Tour Guide Sinan Tortum's Brochure About Turkey - Part II( Turkey As I Conceive It)
GECEKONDU
Gecekondu is something you see in the big cities. There has happened a comprehensive process of immigration from the smaller places to the big cities with the hope of better life conditions and better job opportunities.
Immıgrants find an empty space and build a house in a short time. These areas may previously have belonged to either the state or private persons. The people who build the gecekondus provide themselves with electricity in an illegal way. Gecekondu can directly be translated as “placed in one night” and can be described as the house, which is built on another person’s property in short time. Some of them are pulled down by the municipality. Some municipalities build house blocks for gecekondu inhabitants, get them to move to these places and offer them suitable conditions for buying the new house.
Gecokondu-residents have been considered by the politicians as an important source of votes; therefore the politicians have chosen to give compromises and legalize gecekondus to attract the votes of the gecekondu-residents.
The standards of the gecekondus are possibly better than the slum areas, for example, in South Africa and Latin America. Anyhow, in a country like Turkey aiming at European Union membership, gecekondus can not ( should not) continue to exist.
GEOGRAPHICAL REGIONS
Turkey comprises a total area of 780.567 square kilometers, and is divided in 7 geographical regions, of which 97 % lies in Asia and 3 % in Europe. They are divided by the Bosphorus Strait (Istanbul Boğazı), the Sea of Marmara and Dardanelle Strait (Çanakkale Boğazı). These geographical regions have no administrative connotations.
Turkey is surrounded by sea on three sides with a coastline of 8,720 km.
Ankara is the capital with 5-6 million inhabitants, while Istanbul with its 12 millions is the largest city. Izmir with 3 million inhabitants is the third largest city in Turkey.
HAMAM (TURKISH BATH)
Hamam offers a nice way to get rid of the old skin. It is a must for any tourist to visit. Try it if you do not have high blood pressure and breathing problems. In some hamams there are specific days for women.
Hamam visits are unfortunately a dying tradition for Turks. Previously it was a meeting/ socialization place. Many people did not have shower/ baths in their homes in the past. The bride together with the other women usually visits a hamam before the wedding , or if one is out on a journey then one can consider visiting a hamam. Hamam must not be confused with banyo.
Turkish hamam-sector is dominated by the owners and hamam-workers from Sivas and Tokat provinces.
HAREM
Harem is a designation for a section in the house reserved for women. The extreme example is found in Topkapı Palace in Istanbul. Except the sultan it was only the eunuchs who were allowed in the harem. Mustafa The Third is said to have ca. 120 children. Roxalane-the wife of Suleyman the Magnificant- was one of the most important personalities the harem created.
LIBRARIES, BOOKS AND TURKISH LITTERATURE
When you travel around in Turkey, you will see many mosques, which certainly has the function of meeting the personal religious needs. As for the personal cultural needs of the people, as we can see from the number and quality of the public libraries, it is far away from beeing satisfactory. When I compare the libraries in Turkey and Norway ( where I stayed for five years) even with a section with books in turkish, I can easily conclude that the public library services should be made better. It is a fact that the turkish nation is a speaking nation, rather than a reading nation; therefore the demand is not big by a majority of the people.
Books are usually not published in big number of copies. One can search for causes and reasons for this; we can point to amongst others the fact that printing in a large scale came to the ottoman empire quite late. Censoring and government control in the past may also be mentioned. The development of the turkish litterature has also been hindered by some factors.
Some leading turkish authors show themselves. The one who has become the most popular is the Nobel-prize winner Orhan Pamuk, with such novels as Istanbul and Kar ( Snow). He has a quite heavy and sophisticated language but his intricate language explains the details of the phenomena and places as sought for by the intellectuals. The second author we can mention is Yasar Kemal, whose novels were published in may languages. In contrast to Pamuk with the descriptions of the modern life, Kemal gives us mainly the description of the rural araes and rural life. As we can see in his book “Mehmet My Hawk”, he uses many paragraphs even for describing a small plant.
MARRIAGES
In the western parts of Turkey-especially in the cities, love marriage and marriage based on mutual agreement by the boy and girl are more common. Pre-arranged marriage is still common in the Eastern parts of the country, though there is an increasing tendency to ask the boy and girl their consent. Though on the way to be extinct, the practices where it is agreed in advance on whom to marry whom or where a widowed woman gets married to the brother of the deceased husband still continue.
In the rural areas marriage around the age of 20 for men and around the age of 18 for women is very common. In the urban areas and amongst the educated people, the age of marriage is getting higher.
Virginity is still important especially in the rural areas. Practice of living together without official marriage is not very common, but it is on an icrease.
Marriage is legalized through a marriage contract approved by a representative from the municipality. Some prefer to have an islamic marriage contract through the presence of an imam, as supplement. Marriage of homosexual couples is not an issue at the moment; but it is probable that in the future, as a result of European Union process, it may be legalized. Here, a general consensus by the people is needed; because of that some time is needed. Marriage between the members of different religions and sects is becoming more common.
