religion

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 last century, a history plagued by animosity and violence.

But in the center of that district stands a 900-year-old Armenian church, defiantly active and restored as a reminder of the better days of Armenian history in Turkey.

Earlier this year, U.S. President Barack Obama issued a statement in remembrance of the Armenian “Great Catastrophe,” calling it “one of the worst atrocities in the 20th century.”   According to various estimates, 300,000 to 1.5 million Armenians died during World War I after being forced from their homes by the Ottoman Empire, now modern Turkey. The Armenian National Committee of America said the president made the “wrong choice” in not using the word “genocide.” Armenians have strongly pushed the United States to officially recognize the events in Ottoman Turkey as a genocide.

However, one group of Anatolian Armenians (from Turkey’s Asian side) prefers to look beyond the polarizing rhetoric in an attempt to preserve what remains of their history in Kayseri: their 900-year-old church.

“We try to remember the importance of religion.  It’s our most important cause. Our foundation doesn’t think about politics,” said Garbis Bagdat, director of the St. Gregory Church Foundation.

Hidden behind a ten-foot stone barricade, the St. Gregory the Illuminator Church is one of only seven Armenian churches still functioning in Anatolia.

“When we visit, our old Kayseri neighbors are always asking us why we left and why we don’t come back,” Bagdat says. “Most of them say they would like us to come back.”

Bagdat prefers to remain with the majority of his community now in Istanbul, but his foundation is determined to preserve the pieces of history remaining in his former home.

The Kayseri Church has added importance because the community believes St. Gregory passed through the city and established an earlier church constructed of wood in the same location.  St. Gregory was the first leader of the Armenian Church and is credited for converting the pagan Armenians to Christianity during the fourth century.  Kayseri served as a major Armenian center for centuries before losing prominence in the late Ottoman period.

Bagdat’s group recently completed interior restorations.  They revitalized old frescoes, furnishings, and statues.  The community capped off the efforts with an inaugural service last November with the Armenian Patriarchate presiding.  Since then, the church has seen regular Armenian visitors from Istanbul, Armenia, Europe, and the United States, including a group of Istanbul Armenians now living in Los Angeles.

“Having this church here, the only church, is very symbolic for us,” said Sylvia Minassian whose grandfather came from Kayseri, “We would like to preserve it as much as we can, as long as we can because it shows there was a Christian life here.”

Minassian grew up in Istanbul.  For her, Turkey is home.  She watches Turkish television, speaks to her mother in Turkish, and feels less animosity towards Turkish people.

“Our feelings are not as strong as some of the other Armenians whose families went through certain disasters and tragedies and they ended up in other countries,” Minassian said, “We never knew about [the other] history because our parents never taught us those things.”

Bagdat believes the Kayseri Church can serve as a reminder the city’s Armenian past for future generations.  Bagdat says the Turkish government has been extremely helpful and has never stood in the way of his group’s mission to restore the church to its former glory.

“We are on a good path,” says Bagdat, “Twenty years ago, the situation was much worse. Nobody would speak about Armenians, and we wouldn’t speak because of Armenian terrorism outside of Turkey.  We were afraid.”

But now, he says discussion are more open and he has had visitors from the Turkish government who want to learn more about the church.

For the last few years, Turkey has worked to normalize relations with its Armenian neighbors.  Some feel that one of the key provisions for normalization would be an independent examination of the historic tragedy.

Turkish Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, spoke to reporters with hope about the future.

“As Turkey, we are ready to share the pain of our Armenian neighbors,” said Davutoglu.

However, he preferred to use the word pain versus genocide in his remarks.

Turkey continues to see the deportations, what some Armenians view as death marches, as tragedies during wartime.  Turkish historians often refer to Turkish losses in Gallipoli and in its eastern provinces as equivalents.

It’s an issue that continues to agitate, and even Minassian believes this remains the biggest obstacle to more normal relations between non-Turkish Armenians and Turkey.

“What hurts them [Turkey] the most is the non-accepting of what happened,” said the visiting Minassian. “I think that if they accepted it a long time ago, nobody would have blamed the new generation because it happened in the old empire.”

