Van - Gün 3

After two days of heart-wrenching, tear-inducing interviews with local women, we needed a break. The Doctor picked us up at 10am and took us site-seeing.

Van has quite a few things nearby to see, but we only had time for Van Castle and Akdamar Island.


One of our "guides." He followed behind me as I slipped and slided over the top of Van Castle. I'm pretty sure he thought I was a stupid tourist. 'Just living up to my name.

Sharon and Lisa didn't climb to the top. It was too steep/rocky/icy for them. They were right.


An Urartian Cuneiform Inscription
Van Castle was originally built by the Urartians and the Seljuk Turks built on top of it. The above cuneiform inscription was on the mountain wall leading to the tombs of the Urartian Kings.


Van Castle with Old Van to the right, below it
Above you see a photo of the Seljuk Van Castle, at the top of the mountain. To the right (at the bottom of the mountain) you can see the remains of Old Van (destroyed during WWI). There were so many dead scattered throughout, that they just covered the land with dirt and the whole area is a graveyard for both Turks and Armenians. There's two mosques undergoing restoration there.


A view of Van from the top
Appropriately, there was a metallic modern-looking Ataturk statue (and Turkish flag) at the top of Van Castle. But above you see a view of the edge of the city.


A Seljuk Gate
Our boy guides occupied themselves trying to throw snowballs through the window to the left.


As I was getting into the Doctor's car, I saw this girl collecting sticks, and waving dandelions at me.


A line of bakkal, a quick snack before continuing our trip
After Van Castle, we were on our way. No time for lunch, but we stopped for a snack break.

We saw the road turnoff for Iran, but instead we took the road along Van Lake, which is surrounded by these gorgeous mountains...and doesn't go to Iran. By the waterside men were selling fresh caught fish, and grilling them, too.


Akdamar Kilisesi
Akdamar Kilisesi: Above you see Akdamar Church (Church of the Holy Cross), it was built in 921 along with a palace and a monastery, but the church is all that remains today. Its walls are covered in reliefs of Armenian Crosses, and bits of stories from the Bible.

Nowadays, Akdamar Kilisesi is visited by tons of Armenian pilgrims during the summer. The Turks also consider it a great picnic spot (as evidenced by the group of teenagers that we shared the island with today). Unfortunately, the church is undergoing restoration, so we couldn't go inside to see the interior frescoes. They're apparently importing matching stone from a nearby town.


Akdamar Kilisesi
Akdamar: There's a story about how Akdamar island got its name. A long time ago, a religious man used to live on the island with his daughter, Tamara. She fell in love with a [shepard?] boy, but her father forbid her to see him. So, each night the boy would swim the 3km of Van Lake. Tamara would lead the boy to the safe part of the shore with a candle. Her father eventually found out and locked her in a house. He took the candle, and led the boy back and forth across the island until he could swim no more. Finally, he drowned and his last words were "Ah...Tamara!" Over time, his last words faded into "Akdamar."


A closeup of the reliefs on the walls


Around the church is a graveyard. Many people who have achieved 'saintliness' have been buried here. We even found a gravestone from the 1800s.


Boats in Lake Akdamar


The snow-capped mountains surrounding Lake Van


Akdamar Island as we left
To get to the island, you have to take a small passenger boat out. Our captain showed us a video of the "Van Canavarı", basically a creature of the Lochness Monster type, used to boost tourism.


Look familiar? Spotted on a car parked at the dinner/restaurant
We headed back to Van, stopping for a late lunch/dinner on the way. The Doctor finally let us pay for a meal! Afterwards, we went to a carpet shop and wasted the rest of the evening there, buying kilims. They're so much cheaper in the East!

Buying a carpet is an interesting thing. You sit there, haggling with the dealer, pretending not to be interested in what you really want, drinking çay, acting outraged at the given prices, saying "I'm a student!", etc. It's a very complicated process ;)

Van - Akşam Yemeği

I suggest you begin reading with "Van - Gün 1" below.
You should follow that up with "Van - Gün 2."
This post is the second half of gün 2.

