Report on Southeastern Turkey: Part One
Gaziantep and Urfa
By: Zeren Earls - Jul 20, 2008
During my semi-annual visit to Istanbul in May, I located on the internet a three-day domestic tour of Southeastern Turkey on the occasion of the national holiday on May 19, which commemorates the beginning of War of Independence. Delighted with the opportunity to go to a part of the country mostly new to me I quickly signed up. My sister joined me on the tour.
Our flight from Istanbul to Adana took an hour and fifteen minutes. Adana is Turkey's fourth largest city and serves as a gateway to Southeastern Turkey. It sits between the Taurus Mountains and the Mediterranean Sea and is known for its fertile meadows, its citrus groves and the Incirlik air force base. From Adana we traveled by minibus to Gaziantep, formerly Aintab, near the Euphrates. In recognition of the city's year-long heroic defense against French forces in 1920, the Turkish Grand National Assembly bestowed it with the title gazi, meaning "veteran", in 1921. Thus the name Gaziantep was born.
The highway between Adana and Gaziantep is a 90-minute ride with an occasional glimpse of oleander fields, passages through numerous mountain tunnels and a sighting of a 13th-century bridge consisting of fourteen arches over the Seyhan River. As we approached Gaziantep, we passed by a village full of cherry orchards and entered the city through its two-arched portal. In hindsight we realized that, had we flown directly to Gaziantep, we would have gained time for sightseeing in this fascinating city.
Gaziantep
On the ancient Silk Road between China and Antioch, Gaziantep is Turkey's sixth largest city, with a population of 1.2 million. One of Anatolia's earliest cities, it is now a major center for industry and medicine. It exports metal, chemical and food products as well as textiles. Its hospitals serve patients from Iran and Syria. It is also a city of Greek, Roman and Byzantine antiquities, Seljuk and Ottoman architecture, unique handcrafts and local cuisine. Its famed pistachio nuts and baklava travel the world.
Our first stop was at Cagdas for lunch. Catering both to locals and tourists, the restaurant is famous for its lahmacun and for its variety of kebabs and sweets. New to me was the "carrot baklava", named after the vegetable because of its long shape. The delicious dessert was a reminder that, traveling in Turkey one leaves one's diet at home. Then we strolled through the Long Market packed with big sacs of herbs and spices, dried fruits and nuts. The market has a maze of alleys designated for copperware, woodcraft, slippers, textiles etc.
The Gaziantep Museum is a treasure trove of artifacts excavated from the region. The recent Zeugma excavations have given the museum the designation of second greatest collection of Roman mosaics in the world after the one in Tunisia. The size of the collection is due to discoveries during the Southeastern Anatolia Project, a system of thirteen separate construction plans which provide hydroelectric power to and irrigate over four million acres of land in the Euphrates-Tigris valleys. Before rising waters claimed them, the frescoes and mosaics of two Roman villas dating back to the 1st century AD were relocated to the Gaziantep Museum. Also discovered in a clay quarry during dam construction was a large Bronze Age cemetery revealing 8000 pottery vessels in 320 graves. The world's largest bulla (seal imprint) collection, with 65,000 pieces, is in this museum.
Urfa
On the way to Urfa we stopped at Birecik, the site of one of the dams, but also a bird sanctuary on the migration route of black ibis. Birdhouses dotted the side of a cliff to attract the migrating birds. The glossy black ibises with long curved bills were a delightful sight. Our group of seven continued on to Urfa on a super-highway.
Urfa's settlement history goes back to the Neolithic Age. However, it is in the second millennium BC that it flourished as the Sumerian city of Ur. It is the biblical birthplace of Abraham and is also known as the City of Prophets. It is here that the prophets Jethro, St. George and Hiob are said to have lived. In the twelfth century the Crusaders held the area for fifty years and built a citadel. Some of the current population of 480,000 people are native Arabs and Kurds. In recognition of the valor of local resistance forces against the British and the French in 1920, the city was renamed Sanliurfa by adding the title sanli, meaning "glorious". It is simply known as Urfa in daily language.
Abraham is said to have been born in a cave. People travel long distances to visit his birth place. Men and women go through separate doors to enter the respective prayer chambers. Women must have a head cover and clothing with sleeves. The cave is by a pool surrounded by a religious complex and attractive gardens. Hundreds of plump carp frantically devour bread thrown by visitors in the pool, fed by a spring at the foot of the citadel. According to legend, King Nimrod, who ruled over Urfa, had Abraham immolated on a funeral pyre for destroying crosses, but God turned the fire into water and the burning logs into carp. So the carp is considered sacred and feeding it a holy act.
The legendary local pepper Isot is unique to Urfa cuisine. Ground hot peppers come in different shades of color and intensity based on the recipe and are sold in specialty shops. We visited the Isot Evi (House of Isot), with chains of dried red peppers looped around the shop giving it a festive look. Big bags of ground peppers ranging from almost black to light red sat on the floor. Each bag was labeled differently, for example for meat balls or dishes with sauce etc. The group stocked up on a variety of peppers, sold by the kilo or gram, to take back to Istanbul.
Urfa's bustling ancient bazaar is a cross-section of life in the city. An overwhelming feast for the eye, the typically Eastern bazaar is crammed with small shops of copper workers, tobacco vendors and fabric stalls. Heaps of silk or polyester, mostly imported from across the border from Syria and therefore cheaper, beckon women, who buy the fabrics as head covers. I bought a square piece of local black silk with a colorful swirling pattern from a vendor who spoke Turkish to me and Arabic to his assistants.
Centrally located Hotel Arte is where we stayed overnight. Dinner was at Beyzade Konak Hotel, a former Ottoman home, where we attended its Sira Gecesi. This is a local custom where men take turns entertaining each other over food and music in their homes. Our dinner featured patlican kebab (lamb with eggplant) and cig kofte (meatballs made by kneading ground lamb seasoned with isot for a very long time). The latter are eaten uncooked and are usually served as an appetizer. Since this was an evening for tourists and the preparation of the appetizer was part of the program, we sampled it as a second course. Sillik (walnut pastry ) preceded the final course of crepes with pistachios. The entertainment included songs by a young male folksinger, who was accompanied by local musicians, dancing and a henna ceremony.
On our way out of town the following morning we stopped at Prophet Eyup's holy fountain, erected near a well, where the prophet is said to have miraculously recovered from leprosy by drinking the water. The faithful lined up to peer at the well and touch their foreheads to it, as well as to drink from the fountain.
On the road to Mardin we drove through areas around Urfa affected by the new damn. The dry valleys of Upper Mesopotamia between the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers are turning green.