Bagdat says he prefers to “close his ears” to the issue because he lives in Turkey.

For him, Turkey is his home.  He chooses to stay, and lives among many Turkish friends. Politics isn’t his issue. He chooses to keep his heritage by protecting the Kayseri church.

“The church is the life of the Armenians,” Bagdat says. “Every Armenian is attached to their church.”

With one year left as foundation director, Bagdat will continue his restoration campaign.  The next step is to revitalize the church’s large courtyard.

The church will continue to hold four services each year when approximately three to four hundred Armenians are anticipated to worship behind those cobblestone walls like their ancestors did for over a thousand years.

For the Kayseri foundation, the church remains a chance to keep history alive.

religion

Holy origins

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 two men hailed our bus to the side of the road and guided the bus behind a roadside parking lot. Once there, a green jeep pulled up beside us, and the bus attendants and driver went outside. The men pulled gas cans from the bus, and a hose from the jeep. For the next twenty minutes the men transferred what was apparently gasoline into the cans. The women in the bus chided the staff for the reckless stop while my seatmate explained the oil was likely from Iraq or Syria, sold on the black market. Oil in Turkey is extremely expensive because of taxes from the government so apparently this company was trying to save a little money. On my second visit to Sanliurfa, my friend found a man leisurely rolling “knockoff” Marlborough cigarettes in the lobby of his two-star hotel.

My friend Emily called this region the “Wild, Wild, East” in her blog. There are similarities  to America’s “wild, wild West.” The region is far more arid, less developed, and yes, the law does not always go as far.

But amidst the wild desert, now becoming greener due to recent dam projects, the region is also believed to have been the birthplace for Abraham, the father of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Turks and many Muslims believe that Abraham was born in a cave just under the largest hill Sanliurfa, Turkey. The Hebrew Scriptures tell of Abraham being born in Ur, which many believe to have been actually located in Northern Iraq. So, it is not precisely known where Abraham was actually born since it was believed to have been at least 3,000-4,000 years ago.

In Urfa, “the cave” where Abraham was born has become a very busy pilgrimage site for Muslims. But the larger attraction is the nearby pool of “sacred carp.” The Balikli Gol (Fish Lake) is a massive placid pool that lies within the mosque complex surrounding Abraham’s “birth cave.” According to legend, Abraham was brought up to the top of the hill in Urfa before the ruling emperor. At the time, Abraham’s society believed in numerous pagan gods. It’s widely known from surviving ruins that the moon and sun, among others, were worshiped as gods during the time Abraham is believed to have lived. The emperor, threatened by Abraham’s insistence, is said to have thrown Abraham off the hill and into a fire as a death sentence. But according to lore, the flames became water and the wood chips became fish. Abraham was saved. Today, the residents have recreated the legend by filling the pool with hundreds of fish. The fish are considered holy and removing them is said to bring a curse on the thief. The fish are fed constantly by visitors, and because of that, they swim in crowded globs awaiting the sprinkles of food from visitors.

The Koran and the Old Testament say Abraham grew up with an intrinsic knowledge that there was only one God. All the “Abrahamic religions” agree that he was the first to believe and make a covenant with that God. They all tell stories of how Abraham left home bound for a new world where he could establish and live with his new faith. Some stories say Abraham traveled to Harran after fleeing from his pagan captors. Today, Harran is a small village between Sanliurfa and Syria. It’s known for unique beehive shaped houses, and again, for being another way point for the prophet Abraham. The ruins of a large mosque and old fortress rise above the desert landscape, but little else does. For me, it was interesting to visit the same places mentioned in the Bible and where Abraham may have passed through.

However, Abraham is not the only prophet who is believed to have passed through southeastern Turkey. The prophet Job’s “cave” also resides just outside

Sanliurfa’s city center. Muslims, like Jews and Christians, believe in the testing of Job. The cave is thought to be where Job resided while undergoing his trials. A holy well stands near the cave entrance, and Muslim pilgrims crowd around it, pressing their faces against the metal grate covering the opening. The well is believed to mark the source of water Job opened up after his trials. The Koran says a spring of water rushed forth after he touched his foot to the ground at God’s command. They believe the air around the well can have mysterious healing or other beneficial powers. Like the Abrahamic legend, no one can confirm this, and several other locations including Lebanon and Palestine claim Job as a resident.

