Agent Page
mpreports06
My Posts/Listings
Armenians hold onto part of their history in central Turkey
(This article was first published on July 26, 2010 for the Study Abroad section at Global Post. View the original article here.) KAYSERI, Turkey — Rows of homes that used to be part of Kayseri’s Armenian quarter and housed up to 400 families are now dilapidated and lay empty or are filled with squatters. The district is a symbol of the tragic history between Armenians and Turks during the... [Read more]
Climbing Turkey’s “Cotton Castle”
(This article was first published on July 26, 2010 for the Study Abroad section at Global Post. View the original article here.) PAMUKKALE, Turkey — At the edge the Pamukkale village, visitors encounter a mesa covered in a white rock that I still can’t convince my parents is not ice. Calcium deposits created by flowing spring water over time created the cloud-like formations. For 400,000 years,... [Read more]
Family says son killed on flotilla was a “humanitarian,” not a “thug”
(This article was first published on June 25, 2010 for the Study Abroad section at Global Post. View the original article here. The video was taken on June 4, 2010 during the funeral of Furkan Dogan in Kayseri.) Furkan Dogan had just scored so high on Turkey’s rigorous college entrance exams that he could have attended any college of his choosing. But before he started school, he did what a... [Read more]
Bath day
Suds, bubbles, and Bobby Darin’s “Splish, splash” are typically what come to mind when I think about taking a bath. Turkey has turned that upside down. Turks continue a long standing tradition of bath houses that first came to prominence in the Roman Empire. Today, these bath houses feature hot rooms of marble where men and women wash themselves and are washed by attendants. ... [Read more]
Thanks for the memories (This is not the end)
The sun has set on my last day in Kayseri. It’s 12:30AM in Turkey (5:30 PM the day before in Boston). In three hours, I’ll take my final Turkish Taxi and have my last wild ride during this journey in the place where East meets West. I’ve shared a number of good memories, some of which I’ve reflected on or wrote about already, and many more I still have to put to paper. ... [Read more]
Politely speaking
NOTE: This article was first published for “Today’s Zaman,” an English daily newspaper in Turkey. View the article as it originally appeared here. During my year in Turkey, I’ve tried to turn my Turkish from a “caveman dialect” where requests for bus tickets sound like, “Konya ticket need. Tomorrow, early day,” to something friendlier, like: “I’d like to go... [Read more]
Kayseri mourns a fallen son
Over the last week, there has been a lot of news about the Israel blockade and storming of an international aid flotilla. 16 of the passengers were killed in the incident, nine of which were Turks. Since then, demonstrators have been out in force. The Turkish government condemned the raid and has demanded not only an apology from Israel, but also an independent investigation over the incident. ... [Read more]
Holy origins
The famous Euphrates River, a crucial water way for centuries and into today, flows south to Syria and Iraq. Today, controversy over water rights continues over Turkey's dam projects along the Tigris and Euphrates. It was late evening on a bus headed towards Sanliurfa, one of the Southeast’s major cities, when our bus stopped for “petrol.” But not at a normal gas station, instead... [Read more]
Why Kayseri?
“Why Kayseri?” is one of the most common questions asked to me by neighbors, students, and other Turkish friends, including residents of Kayseri. With ocean front and cosmopolitan cities like Istanbul, Izmir, and Antalya, and even a bustling capital in Ankara, my students are always curious how I ended up in what many people view as a kind of no-man’s land. The simplest and easiest... [Read more]
Turkish national holiday puts children center stage
VIDEO STORY Every April 23, Turkey’s children take control of their nation. Turkey’s Children’s Day (April 23) is a national holiday where children attend festivals across the country, and some students are even selected to serve as the honorary President, Prime Minister, and as members of Parliament for the day. Kemal Ataturk, founder of the Turkish state, declared the holiday while in the... [Read more]