JOURNEY HERE TO PONDER THE PASSAGE OF TIME
Tom Haines

The records, Canada Travel
May 26, 2007

The latest evidence of Turkey’s identity crisis presented itself this
week when an explosion rocked the streets of Ankara.

But consider a subtler scene: As tourists and local hipsters sipped
Efes beer and swayed to a funky fusion from the band Baba Zula inside
the nightclub Babylon on a spring evening, a band member onstage
sketched computer drawings that were simultaneously broadcast on
a screen.

First came an Islamic woman clad in a body-covering abbaya. Then,
with quick flicks of the computer pencil, the black robe dissolved
to form a devil’s tail.

It is impossible to travel in Turkey, revered by outsiders for its
history spanning civilizations and intimate Mediterranean coastline,
among so much more, and not see signs of the cultural conundrum that
remains after 84 years of statehood. Yet debates about identity are
most often muted, carried out in the press, in cakes or in prisons.

Turkey, a heavily policed country, is usually calm. Visitors — many
million each year, from Russia and Britain, the United Arab Emirates
and the United States, among others — have little problem finding
what they seek: rediscovery of long-gone empires, or escape where
Europe and Asia meet.

It is in manoeuvring between vacation destinations and historic sites
that contemporary Turkey presents itself.

Join the crowds of commuters on Bosporus ferries. Or walk the
streets and wait: One evening, on the main avenue of Sanliurfa, two
suit-wearing students asked where I was from. I said the United States.

"Would you like to come to our home for dinner?" one asked.

I bought an offering of baklava for the table. Then we settled around
broiled chicken, olives, cheese, and conversation about everything
from soldier strength to cellphone ring tones. It was nourishing.

For the historically minded seeking a sense of place, perhaps
the best beginning comes in the dramatic terrain of Cappadocia,
where striations of stone spike into so-called "ferry chimneys,"
and underground cities once sheltered early Christians.

Continue east to modern-day Sanliurfa, once called Urfa, and Edessa
as well. It is said to be the birthplace of Abraham, and known to
have been the first state formed by Europe’s crusading Christians.

The old city centre is still home to an authentic bazaar, a stop
on the Silk Road and long a crossroads for Arab, Kurdish, Persian,
and Turkish traders. Craftsmen still shape copper pots with hammers,
and merchants peddle everything from pigeons to fridges.

Adventurous time travellers can head farther east to Turkey’s borders
with Armenia and Iran, and Mount Ararat. Some say Noah’s ark came to
rest on this volcanic peak.

Or turn to the west and the ruins of Ephesus, near the Aegean city of
Izmir. Columns, carvings, and building facades stand as relics of a
settlement that passed from Greeks to Romans centuries before Jesus
was born.

More recent changes can be remembered farther north on the battlefields
of Gallipoli.

In 1915, epic battles raged between Turkish forces and British,
French, Australian, and New Zealand soldiers hoping to overcome the
Dardanelles, a 61-kilometre strait, and take control of Istanbul. The
Ottoman Empire fell within a few years, but victory at Gallipoli laid
part of the military foundation for the modern Turkish state.

Fast forward 90 years, then, to the contemporary country that,
cultural divisions and all, has in its urban centres and touristed
edges become as dynamic and modern a place as many in the European
Union, which still debates Turkey’s worthiness for membership.

One package vacation to Turkey includes luxury hotels, luxury sedans,
luxury yachts, and transport aboard a private plane. Cost: $45,000 US,
more or less.

The focus of any Turkish travel, though, remains Istanbul, a city
spiked with stunning architecture old and new, and a lifestyle to
match. Wallpaper, the postmodern publication touting global design
details, recently named Istanbul the "best city" in the world.

Tourists often embark in Sultanahmet, the historic quarter that
is home to Hagia Sofya, the Blue Mosque, and more monuments of the
Ottoman era, and before. Ottoman homes converted to boutique hotels
offer perfect perches for reflecting on the passage of time.

Journey into the modern city, whether the network of streets
climbing the hills through Beyoglu, thick with bustling methane,
offering neighbourhood atmosphere with their tapas-like tastes, or
the skyscraper sprawl tracing north into Levent. An international
lifestyle digs deep in the swerving, sunken facade of Kanyon, a
high-end shopping mall.

Take a taxi east to the Bosporus and Bebek Brasserie, where waiters
deliver Turkish coffee, or cappuccino. Windows open onto the water,
which roils or not, depending on the moment, only a few metres away.

It is only one perspective, sitting in Europe and looking to Asia,
but as good as any to begin, or end, the journey.