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The woman with a degree in Milk & Milk Products picked us up from our hotel, and drove us over to the dentist's home. Since the Doctor wouldn't be with us to translate, they had brought along a woman who could speak English and Turkish very well.

Fazilet had been married to her husband at the age of 19. She had two boys and an 11 year old girl. Her husband did his Post-Doctoral work at a university in India. She taught herself English by starting with a grammar book, and then reading novels. Her favorites were medical dramas, and she'd always laugh at herself when she talked about this, or her favorite TV shows (Friends and ER).

When in the presence of men, she wore a black covering over her clothing, a black headscarf, and a black veil to cover her mouth/chin/neck. When we asked, she explained that she had chosen to wear this, and that her husband was okay with it, so she was allowed.

This was a very intelligent woman who had scored quite well on her university entrance exam. However, she was docked many points for graduating from a religious high school (Imam Hatip). Considering her choice in religious apparel, she would never be allowed to attend a Turkish University anyways. She would joke about convincing her husband to move to another country so she can get a degree (in English literature) wearing what she likes.

Basically, Fazilet was a delightful, intelligent woman who could understand our sarcastic, Western humor. Living in India gave her a better understanding of the world, and it showed especially when compared to the words of the other women.

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We arrived at the dentist's home, and were greeted by many women and the hostess's two daughters- an 11 year old and a 5 year old. We were told that the younger, Esra, "is special because her mother had trouble conceiving, so she had a baby from a test tube."

We took off our shoes and put on house shoes, and were lead to the dinner table. The apartment was huge and very nice. Wood furniture, Arabic decorations, a large kitchen. Interestingly, we ate dinner with Fazilet (acting as translator) and two other women while the hostess and the rest of the women ate in the kitchen.

The food was delicious- red soup with thin noodle/rice like things in it. Good bread rolls. I could taste the grape-y-ness of the sarma (stuffed grape leaves). Hot ayran soup with "grasses" in it (so tasty). Bite-sized lamb with pilav (rice). A diluted ayran, cucumber, and garlic soup served cold. A finale of two pieces of baklava.

Religion
After dinner, Sharon, Lisa, and I sat in the parlor with the rest of the women and we began discussing religion. Lisa's atheism and my lack of belief in organized religon sort of threw the women off, so they preferred to talk to Sharon, our religious studies major and a Catholic. Every moral and lesson from the Qur'an that they told us could be found in the Bible (and most religious texts, I assume), so we quickly grew tired of the discussion.

I'm not sure they understood how similar Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are.

Then, the women described some conspiracy theory about 5,000 Jews leaving the Twin Towers before they were attacked. Sharon's response was, "Well, I guess they really are the chosen people." I think that ended the religious discussion. We're Americans. We're stubborn. We're not going to jump ships just because you think it's best.

Headscarves
One of the most vocal women began telling us how wearing the headscarf would help preserve the family, because it would prevent men from lusting (although, I'm of the opinion that it makes men lust more. I mean, when the sight of a woman's wrist turns you on, something's wrong). When we commented that women could be lustful of men, she just said that men were more lustful. I don't think we ever brought up the man-man or woman-woman lustfulness. I'm not sure of Islam's stance on homosexuality.

Personally, I think if all of us wore sheets over our head it would solve all our sexuality/infidelity problems. *sigh*

Little Girls
Meanwhile, I conversed with the two 11 year old girls next to me. Their English was a little better than my Turkish, so we could communicate somewhat adequately. I asked Fazilet's daughter if she planned on wearing a headscarf when she was older. She told me, "Maybe, but not black." I agreed- the colorful scarves were much prettier than the all black.

Then she asked me if I believed in Santa Claus. Since she was at the ripe old age of 11, I decided it was safe to tell her I did not. She said she liked the idea of presents. She had heard of the tooth fairy in India, but when I explained the Easter Bunny, she thought it was pretty ridiculous.

A set of nested tables were taken out, and glasses of çay were brought out for everyone. Plates of fruit with a banana, orange, clementine, and apple soon followed. I spent the rest of the evening determining the Turkish words for the fruit and the bowl of mixed nuts given to me.

