Beypazari and Other Adventures

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Since our return from Ireland, we have been staying in Ankara, again enjoying the company of friends, eating a lot, some exercising, and concert going. One exception is a trip to an outlying town, Beypazari, for sight seeing and shopping (although we would have preferred more sight seeing and less shopping). Another exception is a funeral: Mama Ayse passed away. Between activities, we made plans for trips in our remaining weeks here in Turkey, which, alas, are numbering only a few.

Here are some highlights:

Jazz concert gala – Hacettepe University’s main downtown campus has a music conservatory, where it is establishing the first academic jazz program in Turkey. To celebrate the new department, Meldan, as chairman of the Department of American Literature and Culture on the Beytepe campus, arranged for an opening reception and jazz concert, featuring a female jazz vocalist. I am not a fan of jazz vocals (with the exception of some Jazz Age women; e.g., Ella Fitzgerald and a few others), but this woman was superb. After singing for about ½ hour, accompanied by a few instruments, she ended her program with a jazzy rendition of a Swahili lullaby, which had been sung to her by her grandmother in her childhood. We all left the concert hall with more of a swing to our step than when we entered.

Bilkent concerts – Much of the same—lots of good music, with some great contemporary music I had never heard before and, as always, it seems, Tchaikovsky. (Many in the Bilkent orchestra are from Russia). The April 3 concert was packed, since it was one of several memorial concerts honoring the founder of Bilkent, Ihsan Dogramaci, who passed away several weeks ago.

[We interrupt this narrative] – Congratulations to the UConn Husky women’s basketball team for winning their second consecutive NCAA Division I national championship, and achieving their second consecutive undefeated season (78 wins in a row!).

Lunch in Kugulu Park – Becoming a "lady who lunches," I joined Barbara in a nice park restaurant overlooking the swans in Kugulu Park in downtown Ankara. We had the best seat on the outside terrace overlooking the park.

Haircut with Ibraham– Taking a chance in getting a haircut with someone I didn’t know, I joined Meldan at what turned out to be a "salon of the stars." Turns out that this hairdresser does the hair of one of Turkey’s most famous Vegas-type performers, someone I see on Turkish TV constantly, and whose performance I do not care for at all. Nor do I like her hairdos, so I’m glad I didn’t know this before hand. For seven months I have been carrying around a photograph of my head after a U.S. haircut that I particularly liked, in order to show a Turkish hairdresser what type of haircut I would like. Naturally, I lost the photo the day before my appointment! So I was at his mercy, which turned out to be great. I now have the shortest haircut I’ve ever had. And it’s a terrific one! Thank you Ibraham.

Cocinella – Michael, our friend in Germany, was in town again to visit his wife, Serpil. This time we were able to meet both of them for dinner, as well as a student of Serpil’s, who also teaches Italian and works for the U.N. We all had delicious noodles and vegetables at a cute little bistro, whose name means "Lady Bug." Naturally, there were ladybug decorations everywhere. Of note is a tentative plan for all five of us to visit Italy this summer, with the student leading us on a tour of three cities: Rome, Florence, and Venice. Will it ever happen? Probably not. Sigh.

Muslim Funeral - On Saturday morning, April 10, Meldan called to tell us that Gulriz’s mother, Mama Ayse, had passed away (she was 99 years old). The funeral would begin at 1:00 p.m. that day at Kocatepe Mosque, the huge mosque in downtown Ankara. On a lovely, sunny day, we stood outside the mosque to pay our respects. As is customary, there were several individuals in coffins outside the mosque, each with many dozens of people paying their respects. As at a wake, we talked softly among ourselves, until the imam arrived for brief prayers. At this point the men stood in lines before the imam, the women in back, as the prayers were recited. This was hard for me, the Westerner, to take, but it is the custom here. Eventually, the coffins were carried off, the flowers were taken by street vendors to dismantle and sell on the streets, collections were offered for civic and charitable organizations, and we all left for the burial.

Driving through sections of Ankara I didn’t know existed, we eventually reached the huge graveyard, but had missed the graveside ceremony. Mama Ayse was buried on top of her mother’s remains in a grave tightly packed among thousands of others, with only about six inches between them. Unlike our western-style graves, these are coffin size structures that extend about three to four feet above the ground.