Whether or not you believe in these spiritual stories, the age of Sanliurfa and its surrounding villages are undeniable. Just 20 km west of the city lies the oldest temple known to exist anywhere on Earth. The stone formations found at Gobekli Tepe are estimated to have been built around 11,000 B.C.

While passing through what seemed like an endless expanse of rocky desert, we came across all sorts of fragments of past civilizations. Much of what remains of those ancient origins include crumbling caravansarais and churches, city foundations and their underground escape tunnels, and a rocky hill with stone reliefs and cuniform writing.

If you’re looking for where it all started, you can’t miss Turkey’s wild southeast.

(For all of my photos, browse the Sanliurfa and Harran-Kilis photosets the photo gallery.)

religion

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 answer to this question is, “It wasn’t my choice.  I chose Turkey, but not Kayseri.”

However, this comes off a little harsher than it should.  Although it’s true that I had no control over where I would be placed, I’ve enjoyed my year in one of Turkey’s fastest growing cities.

Kayseri, my home for nearly 8 months now, is located in practically the geographic center of Turkey.  It lies

between Turkey’s green, but bustling Western shores and the eastern wilderness beyond the mountains.   What was once a sleepy backwater of 65,000 in 1950 has grown into a city approaching one million.  Particularly since the Turkish government began opening up more opportunity’s for private companies in the 1980s, Kayseri now serves as one of the major industrial centers in Turkey.   Economists refer to Kayseri as one of Turkey’s “Anatolian Tigers”  continuing to provide a powerful surge to the Turkish economy.

The position as economic power player is not a strange one for Kayseri.  Kultepe, a 4,000-year-old settlement located next to Kayseri, served as one of the major commercial settlements of the Hittite empire.  Turkish historians have referred to the site as “one of the world’s first cities of free trade.”  Kayseri’s location also puts it right along the Silk Road.  For this reason, the city would remain an important one for the Byzantine Christians and Seljuk Muslims who would later rule.  Churches, caravanserais, madrassahs, mosques, and an old fortress still stand as relics from those empires.

The city continued to rise and fall over its four-thousand year history.  Kayseri holds many names including  Mazarca, Eusebia, Caesarea Cappadociae, Kaisariyah, and now Kayseri in the Turkish Republic. For a long time, it remained a diverse city with a variety of Muslims and Christians living together including significant Armenian and Greek populations.  However, the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the chaos that ensued would ultimately eliminate Kayseri’s ethnic diversity over time.  Today, the city is well over 90% Muslim like the rest of Turkey.

Moreover, Turks identify Kayseri as one of the country’s most conservative locations.  Which brings me back to the initial question: “Why Kayseri?”  Many Turks would ask me if I liked Kayseri, if I found it a good place to live, and if the people were “nice there?”  Imagine a foreigner coming to live in the US, and their destination is Utah or Mississippi.  In the eyes of many, that’s the equivalent of my move to Kayseri.

There is no question that Kayseri is conservative, at the outset. There are only two bars in the city that I know

of (I haven’t really been looking), and the restaurants and shops are usually locked up and shut by 10pm, even on Friday and Saturday nights are usually.  The cities most famous citizen is the current president of Turkey, Abdullah Gül, who belongs to Turkey’s conservative leaning Justice and Development Party.

But, living in the city, particularly at the university, has led me to see Kayseri in a different light.  Yes, religion is practiced more in Kayseri than in Istanbul.  However, this isn’t special to Kayseri, and in fact, most Turks I’ve met in Anatolia (Turkey’s Asian plain) have been more religious.  But, they’ve also been respectful and tolerant of differences.  I am occasionally asked if I’ve considered becoming a Muslim by friends, but after sharing my thoughts, we almost always move on to other topics with ease.