Divorce Rate
They brought up the fact that America has a 50% divorce rate and interpreted that as meaning that our country was full of unhappy families. They followed that argument with how divorce is bad, since the children turn to drugs and alcohol to cure their divorce-induced depression. So, while Turkey has a low divorce rate there's a larger number of women being physically and verbally abused- not our idea of a happy family. It was difficult to explain that a low divorce rate doesn't mean your families are happier.

I think this was the first time my opinion was accepted as equivalent to an adult's. It only took 20.3 years.

Drugs in the Suburbs
Meanwhile, the Turkish women discussed the problem of drugs in the American suburbs. Apparently, this one woman believed the American movies and that the suburbs were just riddled with alcohol and drugs. Having grown up in suburbia, I'm pretty sure that's not entirely true. It was interesting that she believed the movies, though.

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What left the greatest impression on me was these women's complete naivety. But if ten college-educated Turkish women can hold beliefs I think are totally ridiculous, then I must have an equal number of absurd ideas. Easter Bunny, anyone?

Van - Gün 2

I sat across from a 20 year old Kurdish woman who had been raped when she was 17. Her parents forced her to marry her rapist. Her first child had been stillborn, and she hoped this second one survived, so maybe her husband would treat her better.


The mothers satying at the Anne Oteli (by Lisa Holliday)
The Anne Oteli (Mother Hotel) of Yüzüncü Yıl University Hospital was a bit eye-opening. It was a group of about 13 mothers who had sick babies in the neonatology division. Maybe 4 of them had husbands who were employed. All but one was Kurdish. Most of them were married to a relative. All of them have legal, civil marriages. Most of them were abused (physically, verbally) by both their husband and their in-laws.

Sharon asked [the above] background questions, about their hopes for their daughters and other topics. It's really sad to see Islam perverted like it is in the "traditional" areas. It's even sadder to see these women accepting it. They don't know anything else. The whole traditional family-structure ensures the perpetuation of this.


Photo by Lisa Holliday

Anne Oteli nurses by Lisa Holliday
Kurdish background: Wikipedia says that the Kurdish people are the largest ethnic group without their own country. The Kurds in Turkey are located mainly in the southeast. For awhile, the Turkish government forced many Kurdish families to migrate to cities, forbid the teaching of the Kurdish language, and various other civil rights abuses. On the other hand, there is a Kurdish military organization called the PKK (Kurdish Worker's Party), that have been known to commit various terrorist acts- bombings of tourist areas and bombings in southeast Turkish cities (Diyarbakır comes to mind). Things have quieted down recently, or at least since July.


Photo by Lisa Holliday
Then, a sad walk through the sick-children's section of the hopsital, but the mothers weren't shy of the camera.

Photo by Lisa Holliday

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Next was the "Hand-in-hand Women's Association" run through a woman lawyer's office. This was a new organization, and we met with 6 Turkish women from the group. They didn't really seem to have a focus yet- they "supported" some children in orphanages, they helped 25 local women make jam, etc. But what really got riled up was the mention of "headscarves." They assured us it was not their main focus, but every question we asked seemed to end up back at the headscarf issue.

Headscarf Issue Background: When the new Republic of Turkey was formed (somewhere around the 1930s), Muslim religious attire became banned in order to ensure the "secular image" of the country. Nowadays the problem arises mainly with women who wear headscarves. Women can't wear headscarves to university; women who wear headscarves aren't allowed to work for the government (or many other occupations); headscarved women married to professors can't live on campus; school entrance exams can't be taken while wearing a headscarf.

Recently, the EU Human Rights court recently ruled in favor of Turkey's headscarf ban. The ban is more or less a backhanded way to oppress women.

All the women of this group we talked to were headscarved, and all of them educated at university. Many of them had to remove their headscarf to get their education (like I see girls here at ODTÜ do). Once they graduated, they either couldn't find jobs, or were fired once they had one. A young lawyer could wear her headscarf most of the time, but had to remove it when she was in the courtroom.

