Ramazan Bayran October 26, 2006
Posted by cpapuschak in Travel.add a comment
Ramazan Bayran (as it is called in Turkey), is the three-day holiday that ends the month of fasting, and one that was a good excuse to get out of Ankara. Actually, any excuse to get out of Ankara is good enough, but that is beside the point 
I just returned to Ankara from Greece this morning, and the weather has taken a turn for the worse here. Mike (not my roommate), Scott, and I went together to İzmir last Thursday and toured the ruins at Didyma, Miletos and Priene before meeting up with another group of people (Tony, Clement, Benjamin, Kas, and Josephine) in Selçuk, near the Aegean coast. We then toured Ephesus, which is arguably the best of the best in terms of ruins in Turkey, I didn’t enjoy it. There were too many tour groups there and it wasn’t nearly as rewarding as our trip to Termessos.
We found an amazing little village further inland named Şirince where the local economy is dominated by the sale of fruit wines and olive oil. Needless to say, we did some taste testing, and I was good and drunk by the end of the day.
Later, Mike, Scott and I went to the Greek island of Samos for two days by way of ferry from Kuşadası. It was really nice, but I have never seen a place where the tourism season stops so abruptly. It literally grinds to a halt in the middle of October. Thanks to this trip though, I have seen two of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World: the Temple of Artemis in Selçuk and the Temple of Hera on Samos. They are pretty unremarkable now, but in their time I imagine they were quite awe-inspiring. Five more to go, including one in Iraq. Tempting…
I am busy with homework right now, but I’ll get the pictures up ASAP
Photos at Last October 13, 2006
Posted by cpapuschak in Travel.1 comment so far
I have finally posted some of my travel photos. I am still waiting for some photos from Cappadocia this past weekend, but there are albums up for London, the British Museum, Cambridge, Copenhagen, Ankara, and Termessos. The photos from Termessos are sick.
Ankara is One Big Military Base October 2, 2006
Posted by cpapuschak in Politics.add a comment
Beside the omnipresent statues, paintings, and posters of Atatürk that fill Ankara, something else in this city is inescapably noticeable. Ankara is, in fact, one very big military base. One cannot go anywhere in Ankara without passing a military installation of some kind. On my daily trip to and from the ODTÜ campus, I pass by the massive air force headquarters, a number of highly guarded and secretive government buildings, and no fewer than two barrack complexes. The police presence at the Kızılay dolmuş stop can be alarming if the sight of forty or fifty police officers in full riot gear and armoured vehicles isn’t something you are accustomed to. It is a daily occurrence here. Absolutely everywhere, even on campus, there are soldiers and security personnel brandishing sub-machine guns and, most commonly, Kalashnikovs.
For a Canadian, this seems perhaps as overkill, but this is not Canada. One must realize that Turkey is a very marshal society, where soldiers are observed with great veneration and the army viewed as the most trusted institution. They are a social class unto themselves, above the common man. It was, after all, the army’s bloodshed in the War of Independence that assured the creation of the Turkish Republic .
It is the army, today, that most staunchly upholds the republican, national, and secular ideals of Kemal Atatürk, and they have risen in the past – in 1960, 1970, 1980, and 1997 – to defend their beloved republic from any divergence from the Kemalist path. It is the army that holds the government in check, not, as we are accustomed to in the West, the other way around.
Is this a good thing? The 1980 coup ended fractious political infighting and mounting violence between ultranationalists and communists, and in 1997 the army forced the resignation of a democratically-elected Islamist government that was seen to threaten the secular nature of the state.
One has to wonder why there is such a strong military presence in Ankara. For one thing, it is not entirely off base as Ankara is the center of government. Yet what threat could there be that requires such strong counter-measures? The PKK has, in the past, threatened the government, but rarely the capitol.
Whether Turkey is a ‘democracy’ in the Western liberal sense of the word is a question for another time, but one that deserves no less attention. What the national government tells the people about the threat posed by the Kurdish terrorists and how they are portrayed is interesting especially in the context of current American politics. These are simply cursory observations that should be noted.