Violence within the family is still a problem, as we can see cases made public by media. There are unfortunately also cases where the well-educated men apply violence on their wives.
MEDIA-RADIO, TV AND NEWSPAPERS
Radio was the most-spread means of getting news til the TV came to our daily lives. After the monopoly by the state was ended in late 80s, private radio channels emerged everywhere in Turkey. TV –broadcasting was to start with under the monopoly of the state with the state channel TRT. The broadcasting was in the start phase- late 60s / early 70s – limited to the big cities and short durations and on some of the week days. The coloured broadcasting and, some time after that, the private channels came into beeing in the 80s. We have such national channels as NTV, CNN Turk, TV 8 ( these are considered to be more “serious” with little of magazine programs) , Show TV , Star TV and state channels TRT1, TRT 2, TRT3,TRT4. Most of the turkish private channels are magazine-based with such programs as
“ Somebody is watching us” “ Will you marry me?”, “Will you be my daughter-in-law?” and “Survivor”. It is popular to get installed satellite TV; and such pay TVs as “Digiturk” and “League TV” ( for watching the matches of the three big clubs-Galatasaray, Fenerbahce and Besiktas) are also popular. As a result of the reforms, the state channel TRT has programs and news, though of short duration, in some languages spoken in Turkey –amongst others kurdish.
The newspapers with the biggest circulation are amongst others Hurriyet, Milliyet, Posta, Zaman. The price is at a level of 25 cent. Cumhuriyet is an old newspaper, which associates itself with the Ataturkist principles, though with a small circulation.
The media is controlled by big groups, which own radios, TV channels and nespapers and magazines. This leads to the criticism that the media is under the control of the cartels.
The state channel TRT have news in English. There are FEW main english newspapers in Turkey: Turkish Daily News, Anatolian News and Today’s Zaman.
MILITARY, MILITARY SERVICE
Turkey has been a loyal member of NATO since 50s. Opinion polls show that the military has been considered as one of the most reliable institutions in Turkey. This is perhaps because of the discipline the military has had. The military has expelled its few members, who have been involved in corruption cases.
The military has always represented the modernisation of the country. The military is represented in the National Security Council , which is still a dominant institution in the Turkish administrative and political system, though the council is defined as an advisory body.
The older generation of turkish men remember they had as so long military service as 36 months especially during the WW2. At the age of 20, turkish men are responsible for the military service. Those who have completed a university education of minimum 4 years, do it either as ordinary soldier for 6 months or as reserve officer for 12 months. Those who have resided and worked abroad for a minimum of 3 years are eligible for performing the military service for 1 month by paying a certain amount.
The socalled civil service, performing the military service without weapon and working at the state offices-hospitals etc., is not allowed at the moment. But, in the future, this may be a possibility.
The women can be officers and underofficers. No woman soldiers at the moment.
MONEY
From 1.Januar, 2005 Turkey has had a transition to the new money system with the new turkish lire (Yeni Türk Lirası = YTL). Six zeros were erased from the old amount ( Türk Lirası=TL ) and kurus of the old days came back to circulation as yeni kuruş (YKR). Here is a comparison of the old and new units:
Before Now
100 thousand TL 10 YKR
500 thousand TL 50 YKR
1 million TL 1 YTL
5 million TL 5 YTL
10 million TL 10 YTL
20 million TL 20 YTL
100 million TL 100 YTL
MOSQUES
The slim mosque tower from where people are called in to the prayer five times aday is called minaret ( minaret). The person doing this is called müezzin. Now, they uually use loudspeakers, rather than climbing the stairs to the minaret. Blue Mosque in İstanbul has six minarets. The balconies are called şerefe which interestingly means also “cheers”.
The apsidal( niche) section inside is called “mihrap” and the section with the stairs is called “minber”.
Blue Mosque in Istanbul
MOSQUITO
At the pharmacies or supermarkets you can buy a “mosquito machine”. The device is connected to a socket and tablets are placed on it. A tablet has an effect in 8-9 hours and is placed a couple of hours before sleeping time. Mosquito sprays are sold at the pharmacies. Malaria is almost eradicated.
MUNICIPAL BUSSES, SUBWAY AND TRAM
It is the municipalities which administer the busses and undertake passanger traffic within the city borders. The ticket prices are approximately 1½ YTL in the larger cities and a little less in smaller places. İstanbul has an extensive system with subway and tram. Ankara, İstanbul and Bursa have a relatively satisfactory subway, stil in a process of development. In Konya, Antalya and Eskisehir, there are tram systems.
NATIONAL DAYS
The most important national day is 29.October-The Republic Day ( on 29th October, 1923 Turkish Republic was founded), when all the nationalist feelings reach a climax. 23.April ( on 23rd April, 1920, The Turkish Parliament was summoned for the first time) is celebrated as Children’s Day. 30th August ( on 30. August, 1922, Turkish Liberation forces gave the final blow to the occupation forces) is celebrated as Victory Day and it is dominated by the military parades. 19. May ( on 19th May, 1919, Ataturk arrived by boat from İstanbul to the Black Sea town of Samsun, where he started the National Independence War.