When we asked them what they were doing to change this, they just asked, "What can we do?", citing the EU Human Rights court ruling. They look toward Turkey's EU accession as a means of fixing all of Turkey's problems, but it won't fix this one. And protesting would only have them thrown into jail for an undeterminable amount of time.

A sidenote on Turkish law: The 'lawyer' occupation is not anywhere near as respected in Turkey as it is in the United States. It doesn't pay well. Additionally, I think most of law school involves memorizing Turkish law, rather than arguing Turkish law.

After several hours of talking with the group, Sharon's video camera ran out of battery power, and we arranged to have dinner at one of the women's homes.

By the end of our discussion, I had drank 6 çay. The caffeine was running through my system so quickly, I couldn't keep my hands still.

Van - Gün 1

Van, a modern Turkish city
We were headed to Van, to start filming Sharon's documentary. She received a small grant to do research on "The Affect of Islam on Women's Rights in Turkey."


A mountain peaking into the city
So, Lisa, Sharon, and I showed up in Van around noon (only a 2 hour plane ride...or a 21 hour bus ride) and checked into the Büyük Asur Oteli. Old Van had been destroyed after a fight with the Armenians during WWI, and the new Van was established 3km from that site. It is sort of dirty, with approximately a 30% unemplyment rate. Throughout the town were road signs for Iran. We were maybe 6 hours from the border.

In an hour we were off with our guide, the Chief of the Neonatology Division at Yüzüncü Yıl University Hospital. He was the colleague of a Van pediatrist who was the friend of a doctor in Ankara, who was boyhood friends with a client of Sharon's husband. Complicated.


Zoza, by Lisa Holliday
First, we talked to an enthusiastic woman, Zoza, from the Van Kadın Derneği. The next day was the kick off to the group's "anti-violence" campaign. Zoza exemplified a modernized Turkish/Kurdish woman in every way: she was from a tribe, educated as an accountant in Northern Cyprus. She had gone through a divorce which her family had supported and was now in Van, as the only English speaker of her woman's group (and a writer for the Flying Broom, a group that connects Turkish women's organizations).

We set up the video camera and she talked for hours. We went through many rounds of çay as she recalled various stories from the group's past: Lawyers who ask young girls why they married at the age of 13; Women who couldn't leave an abusive husband without legal help; In-laws pushing wives into open ovens; Illegal marriages performed by Imams; Families forcing a girl to marry her rapist; Mothers not allowing their daughters to attend school; Religious-approved temporary marriages; Honor killings; Marriages to relatives; and too many other atrocities.

Of course, it's easy to assume this active feminist was exaggerating to make a point, but that's what tomorrow is for...

Zoza's group was very active. They held meetings with other Van women's organizations, coordinated events in neighboring villages and cities, gave legal help, and held job training/placement workshops.


We ate dinner at the Van Kadın Derneği's all-female run restaurant. It was the first time a waitress delivered our food. Female chefs, too. Traditional Turkish food. The Doctor bought a doll with clothing sewn by local women for his 2 month old daughter.

Hafta Sonu

Okay, two weeks without a trip somewhere. I'm on the move again.


Above you see places where I've spent the night and walked around a bit (red) and places where I've only walked around a bit (purple). The yellow is my adventure this weekend. To Eastern Turkey. Very Eastern.

Oh, and Happy Turkey Day...from Türkiye.

Nazar Boncuk

A nazar boncuk
The "Evil Eye" supsicion is common amongst many cultures; pulcinella is a Neapolitan way to ward off the Evil Eye and there's usog in the Philippines. The basic premise is that someone's jealous or harmful (or evil) eye can do harm when it gazes upon you. In Turkey, the Nazar Boncuk is used to ward off the Evil Eye, and protect against its harms. I would think it was just a tourism gimmick, but I see these blue glass eyes everywhere- laid in sidewalks, hanging from car mirrors, and behind office desks.

Kar

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that is snow...and with it, comes ice on all the stairs spread throughout METU's gloriously un-handicapped campus.