Another ride through yet more sections of Ankara unfamiliar to me eventually led us to the home of Gulriz’s sister. She had not attended either the mosque nor the graveside ceremony. Instead she prepared to receive visitors, hire another imam, and prepare food for us all. After a brief consoling visit in yet another Architectural Digest-type luxurious apartment, we sat through beautifully sung funeral prayers with, again, men separated from women. Although I brought a head scarf with me, I gave it to Meldan, who had forgotten hers. This left me as the only woman without a scarf. But I was not the only tradition breaker in that a few men chose to sit with the women, Larry included.

During this visit, I discovered that Ayse is not Gulriz’s mother’s name at all. I cannot remember (nor could I pronounce) her real name. Gulriz had teasingly called her mother "Ayse" because the word means "nanny." When her mom was being particularly controlling, Gulriz would call her "Ayse." The name stuck, not only with Gulriz, but with others as well.

Iranian dinner – One of Larry’s older students, Zahra, the mother of two adult children, invited us to her home for a delicious Iranian dinner—some of the best food I’ve had since arriving here. Most of the time at her apartment was spent listening to her experiences in Iran, where she had been jailed for a year as a pro-democracy protester in the early 1980s. She is currently a refugee in Turkey, while her husband still lives in Iran, but is free to travel between the two countries (the husband, not Zahra).

Native American Group "meeting" – Fifteen years ago, we attended informal meetings of individuals – mostly academics, but not exclusively – interested in studying and discussing Native Americans. Those meetings were social, with lots of good food, but eventually centered on fairly extensive discussions of specific aspects of Native American culture and/or history. Over the years the meetings got less and less frequent. But, as Larry and I will be leaving the country before long, a meeting was called, to be held at the second home of Bercin, a Hacettepe English literature professor, and a friend and neighbor of ours. It was questionable whether Gulriz, who founded the Dept. of American Literature and Culture at Hacettepe, as well as the American Studies Association of Turkey, would attend. It was the day after her mother’s funeral. In addition, she was in the midst of a ten day stay in the hospital—ostensibly to find out what is wrong with her, but in reality, a plan by her doctor (Burcin’s husband) to teach her how to take care of herself. She is diabetic, something she would not admit previously, and has other major lifestyle issues that are seriously affecting her health. Anyway, we were happy to see her at the meeting. This is a good sign that she did not fall apart after her mother’s death, as she had predicted she would. And she is walking a little better.

To make a long story shorter, the meeting consisted of five hours of eating, laughing and talking (mostly in Turkish, so I just smiled politely and pretended I could understand), with about ten minutes devoted to the token "meeting." Enough English was spoken to make it fun for me; these are very nice people who like to party.

Larry in Izmir, Ellen on the U.S. military base – While Larry flew in an out of Izmir, on the Aegean Sea, to give a talk about early American national documents, I spent the day with two American friends, shopping on the U.S. military base for stuff I couldn’t get anywhere else – like peanut butter – or things that were otherwise too expensive here in Turkey, like oregano, and an additional flash drive for my computer.

Beypazari – Our one out-of-Ankara journey was a day trip to a town about an hour outside Ankara, Beypazari. The word means market place of the "bey," or leader. This tour was "organized" by the Turkish American Association in Ankara. The word "organized" is in quotation marks because it is probably the least organized tour I’ve ever been on – very frustrating. Nonetheless, there were some good things about it. The weather, for example, was gorgeous. The town itself has a 3,000 year old history, being situated at a strategic point in the middle of the country, along the lucrative Silk Road. Today’s municipal leaders and conservation experts have been leading a successful effort to restore the hundreds of Ottoman homes and revitalize the market centers to make it a tourist destination. They have been remarkably successful. This was evident when, after only a few hours in the town, we noticed the streets fill up with thousands of visitors eager to buy jewelry, egg noodles, and cloth from the hundreds of vendors lining the street. Most of these visitors, according to our guide, are from Istanbul and Ankara. Although we had not planned on spending most of the day among shops (we would have preferred more cultural stuff), I was successful in finally finding some of the scarves I have been looking for since September and – finally! – some small gifts for my little girls and boy back home.

