Ch 34, Day 6: Turkey's Capital

 29
kms, Oct 6, 2010

Today
the Traveler takes a detour from his eastward Journey, for an obvious
reason: north of Aksaray is Turkey's capital: Ankara, a city he must
experience.

Of
course, Ankara is really only Turkey's political capital. The
economic, cultural and historic capital is, of course, Istanbul.
The Traveler expects Ankara to be a grand city nonetheless.

He
arrives at a massive, multi-story bus station, with skyscrapers
visible on the horizon. With a population of 5.5 million people, it
is the biggest city of the Traveler's Journey so far. He exits the
station and under an 8 lane freeway, and soon finds himself in a
shady, upscale neighborhood of modern apartment buildings, clinics
and restaurants.

Not
far away is the most important site that the Traveler really wants to
visit: the Ataturk Mausoleum. In almost every town throughout his
Journey, the Traveler has come across a monument to Ataturk. One
local fellow sums it up: “In studying the history of Turkey, we
study Ataturk, Ataturk, Ataturk”. An exaggeration for sure, but
the Traveler does get the impression that a huge amount focus is
given to this one man and period, and little to everything that
happened before or since. Maybe this place will help explain why.

The
Traveler reaches a wide stairway which leads to a vast open square.
Around the perimeter are tan stone buildings with square columns.
This symmetrical cut stone look was the style in the 1940s. This
whole complex took a full 9 years to build. Unlike the ornate,
decorative baroque style mausoleums of Italy and France, this place
has a more serious, austere feel to it.

The
Traveler leaves his backpack and guitar, and heads inside. He starts
out by exploring the museum, which covers the main events of
Ataturk's military and political career.

The
first section of the museum centers around what Turkey sees as the
pivotal moment in their history. No, it was not the founding of the
Seljuk or Ottoman Empires of long ago. Not the era of Suleyman the
Magnificent, who set out to conquer much of Eastern Europe. Instead,
it was when Turkey “hit bottom”... and then rose up again.

The
year was 1919. Despite Ataturk's leadership in winning a great
victory in Gallipolli over the allies, Turkey ultimately had lost in
World War I along with Germany and the Austro-Hungarians. The
Ottoman Empire was over.

But
the Allies did not want to stop there. They wanted to chop up the
Anatolian Peninsula itself, giving parts of it Italy, France,
Britain, Armenia as well as a Kurdish state. The actual country of
“Turkey”, would just be a relatively small piece of the Anatolian
Peninsula. According to the museum, the Allies wanted to turn the
once powerful empire into a puppet state with no power whatsoever.
Europeans had longed for this day for hundreds of years—when they
could finally crush the Turks once and for all and claim complete
control over the Middle East.

And
then... led by Ataturk, Turkey fought back. The “War for
Independence” was fought on three fronts : against Armenia in the
east, against France in the south and against Greece in the west.
France, Italy and Great Britain, having just won the greatest
military victory in history, backed those who fought Turkey. Russia,
however, supported the Turks and supplied them with weapons, as it
was hoping to eliminate Armenia from the picture altogether and
create a new border with Turkey.

This
museum, as all museums and monuments here in Turkey, present a very
one sided, narrow view of this tumultuous time in history. The
storyline goes: We were powerful once. Then the whole world
conspired to destroy us. Led by Ataturk, we fought back and were
victorious against those who wished to wiped us out. Ataturk made us
into the great, modern country that we are today.

Of
course, the Traveler knows that things are not this simple. He has
already seen history from the Kurdish point of view... the Armenian
point of view... and will someday cross the straits to hear the Greek
point of view. This story may have had a happy Hollywood ending for
the Turks. But it was disastrous for the Armenians and the Kurds.
Armenians had to wait 90 years to finally get their own country—and
a pretty scrappy one at that. The Kurds are still waiting.

Under
Ataturk's rule, a process of “Turkification” began. Hundreds of
thousands of Greeks had to leave Turkey to Greece, and hundreds of
thousands of Turks had to leave Greece for Turkey. Kurds and other
minorities were forbidden from speaking their own languages and
practicing their own culture. The cultural diversity of the Ottoman
Empire ended, and an era in which everyone had to pretend to be
Turkish began. Other viewpoints are silenced. Just to speak rudely
of Ataturk is considered a crime.

All
this being said, the Traveler can't help but feel a bit happy for
Turkey. When so many countries really wanted this country destroyed.
They pushed back, and stood their ground, and have to this day.

But
he can't help wonder how much this idea of “the whole world hated
and wanted to destroy us” has seeped into the Turkish psyche. Is
this part of the reason many Turks don't seem interested in learning
other languages and traveling to other countries? Is this a factor in
the sadness that he sometimes have sensed in his travels through this
land, as if there's a deep collective trauma that the country hasn't
fully healed from? Almost all the countries he has traveled through
he's sensed an eagerness to discover the new... to seek better
opportunities abroad. Much less so here in Turkey.

The
Secularization of Turkey

In
the next section of the museum, the Traveler learns more of Ataturk's
legacy as a politician. It talks of how he transformed the country
from a backwards state with a 5% literacy rate to a 95% literacy
rate. How he transformed the economy... the financial
institutions... the legal system from a Islamic system to a European
styled secular system.... Hospitals, universities, the empowerment of
women... changing the alphabet, dress code and customs deeply
embedded in Ottoman era society.