Recently 18.March was declared as The Day of The Martyrs. On 18th March, 1915 the otoman turkish soldiers on the Gallipoli Penisnsula gave a blow to the warships of the allied forces.
NURSES
Beeing a nurse has required beeing a woman til recently. Now, the nurse schools are also admitting the men. This is a new phenomen for the turks.
PHARMACY
Pharmacy is eczane in turkish. In Turkey it is usual to buy many medicines without a prescription. It is the Chamber of Pharmacists, which coordinates the pharmacies. Based on the number of inhabitants there are one or more pharmacies, which are on duty to be open after normal working hours. Women are well-represented in this profession.
PHOTOGRAPHY
It is prohibited to take pictures of police, military areas and soldiers. People usually like that their photos are taken, but for the sake of security and for beeing kind it is best to ask for permission to do so.
POLITICAL PARTIES
There are around 30 parties- big and small- participating at the elections. We do not have as many old parties as in England or USA. This is because after the foundation of the Turkish Republic, no ottoman parties continued to exist, though the ideologies they represented may have been recreated in the turkish parties. Secondly, the military coups of 1960, 1971 and 1980 banned many parties. The oldest party of Turkey is CHP ( Republican People’s Party) which is at the same age with the republic ( Though it was also banned for a period after the coup of 1980).
CHP is the party associated with Ataturkist principles, but in the last ten years its votes varied between 9 % and 20 %. At the moment we have a one-party government with AKP ( Justice and Development Party) which got 34 % of the votes at the election 2002. AKP is a party which may be defined as a splinter party which was born from the islamic FP ( Virtue Party).
AKP, led by the prime minister Mr. Recep Tayip Erdogan, claims that it is a moderate party with islamic themes. It is very careful not to draw the attention of the juridical system, which are quite strict on islamic components within the system. AKP is a party of factions with different attitudes towards which influence islamic principles should have in the system. However, at the moment the core of the party is dominated by the people having the sympathy of Islam. It is natural that within a big party, there are factions/ groupings.
The military and some Ataturkist organizations are much concerned about the infiltration of AKP-cadres in the administrative system. There is worry that the country is step-by-step in islamization process. There is the complain that AKP has a hidden agenda. AKP, on the other hand, calls itself a conservative party and muslim democratic party. If we shall have an objective point of view, AKP seems to be a reflection/ counterpart of the Christian Democratic parties within an islamic context.
Besides AKP and CHP, MHP ( Nationalist Action Party) has a nationalist ideology; but they deny their heritage as “gray wolves”- criticized for many political murders before 1980. DYP ( True Path Party) - originally a conservative party with the rural areas as its stronghold-, the liberal ANAP
( Motherland Party)-the government party from 1983 to 1991, GP ( Young Party)- a party led by the businessman Mr. Cem Uzan try to enter into the parliament. The nationalist Kurds, organized at DTP
( Democratic Society Party) has so far not been able to exceed the 10% barrier. At the next elections they will seemingly try the method of sending independent candidates to the parliament. They may then have ca. 30 “independent” members in the nex parliament.
Rest of the parties have no chance to enter into the parliament, unless they form alliances or the barrier is lowered to 5-7% level as suggested by European Union. New formations may be realized. In the past, there was a Turkey Women’s Party. The turkish women organization KALDER demands that a certain quata should be given by the parties to the women at elections. Similarly there was in the past a Radical Party with the representation of the homesexuals. Such minorities as homesexuals may in the furure attempt at sending their representatives either through the existing parties or sending independent candidates.
There is much criticism againt the lack of democracy and leadership control within the turkish parties.
Sinan Tortum is the team leader of FELLOW GUIDES- a group of Turkish private tour guides with tour guide services in Izmir, Selcuk, Ephesus, Kusadasi, Istanbul, Cesme, Foca, Karaburun, Sigacik, Teos, Dikili, Pergamon, Ayvalik, Akcay, Pamukkale, Cappadocia ( Urgup, Goreme, Avanos), Antalya, Kemer, Side, Alanya, Bodrum, Marmaris, Didim and Urla in Turkey in English, German, French, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish and Polish.
We cooperate with the local agencies for tours in Izmir, Selcuk, Ephesus, Kusadasi, Istanbul, Cesme, Foca, Karaburun, Sigacik, Teos, Dikili, Pergamon, Ayvalik, Akcay, Pamukkale, Cappadocia ( Urgup, Goreme, Avanos), Antalya, Kemer, Side, Alanya, Bodrum, Marmaris, Didim and Urla. We offer private and group tours in Turkey.
Sinan Tortum is also team member of www.izmirtourism.com which is a modern, friendly and comprehensive website about Izmir ( Smyrna), Turkey.
Representative for Sun Dental Clinic in Balcova, Izmir, Turkey- Dental Treatment Services in Izmir Turkey