Loving Instanbul

We arrived in Istanbul a mere week before the Turkish elections. In the city, we saw tons of party flags hanging in long rows. We even saw a truck with a picture of the prime minister, and anther truck filled with people waving party flags.

In the morning we got up and decided to look around. The main street was filled with people. It wasn’t really a street, because it was no different from the sidewalk (other than the fact it was darker and wider), and because only a complete idiot would drive a car on it. Walking was faster. Down the middle of the street ran a trolley. There were stands with Turkish bread and water that somehow stayed cool, and people blowing bubbles on the street and playing instruments, but other than that there were fewer people selling stuff on the street than we had seen in other countries. Off the main road, Istanbul was like a maze. There were alleys that you could walk down. These had actual streets with tons of interesting stores.

At one point we came to a stand which was run by the Kurdish party, or HDP (Peoples Democratic Party). There was some difficulty communicating, but, based on what we were able to make out and what we discovered later, we learned that the party was trying to appeal to progressives in order to get more than 10% of the vote. You see, in Turkey, a party has to get 10% or more of the vote to get any seats at all in the parliament. Also, a party can be banned if it is accused of being separatist. This fate befell the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party). That party has been in conflict with the Government of Turkey for decades.   The Kurds are a group of people who want autonomy. However, unlike other separatist groups, they are split between Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria.

We also saw a protest in the street.  We had seen people gathering in one corner, so we watched what was happening. About a hundred people were gathered together in a square formation. All of them held signs of relatives who had been “disappeared” by the Turkish Government, along with their names and the dates when they vanished, which were in the 80s and 90s. The ones in the front were kneeling, while the ones in the back were standing, so you could see all the signs at once. A woman in the front gave a speech, but it was in Turkish so we couldn’t understand it. We had seen Turkish police a little ways off, but they didn’t disturb the demonstration.

Later we came across a large group of women dancing in the street. They took up the whole street and for a while they had to wait to begin dancing until a garbage truck passed. They danced Flamenco, from Spain, and many people gathered around to watch and take photos.

The Turks we met seemed really proud about their food. For example, we found a good Turkish restaurant. When we ordered our food, the owner came over and explained that he had lived in New York for many years, but had decided to come back to Turkey to open a Turkish restaurant. He said that there were no good Turkish restaurants in New York, but he told us what the best non-Turkish ones were. Similarly, we later met a man working at a food stand in front of a national park in central Turkey. He was a skilled chef who had worked at restaurants all over Europe, but had moved back to Turkey to open up a restaurant of his own. But that didn’t work out. He had a hard time getting the money and ingredients necessary to start the restaurant. Nevertheless, he still had plans to do it.

On the top of our list of sights to see in Istanbul was the Hagia Sophia (Ayasofyia in Turkish). The Sophia was a church, constructed in 537 C.E., that had been turned into a mosque in 1453. It contained signs of both Christianity and Islam, from the giant Arabic seals to the Christian mosaics on the upper levels. Parts were under repair, but it was still amazing. There were signs with information like in a museum, and it contained many interesting parts like a royal library and a wishing column that is said to cure illnesses.

Then we headed to the Blue Mosque. When we arrived it was closed for prayer. Outside, there was a Egyptian Obelisk. We could go into the courtyard, where many people were waiting. According to the rules, all people had to cover their legs and women had to cover their heads. The mosque itself was spacious and beautiful. It had a red carpet floor and lights above our heads. It didn’t have much else, as is common with mosques, but it did have an Islamic information center on the side, where people could talk to an Imam and have their questions answered.

We also went to see a bazaar. A bazaar is similar to a mall, except all the shops are small and open-air. It has existed in the Mediterranean for centuries. The one we saw had shops that sold jewelry, clothing, and trinkets, but it still had the same design as ancient bazaars. There was also a bazaar that sold spices, dried fruit, and candy. Like most places in Istanbul, it was filled with people. It is amazing that bazaars can still thrive in the modern world.

We went to two great art museums, Istanbul Modern, which was a large building along the water and had a really interesting exhibit on famous photographs from the 20^th Century; and a smaller contemporary art museum in the Pera neighborhood.We liked Istanbul better than we had expected. The city was packed with people; this was actually one of the reasons we liked the city so much. Even though it was the first Muslim place we visited, with the exception of a stopover in Jakarta, it was fairly secular. It had managed to keep many of its traditions, like bazaars, while developing its economy. Turks seemed proud of their culture, as we saw with food. One of the things we have seen on our trip, especially in Europe, is a deep sense that the place we are in has been inhabited for centuries. Finally, we realized that the location of hotel made a big difference. Getting hotel in a residential area of Istanbul, rather than the tourist area near the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia, made a big difference in our experience of the city.

-Isaiah