Istanbul coursed with different religions,
nationalities, and sects, and the streets were filled with the babble
of a dozen tongues. For this was the capital of one of the world’s
great polyglot empires, and Istanbul was among the world’s most
cosmopolitan cities. But with the fall of the Ottomans and World War I,
all that ended. Armenians in the east were transported and massacred
on the suspicion that they were consorting with the Russian enemy —
a genocide which Armenians around the world have never forgotten.

In the West huge numbers of Balkan Muslims were shipped east into
Turkey, even if they spoke no Turkish, and Christians were shipped west
even if they spoke nothing but Turkish. This was done by international
treaty, the Treaty of Lausanne, under which the Jews, Greek Orthodox,
and Armenians were given a recognized status in the new Turkish state
which emerged from the Ottoman ruins.

The Turks nominally hold to it, but life has not always been easy.
During the Second World War, for example, the impoverished Turkish
state, which remained neutral, demanded a wealth tax. Since Christians
and Jews were for the most part well off, the burden fell to them
more than on Muslims. And if you could not pay up immediately you
were sent to labor camps in the East.

Thus after World War II, many Jews emigrated to Israel. Many of the
Greeks moved to Greece, and Armenians left for the four corners of
the world. The old cosmopolitanism of the Levant ended.

The Greek Orthodox patriarchate for all the Greek world still remains
in Istanbul, another holdover from Byzantium, but the Turkish state
has not always been forthcoming with the rights of Christians to
build and repair churches and train their clergy. New laws, however
are being readied to make the lot of Christians and Jews easier as
Turkey prepares itself for the European Union. And of the few who
remain many have prospered.

One has to look to London and Paris now for the same diversity that
Istanbul once stood for. The end of empire for Europe meant the influx
of those over whom the Europeans once ruled. But in Istanbul most
of the vibrant minorities went elsewhere. That a few remain at all,
however, says something for this city and this country in a region
where tolerance is in such short supply.