The other thing I’ve noticed is that students from Kayseri are as tolerant of differences as most other Turkish students .  Last February, I wrote an article about Turkey’s ideological split regarding the wearing of headscarves where five students from Kayseri explained how they may have one belief, but don’t want to force it on another.  For my more religiously observant students, they’re seeking equality more than conformity.

With that said, not all of Kayseri is as forward thinking.  Some families and dormitories impose curfews for their daughters and female students as early as 7pm.  Issues including ethnic differences and sexual orientation are certainly still taboo in many circles in this city, but I’ve yet to see how the issues in Kayseri are different from Turkey’s capital of Ankara, where I also lived.  Ankara’s size and position of capital does mean more diverse groups of people live there, but the culture is extremely familiar.

In Anatolian cities like Kayseri, I’ve met extremely friendly people.  People who have invited me into their homes for dinner.  People who have driven me 25 miles outside the city in order to learn something about their history or their family.  People who have helped me find the things I need to manage my life in the strange but increasingly modern and westernized city of Kayseri.

I think the fears of a conservative revolution emerging from Kayseri is a bit overblown. Its residents will continue to hold on to traditional values that have been apart of their lives for generations.  But, Kayseri is an emerging city with plenty of room to grow.    Turkey remains a youthful nation, over half the country is under 25.  The students here are looking forward, and hoping to find successful careers in the global marketplace.  Kayseri is ever evolving.

This is “why Kayseri” is a interesting place to be.

(For all of my photos from Kayseri and Erciyes University, check out the photo gallery.)

religion

Turkey’s parade of roses

Yesterday, April 20, I found the floors of my classes littered with rose petals.  I walked through campus, and found students and faculty carrying single roses in their hands.

The reason, I would come to learn, is in honor of the Prophet Muhammed’s birth.  Most Muslims believe that Muhammed was born on April 20, 570 A.D.  Although celebrating the Prophet’s birthday is not an official religious event in comparison to Christianity’s celebration of the birth of Christ.  Many Muslims in Turkey choose to honor the day by giving out roses.  The roses are distributed at mosques across the country, including on our university campus.  Some roses came with a saying of the Prophet, reminding the bearer to be faithful and just.

Why a rose?  The rose is a popular symbol for Muhammed.  Since photographs, drawings, and other pictorial depictions of Muhammed are forbidden, popular symbols have evolved.   In Turkey, the rose is a dominant symbol for love and passion (just like in many other cultures).  But, the rose has also been linked to Muhammed by some of Turkey’s most famous poets.  In one poem, well-respected philosopher Yunus Emre writes:

You'd be hard pressed to walk into any classroom or office without running into one of these this week.

“Gül Muhammed deridür bülbül anın yarıdır
Ol gül ile ezeli cihana bile geldim”

“Rose is the scent of Muhammed and fellow of the nightingale.

Because of that rose, I came into being.”

According to lore, even Muhammed’s sweat smells like roses.

Another rose fact, many first and last names include the word rose (Gül), often for its spiritual connotations.   The current president of Turkey is named Abdullah Gül, or President Rose.

religion

Easter in the East

(Normally, I reserve most content in this blog to be about Turkish culture.  However, some of you have asked me about what non-Muslims or Christians do in Turkey.  I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to film my neighbor Maria Iskenderoglu’s Easter celebration this weekend.  I was one of TWO camera crews.)

This weekend, Maria and her husband, Orhan, celebrated another Easter in Turkey with their 5-year old daughter, Sophia Irem.  Although it’s usually just the three of them, Maria makes sure Sophia has the chance to enjoy the same traditions she had as a child.

“I like being able to give my daughter American culture, and this is a little bit of American culture,” said Maria,  “It’s really hard to teach her American culture [here], but I think it’s a lot easier to teach her American culture in turkey than it is Turkish culture in America.”

This Easter, a Turkish film crew joined the Iskenderoglu’s Easter celebration to learn about the holiday.

“Easter is interesting to me because I don’t know anything about it,” said the 23-year old Merve Ozkoroglu,   “It may be normal to Maria’s family, but these traditions are fascinating, especially painting eggs.”