Some highlights of the Beypazari trip include the following: The Living Museum. An old Ottoman house has been turned into a museum highlighting the life of an Ottoman family, Turkish crafts and culture. People dressed in old Ottoman costumes greeted us in beautifully decorated rooms or, in one case, told us folk stories. One woman in particular told, and acted, a folk story about marital relations; although reflecting the patriarchal society I find so stultifying, the story was very funny, and effectively told.

In other rooms, craftsmen and women worked on their respective crafts, selling some products but also teaching people in artistic techniques. I tried my hand at Ebru, the Turkish paper marbling technique, creating a somewhat amateurish, but pretty, painting of three tulips representing me, Larry and Anna. My role in the creation was to hold the tools, while the teacher guided my hand, so I couldn’t go wrong.

On display in the museum, of course, was the building itself, with very elaborate hand embroidered cloth found decorating nearly every surface. One interesting note about the building was the way in which beggars were dealt with. When a beggar knocked on one of the house’s four doors – the one used only by beggars – a kitchen worker would put food into a closed "lazy Susan," and swing it around for the beggar to receive. The transaction was conducted in a way that the house door was never opened and the beggar and kitchen worker never saw each other. Interesting custom.

Another Beypazari highlight was the state subsidized craft education center, where craftspeople were trained in local artistic specialties. Beypazari is known for its silver filigree jewelry. Here, people are trained in silver work (where we saw very little ventilation in the workshops, alas), embroidery, wool dying techniques, kilim production, leather work, and other crafts. The items produced in the school workshops are sold in their onsite shops, with the proceeds donated to the poor. Our guide suggested that we could get more variety of silver products in town, so we didn’t buy from the school shop. This was before we knew the proceeds were donated to the poor--darn! As it turned out, the items sold in town were far too garish for my tastes; I wish I had bought something in the school.

When we were hungry, we accidentally stumbled into a restaurant that apparently has been featured several times on Turkish TV, it is so good. Despite the excellence of the food, and the beautiful way the frothy ayran was served (a yogurt drink), our ample delicious meal amounted to only about $6 each. Oh, that’s right, we’re no longer in Dublin.

I should have mentioned this first: we had an early morning panoramic view of the city from a large rocky outcropping and former fortress. There we were able to see why this was such an important stop on the old Silk Road. The town is situated in a wide valley, surrounded by hills that were likely created by extensive earthquake activity. The central hills are referred to as "dinosaurs" because from the vantage point of the centrally located fortress hill, they look like a family of dinosaurs marching down the long valley. I think this is one image I will always remember from this part of Turkey.

Finally, when we were tired of shopping – again, we did not realize this was mostly a shopping trip; hence our disappointment – we sat in a pretty park café, drinking tea, as we awaited our guide and our bus to take us to the Inozu Valley and then home.

The Inozu Valley is one of steep cliffs, with homes and churches carved into the soft volcanic rock, a little like Cappadoccia, which we will be visiting next week. Earlier in the day, we had driven through the valley, planning to have lunch there and, perhaps, a little walking around. But, since there was little agreement about where exactly to have lunch (the guide left too many decisions to us clueless passengers), we quickly left the valley and headed back to town, without even a brief stop to take photos of this impressive valley. We were promised a return trip later in the day. However, as we sat waiting for the bus in that pretty park café, a huge black cloud approached from the west. (Was it the evil ash cloud from Iceland? No, just a thunderstorm after what had been a beautiful, warm, sunny day). So, we missed out on the Inozu Valley and headed east, back to Ankara, just ahead of the oncoming rain.

Walking tour of Early Republic Ankara – Degil - Scheduled for Sunday, the day after Beypazari – this tour of early Republic buildings, led by the terrific archaeologist that had led the earlier Roman Ankara tour, was held without us. That rainstorm caught up with Ankara and, although the tour was still on, we didn’t want to take it in the rain. Naturally, not long after we made our early morning decision, the sun came out after all, but by then it was too late for us to catch up with the tour. So we’ll continue visits to the early Republic buildings on our own, supplementing the visits we’ve already made to the first parliamentary buildings.

Next trip: Antakya next weekend. Can’t wait.