It
is quite amazing that such a transformation could take place in such
a short period of time. It seems that, while Ataturk was resisting
the attempts of Western European powers to colonize and control
Turkey, he also recognized that Turkey needed to learn from its
enemies. Other populist leaders and revolutionaries of the Muslim
world have preached that, to be powerful again, Muslims need to look
to the past, and try to live like its still year 700. Ataturk
preached that, we need to live in the present, look around us and be
more like the countries that are progressing and prospering the most.

Throughout
his Journey the Traveler has seen how powerful leaders have used
Islam as a tool for controlling the masses. It's a very effective
tool, stating that the Quran is the ultimate authority, and then
accusing any who oppose them as being “against religion”.

Ataturk
took the opposite approach: he pushed religion to the sidelines. The
Quran would no longer be the law of the land. Traditional clothes
were forbidden. Even the use of the Islamic headscarf was limited.

Changing
the alphabet from Arabic to Latin seems a bit extreme. But this
museum explains the logic behind it: not only would it make it much
easier for Turks to interact with Europeans, but the Latin alphabet
is much easier to learn than the Arabic one, so it claims. So since
most Turks at the time were illiterate anyways, it wasn't really that
much of a loss. After making this decision, a vast literacy campaign
was launched for both men and women, and within a short amount of
time most Turks young and old became literate.

But,
the Traveler wonders, can you really erase centuries of traditions
and culture by force? If Islam was pushed to the side and no longer
made the main absolute pillar of society... what will replace it?

He
enters a room where a documentary is playing around are some of the
mementos of Ataturk's life. His car... his letters. Towards the end
of the documentary, it starts to feel a bit more like the altar call
at a Pentecostal church. “Ataturk is with us now... we can feel
him... he is in our hearts...” the voice speaks in a very reverent
tone.

This
echoes what the Traveler has observed around the country. Ataturk,
it seems, is the pillar of this country. Whether he is really “in
the hearts” of the people is a little harder to say. Turks tend to
not share their deepest feelings very much with outsiders. So the
Traveler may never find out.

And
the winds of change are blowing through this country. Erdogan, a new
populist ruler, is talking once again about Turkey getting back to
its Islamic roots. Laws are being changed. Talk of the “good old
days” of the Ottoman Empire are alluded in his speeches. He is
exerting more and more “soft power” on the Middle East. The
Traveler has seen numerous Ottoman style mosques being built in
neighboring countries, sponsored by Turkey.

One
Turk even goes so far to say that Erdogan's dream is to have
Ataturk's statues in every town square be replaced by his statues.

Politicized
Islam is on the move in many parts of the Muslim world. And Turkey
is no exception. How far this will go before there's another
pushback is hard to say.

Finally
the Traveler slowly enters the mausoleum itself. It's a solemn gray
marble hall with rafters decorated in bright gold. In the front is a
semi-pyramid sarcophagus where Ataturk was laid to rest. The
Traveler steps forward and stands for a moment in silence. Despite
his faults, the Traveler feels that this was a great man who
rightfully deserves an honored place in the history books. He gave
Turkey a chance at a new, clean start. What this will ultimately
lead to is still not clear.

The
Traveler walks down a long stone walkway, with statues of lions to
the side. 24 lions carved to imitate ancient Hittite style which
represent the 24 Oghuz Turkic tribes. The message is: Turkey's long
history has led us to this place... to this leader.

Exploring
Ankara

The
Traveler continues on down the wide, leafy boulevards seeking for the
“heart” of Ankara. But when he reaches what, according to Google
Maps is the center of the city... but all that there is there are,
well, more upscale leafy streets. No bustling market. No grand
Ottoman architecture. It has more the feel of an upscale suburb
restaurant district. In just a few blocks the activity peeters out
and it's just apartments on hilly, narrow streets. Ankara is
probably one of the biggest cities in the world that never actually
feels like a big city...

He
continues on up Ataturk Boulevard. Ankara may not have the grand
architecture, but it is still the country's capital. And here you
can browse through world's embassies.

The
Traveler likes to wander embassy districts and pick out the best one.
Here the choice isn't difficult: The German embassy is the clear
winner, with a beautiful structure that represents the beauty of
German architecture.

It's
the loser that's a bit of a shocker. The American embassy looks like
a leftover hospital from the 1960s. Even the Afghan embassy has more
class to it. As an American, the Traveler finds this mildly
humorous.

And
so he spends the rest of the day wandering through the parks and up
and down the hills. After nightfall he climbs up to the top of one
of the highest hills where an enormous lit up flag of Turkey blows in
the wind. Here you can gaze out to soak in the sea of lights in
every direction.

The
Traveler pulls out his guitar to end the day with some music. A
friendly fellow joins him.

“I'm
a student in college” he tells the Traveler.

The
Traveler is surprised. They guy looks like he's in his thirties.”

“I'm
thirty years old” he explains. “Here in Turkey the career you can
choose is based on your grades. Since I didn't get top grades, I
couldn't take the career of my choice. I had to choose a career I
didn't really want. But now that I have the money, I'm going back to
school again, to study what I want to study.”

It's
a memorable encounter with someone who is trying to find his own path
in a country where many feel the path is already determined for
them...