Gulsah Dogan, another student-filmmaker added, “Our friends are documenting other parts of Turkish culture around the country.  But we wanted to show our class something from a different culture.”

Today, Turkey’s 98 percent Muslim population means that few Turks know about Christian holidays like Easter.  Orhan said he knew very little when he married Maria seven years ago.  But he says living with Maria and travelling to the U.S. has opened his perspective on the two faiths.

“The way is same, where they want to go is same.  And only some different rituals, something different, that’s all, mostly same.  And I was really happy when I hear those kind of things,” said Orhan about his visit to a Kansas church.

Rather than scoffing at the silliness, the students found meaning in the egg-stravaganza.

“It’s a nice celebration.  Painting and looking for eggs gets everyone involved, and brings the family closer,” said Gulsah.

For Maria, she hopes that her daughter will be as open minded as the visiting students.

“I also hope that she grows up with a belief in things that her father and I both find important.”

To do that, Maria and Orhan will keep on teaching their traditions every day, together.

(Special thanks to Orhan Iskenderoglu for translations.)

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Filed Under: Blog, Featured, Videos
Tagged: america, celebration, easter, egg, religion, turkey

religion

Less is more during Ramadan

October 12, 2009 by mpreports06 · Leave a Comment 

(This article was first published on September 28, 2009 for the Study Abroad section at Global Post.  View the original article here.)

As twilight turned to night, roads that 20 minutes earlier were choked with impatient cars in twisted gridlock became calm. Congested sidewalks emptied, and a scattered few now meandered down the streets. The call to prayer echoed through the neighborhood. Allah-hu-akbar … It was time for iftar in Balgat, a neighborhood in Ankara, Turkey.

Crowds spill onto the sidewalks as the sun sets for iftar.

Muslims worldwide fasted 30 days for Ramadan, their holiest season. Devout Muslims will abstain not only from food and water during daylight hours, but other items like cigarettes will not touch their lips. Life for many Turkish residents, even if they aren’t practicing Muslims, revolves around the sundown dinners, called iftar, where observant Muslims break the daylong fast.

Imagine celebrating a mini-Thanksgiving dinner every night for 40 days, or so it seems to me.  During Ramadan, observers rotate invitations to their families or friends. Even I, a stranger, attended at least 15 different iftars, some large, some small, some formal, some not.

“It’s the best time to invite people to your home,” said Mehmet Canpolat, “It’s a time for sharing dinner, sharing life.”

I had iftar several times with Mehmet, his wife Malek, their 4-year-old daughter and their spirited 10-year-old son, who always asked if I was fasting. After I said no, he replied proudly that I didn’t have the muscle because I wasn’t Muslim.

Iftars with the family were usually simple. Mehmet would watch TV, waiting for the signal broadcast on Turkish stations that it was time eat. Dates, the traditional fruit the prophet Muhammed used to break his fast, lay on the table with large bowls of soup, plenty of fresh bread, salad and a main course. After dinner, the family and I would settle in the parlor for dessert, tea and plenty of fruit.

Restaurants offer special iftar meals that include at least soup, main, dessert, and a drink. Usually at a low price.

Iftars at home include families or neighbors, but restaurants serve iftar, as well.  Ranging from city-funded free dinners for the poor in tents to meals at Turkey’s high-end restaurants, groups flooded eateries that lay mostly empty during the day. In Balgat, it took three tries before finding a restaurant with one lonely table amid a feverishly hungry crowd that the wait staff scrambled to serve.

Like Christmas in the West, Turkey’s capitalistic markets have taken advantage of seasonal Ramadan. Cell phone companies, clothing retailers and others advertise special sales for Ramadan and Bayram, the holiday ending the month of fasting. Restaurants and supermarkets publicize special meal deals.

“The important thing is not iftars,” Zeynel Oz told me over Turkish tea at his home. “What’s important is fasting, not iftars.”

Practicing and more devout Muslims like Zeynel and Mehmet are not always happy with Turkey’s commercialization of the holiday. Zeynel scoffed when I referred to the Bayram holidays as Seker Bayram (Sugar Holidays). In Turkey, traditions have emerged where children go door to door looking for candy treats from neighbors and family. Just like the U.S. during Halloween, candy retailers push Seker Bayram festivities.

