The journey to Kars was actually pretty uneventful. We arrived in Kars and the weather was sunny. We had been very lucky on our trip thus far. There had been no rain.
After we left the otogar, the taxi driver told us that there was no bus service into town. Of course taxi drivers have an awful reputation and I did not believe him for a second. He was incredibly pushy about it, which ticked me off. I finally went inside and asked a security guard in broken Turkish if there was a bus. When they said no and we resigned to taking a taxi, we purposely ignored the guy who had been pushy and went with another driver. I simply cannot stand it when taxi drivers try to push me around. It makes me want to punch them in the face.
So we took the taxi to a hotel called Tembel. The original one was not open, so we stayed at Tembel 2 for a somewhat reduced price. The living situation of the hotel was not especially nice, but it was good enough. When we checked in the guy found out we were Americans. The general reaction from everyone so far was that they loved Obama. This guy was different. First he started asking how I could vote for Obama because I was white and he is black. I couldn't really explain to him that it wasn't like that. Then he started ranting and yelling. I assumed from the tone of his voice that he did not like Obama. Then he used the word "Erministan," which means Armenia in Turkish. I gathered that he probably was displeased with Obama's position on the whole Armenian genocide question.
The issue in Kars is a prominent one because it is only about 45 minutes by car from the river separating Turkey and Armenia. In fact, Kars used to be Armenian and there is still a small presence of Turkish Armenians living there today. In 1993, in protest of Armenia capturing a region of Azerbaijan in their war, Turkey closed the border. Since that time it has remained closed. Although some people dislike Armenians because of the genocide issue, others in Kars want the border to be opened because it could bring about new economic activity and growth to the area.
Kars is also interesting because it used to be Russian. In fact, it was not ceded to the Ottoman Empire until 1918. For this reason, many of the people there were actually of Russian decent. The mixture of cultures gave it a different atmosphere from other places in Turkey.
We settled into our new accommodations and took a brief rest. It began to rain outside for the first time on our trip and we were a bit tired. We ventured out with Em's guidebook and looked for Kars Citadel and the Church of the Apostles. When we stopped and asked, Em told me later that the guy we asked was only speaking to me and addressing me. She felt they were slightly sexist. I am not sure if that was actually the case, but it was something to think about.
We approached the Church of the Apostles. This church had been converted into a Russian Orthodox church under Russian rule and back to a mosque when the Turks took over again. It was clearly closed and there did not seem to be a way to get inside. A few feet away, a Turkish man was standing and also admiring the church. He was wearing an orange jumpsuit. They seemed to be doing some sort of restoration on the area around the church, so naturally we thought he worked as a construction worker.
We approached him and asked if he knew if and when the church would be opened. He said that he did not know and was admiring the church on his break. He introduced himself as Cemil. We learned that instead was working with an oil company (on the new pipeline from the Caucuses into Turkey) and was admiring the church himself.
Cemil began a conversation with us and one of the first questions he asked me was what my religion was. I was taken a little off guard. I lied to him and told him that I was not very religious, despite the fact that I self-identify with Judaism. I had learned early during my time in Turkey that telling people I am Jewish is not in my best interest. I asked him the same question, half expecting the cliché Sunni Islam answer.
Before he answered me, he looked around to ensure no one was within earshot and proclaimed that he was an Alevi. An Alevi!? I became very excited. I had just been reading about them in my Turkish politics class. Alevis are a particular sect of Shiite Islam that had been persecuted in recent Turkish history. It was a stroke of luck that I not only met an Alevi that was willing to speak about their beliefs, but that I met one that knew English! I began asking him questions about his life and more specific questions about how Alevism differed from other sects of Islam. His father was the dede, making him the future leader of his family's congregation near Istanbul.
Our conversation led to a lunch invitation, which I gladly accepted. We decided that going to lunch with Cemil would be much more interesting and exciting than seeing another fortress (we had already seen 4 or 5 on the trip). He did not have anything to eat but we talked for a while. We talked about all sorts of things: Turkey, Turkish-American relations, American foreign policy, American politics, our trip, etc. He invited us to come with him to see Posof, a small border town, but unfortunately we were unable to do so. Afterwards, I told him about my project on Alevis for Turkish politics and of the requirement that I had to do an interview with a Turkish person in English and asked if I could come visit him in his home in Kocaeli. He said he would be happy to help me out and invited me to come see a live cem evi, which is their ceremony. He did graciously pay for his meal...but I felt especially bad for this because he didn't even eat. I told him I did not want him to pay. He told me that if I did not let him pay that he would refuse my interview and I would be unwelcome in his home in Istanbul...that was enough to shut me up.
After we had spent the better part of the afternoon talking with Cemil, we decided to return to the hotel. After 8 days of travel we were all very tired and needed a day to kind of chill out.
So we went back to the room to hang out. Earlier a younger Turkish guy who was staying alone had asked us if we wanted to go to the market with him. We respectfully declined as we had planned to go sightseeing in Kars. He knocked on our door that evening bearing food and coca cola. So he came in and we hung out for a while. It was kind of awkward because he did not know any English and we were stuck communicating through the English-Turkish dictionary. It always seems weird to me how guys like this guy and the guy from the hotel in Van are so interested in speaking with us despite the language issues. If the situation were reversed, I don't think I would spend that long trying to understand someone who did not speak the language in my country. I guess that's one of the many differences between Turks and Americans. So our first day in Kars ended up being very productive for me (as I made a vital contact for my project) and pretty low key overall.
No comments:
Post a Comment