Istanbul/Gallipoli weekend

2012-02-07T02:36:00.000-08:00

You’ve got to love living in a place where you can hitIstanbul for the weekend… Well, it was a three day weekend and a bitextravagant at about $250 round trip for the 2 ½ hour flight, but…

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Turkey again, wow—third time in a year for us, and fourthtime in Istanbul ever. We love Turkey, love traveling here. This time it isshort—only two days, one for Istanbul and one to visit Gallipoli, scene of the senselessslaughter of tens of thousands of Turks, Australians, New Zealanders, Brits andFrench during WW I.

It makes for a very long day trip from Istanbul. On the way we stop at a rest area catering totourists. Staff in the gift shop speak some English, German and Japanese.

The trip was particularly moving for our Australian friend Nicole

Poorly planned and coordinated, Gallipoli was ignored bypoliticians (notably Winston Churchill) in favor of the Western front, and plaguedby bad luck as well. The area has beenmade into a national park. It remains a symbol of the vain quest to overpowerand control.

This lists the dead in one cemetery whose names were known; most there were buried anonymously

Tom showing a trench

Poignancies: statue to the Turkish soldier (see photo) who, afterlistening to the cries of a wounded British soldier, stuck in the no-man’s landbetween the trench lines, raised a white flag, ventured out, picked up the manand carried him to the enemy’s trenches.

Among our small tour group was a Japanese family. Do they think of Hiroshima, I wonder? Nagasaki?

And another monument bears the words of Mustafa Kamal, who bravely led the Turkish troops andwho later, as Ataturk, father of the country, so generously praised both the dead from both sidesof the conflict:

“Thoseheroes 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
faraway countries, wipe away your
tears. Your sons are now lying in
our bosom and are at peace.
After having lost their lives in this land,
They have become our sons as well.

Kemal Ataturk

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Then a day inIstanbul, showing our friends the sights of Sultanahmet. Here is Tom at AyaSofia (left), which we never tire of seeing—an amazing house of worship, dedicated in360 (no digit missing there) and with a ceiling/roof so high and broad that thearchitectural feat could not be repeated for 1000 years.

And a glimpse of the Grand Bazaar.

And of the Blue Mosque.

As we flyout, I am treated to a great view of the Bosphorus and ships lined up in theSea of Marmara (having, presumably, passed by Gallipoli—through the Dardanelles—fromthe Aegean Sea) end waiting to go through.

Assorted local notes

2012-01-27T05:33:00.000-08:00

· The entire area along the sea, from near ourhouse to the world’s ex-tallest flagpole about two miles away has beencleared. Dozens, no hundreds of buildingsrazed, in a couple of months. Why? Eurovision. The plan or perhaps whim ofsomeone in charge of welcoming the world to this town. I heard about a woman whonow has to live with her relatives because the home that had been her family’sfor many years was destroyed, and she given only a small amount of money—not enoughto buy another place. The woman, a very cheerful and good-natured person, doesnot complain, though her face falls abit when she says, “It was for the good of the country.” The area cleared willmake a wide grand road leading to a new stadium for Eurovision. And the flag.

· When the president travels around town it iswith a 10 car entourage, and all traffic is stopped. Keeps people employed,stopping all the traffic.

· Yours truly made a big faux pas referring to theday off last Friday as a “holiday.” Myteacher and my student, along with my Azeri book are quick to say it is Not. Itis Martyr’s Day, commemorating the struggle for independence from the SovietUnion. I appreciate the reminder—it is wise to recall the reasons behind our days off.

· It is an underlying undercurrent that I’m thankfullynot too aware of—I was reminded when I looked at the US Embassy’s web page.There were various news stories from 2011: in November a journalist was killed;it (bless them) called for an investigation. Earlier in the year several people werearrested for demonstrating.

PLANET MOORES

Istanbul/Gallipoli weekend

Assorted local notes