Discipline is the real lesson of Ramadan, according to Mehmet and Zeynel.

“All humans want everything,” said Zeynel. “But God says, ‘No, not everything.’ ”

Mehmet grew up in Istanbul and started fasting in university. Like Zeynel, he sees it as an opportunity to cleanse the spirit and discipline the body.

“The main point is a whole behavioral change,” Mehmet said. “You must be a good man, woman, kid — whatever you are.”

Families gather together after forty days of fasting and enjoy eating together...during the day.

These ideals are the ones that Mehmet and his wife Malek admired the most. They agreed that during Ramadan, many try to live up to these ideals.

Some in Turkey worry about the growing popularity and religiosity during Ramadan as a harbinger of fundamentalist expansion. The secular government allows minority voices on both ends of its political spectrum, but continues to uphold its constitution.

Zeynel prays during Ramadan that conflicts can be reconciled and people will respect each other. When asked about an Islamist takeover, Zeynel said he doesn’t want to force his religious views on anyone.

“The fundamentalists are a problem, and they cause issues for more modern religious people,” said Zeynel. “The Koran tells me to be modern … I don’t see modernity and religion as opposing forces. They are in the same glass.”

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Filed Under: Blog
Tagged: ankara, fasting, iftar, islam, muuslim, ramadan, religion, turkey

religion

“Ramazan Turkiye’de” (Ramadan in Turkey)

September 25, 2009 by mpreports06 · Leave a Comment 

If you’ve been reading the blog or visiting the photo gallery during the past forty days, you’ve probably seen the words Iftar and Bayram come up more than a few times.  I apologize in advance that I’ve only gotten to writing about Ramadan for the blog now, five days after the its end.  Part of the reason is that I was kept very busy during Ramadan, and the other reason is I’m holding back on what I have written  until next week when it might be published with Global Post, an online international news source. (A new job I haven’t talked about also, but I promise I will soon.)

However, there are a number of things about Ramadan in Turkey, that won’t be in next week’s article.  So without further ado, here is a little Ramadan 101 for those who know little about the season or how its practiced in Turkey.

Ramadan is the forty day period in the lunar calendar when all Muslims engage in ritual fasting during the day from

At any traditional Iftar, you'll usually find a serving of dates.

food and drink.  It’s one of the pillars of Islam, and therefore mandatory for all practicing Muslims.  Early in the morning before sunrise, Muslims will wake up to eat a meal called Suhor, and at sundown, families get together to break their fast with another meal known as Iftar.  All over the world, Muslims traditionally break their fast with a date or olive because according to their scripture, it was also the practice of their Prophet Mohammed.  Why forty days?  The number is chosen because Moses and Jesus also fasted for that amount before beginning their spiritual work.  Turkey is reportedly 95-99 percent Muslim, so any visitor who knows nothing else about Turkey besides this statistic would probably expect to see a dramatic change in atmosphere.

WRONG!  Turkey, unlike most of its homogeneous Muslim neighbors to the South and East, hardly shuts down for Ramadan.  In large cities like Ankara, I only encountered two small food shanties that were closed during the day for Ramadan.  Likely, the owners were from the outskirts of Ankara where Islamic conservatism is much more prevalent.  Instead, cafes, restaurants, and bars remained open and popular, particularly at night when everyone could eat.

Diversity abounds at Iftars in Turkey

The difference between Ramadan in Turkey and most other countries in the Middle East is one that exemplifies one of Turkey’s most interesting traits: the diversity of its Muslim community.  Turkey’s uniform identity is deceiving because its diversity of Muslims runs the gamut from fundamentalist to those who no longer practice their family religion.  Just as in the US, the vocal minorities on both ends often garner most of the attention while many of the nation’s residents lie somewhere in the vast middle.  Again, like the US, the different communities can be somewhat regionally separated with more conservative Muslims living in the South East while the most liberal convictions lie on the Western and European shores.  Big cities like Ankara and Istanbul are incredibly modern and secular, but do have their fair share of conservative communities, particularly with the rise of a new, more religious middle class migrating there. (Something that I’ll continue to cover as I move to one of Turkey’s newly developed cities, Kayseri, a city with a reputation for Islamic conservatism.)  Meanwhile, the BBC reports that the growing gap between the richest and poorest in Turkey continues to feed violent and fundamentalist groups in Turkey’s poorest villages.  However, the same reports say that the situation has improved vastly in the last ten to fifteen years.

In any case, the fact that Turkey is filled with this diversity makes Ramadan an incredibly interesting affair.  Life does change during the season with huge traffic delays on major city roads during the half hour leading up to Iftar when many are rushing home.  Even those who are less devout, find Iftar dinners the thing to do during the month.  Ofcourse, once the sun goes down and the call to prayer echoes across the city from Ankara’s many mosques, the streets usually become deserted.  It’s a great time for a walk if you’re not starved for food.

“It’s the best opportunity to invite people to your home,” my host Mehmet said to me when I asked him what he thought of Iftar dinners.  He was right, and in Turkey, you’ll see groups everywhere eating together.  Families, friends, acquaintances, or total strangers like me are invited out to these sometimes elaborate, but always huge, dinners.  During the last forty days, I shared dinner with many new friends.  Mehmet reminded me that along with the discipline Ramadan teaches you, it’s also a time to remind each other about being hospitable to your community.

“By coming together, the children learn,” said Mehmet, “(It’s about) sharing time, sharing dinner, sharing life.”

However, communal rituals do not end with Iftars.  In Turkey, Ramadan is capped off in a uniquely Turkish way.  During three days after fasting (national holidays in Turkey), most Turks visit relatives’ homes, pay respects to their deceased family, and of course, indulge the children in a tradition known as Şeker Bayram (Sugar Holidays).  Traditions of buying new outfits and handing out candy and pocket money reign during the holiday.  Think of Christmas crossed with a costume-less Halloween and you have an idea of what the bayram looks like in Turkey.  Everywhere I went, I saw people dressed to the nines in new suits and dresses going from house to house (reportedly, children often knock on neighbor’s doors for candy).

Özgür (far left corner in the back) and Zeynep, his fiancee(on his right), invited me to spend some of Bayram with their families.

On the last day of Bayram, I was invited by my friend Özgür to a picnic with his and his fiancee’s families. First, we drove out to one edge of Ankara to pick up his fiancee and her family, and in two, small, packed, four cylinder cars, we drove to the opposite end of the city for a picnic, and then tea and dessert at Özgür’s family’s home.  It was an excellent way to finish the Ramadan season in Turkey.

Of course, Ramadan is more than just big feasts.  Some of the more religious people I spoke to felt that commercialism has invaded what is supposed to be a season of refraining from extravagances and indulgences, and emphasize self-restraint instead.  “It’s about disciplining behavior,” said Mehmet, “The main point is a whole behavioral change.”

However, if you just looked in any mall or at any billboard, you’d think its a time to make money too.  Merchants entice people into buying more with special Ramadan and Bayram specials.  I found the entire relationship similar to our own culture’s relationship with Christmas where a sacred religious season is also a financial moneymaker that puts most department and toy stores in the black for the first time.

I was invited by Ramazan, a farmer in a small Turkish village, for some fruit even though everyone else was fasting.

In all cases, Ramadan in Turkey has been a great experience, except for the occasional time I’ve felt guilty for eating on the street in front of people who might be fasting.  During Ramadan, I met a number of new Turks, alongside sharing dinner with friends I already knew.  Ramadan festivals organized by the city offered sometimes good, sometimes not-so-good concerts and dance shows throughout the forty days.   I shared hours and hours with friends, new and old, and many times found myself welcomed into the houses of complete strangers, some who had much to give and others who did a lot with the little they had.   Adapting a few words from Andy Williams, “It was the most wonderful time of the year.”

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Filed Under: Blog
Tagged: ankara, iftar, ramadan, religion, seker bayram, suhor, turkey