It is quite obvious in the ruins of Ephesus
the writing on structures is plainly
Hellenic, but Turk guides will say it’s
Latin, at the directive of their government.
Nevertheless, Hellenes will forever call
Istanbul Constantinople. No matter how many
centuries go by from the tragic 1920s, this
ancient race of Hellenes will be reminded of
what the man called Moustafa Kemal, who,
buoyed by the support of a Henry Morgenthau,
the American Jew representing the US as its
Ambassador, embarked on modernizing his
country, in the process changing the name of
the Majestic city on the Sea of Marmara,
from Constantinople to Istanbul. Of course,
anyone who can grasp the meaning of the new
name can snicker at Moustafa, agreeing on
the shortcomings of his education for
whether you call the city Constantinople or
Istanbul, it still is its name in Greek. The
answer lies in the fact that the latter name
is nothing but an abbreviation of its
original name, since Byzantines-and
subsequent Hellenes that thrived-up to
Kemal’s assumption of power amid the ruins
of the Ottoman Empire-referred to
Constantinoupolis or City of Constantine
as Poli for short. Now a Turk may not
call it Poli, since at that his country
utilized the Arabic Alphabet, this alphabet
lacking in vowels with the exception of the
‘a’ the ou, yi, representing the sounds ‘Alef’,
‘Wow’, and the ‘Yeh.’
So it stands to reason that they can only
pronounce that word as Puli, but since there
is no ‘P’ in the Arabic alphabet they used
up to that point, they would use the ‘F’ as
in Falasteen or Palestine-but they didn’t,
opting to use a ‘B’ instead, which would
phonetically make it Buli, or Bul. Now,
since their predecessors in the crossroads
of Asia and Europe-meaning the Byzantine
Hellenes- often would indicate they were
heading towards the Poli by saying ‘is tin
(also ‘is tan’) Poli and since early Turkish
(Arabic) alphabet lacked that reproduction,
(which even then I find less cumbersome
than their present one crammed with
ornaments used above and below the Latin
letters to achieve the sounds they desire,)
they decided on the ‘tan’ as opposed to the
‘tin’-more Spartan, you must admit- they
finally settled on the word Is-Tan-Bul,
which gave them the false comfort they had
moved away from the despised-to
them-language of the Greeks. Of course, it
is only a false comfort!
However, if anything would tick me off,
would be to have menus in the city’s
restaurants written besides Turkish, in
English, Russian, French, Italian, Dutch,
Arabic with the noticeable omission of
their next door neighbor’s language, Greek.
Istanbul, having been the
crossroads in trade between East and West in
days that it was carried out overland or by
sea, has recently become the crossroads for
multi-racial traffic-tourists and
otherwise-with a great number of them being
Chinese, Korean or Japanese. I encountered
an Australian lady at a small men’s clothing
shop near the Hilton Greentree in the center
of the old city on the European side, who
asked me if the price tag on a certain suit
was in Turkish Lire or Dollars. Dollars here
are still in great demand as opposed to
surrounding Balkan nations where the Euro is
king despite its perils. As I found out, a
popular guidebook and travel website, has
allowed readers to chime in on where
they want to go next year. And the
winner by a landslide was Turkey with 51% of
the vote among a list of 10 destinations as
strange as this may sound, including Paris,
Italy and Hawaii.
By the way, reportedly, many Russian
tourists who visited Turkey in 2011, have
complained about tout bus drivers having
exceeded the maximum speed limit and not
obeying traffic rules. Some twenty Russian
tourists have been killed as a result and
many more were injured in toad accidents
involving tour buses. After returning to
their homeland, most all called the Ministry
of Culture & Tourism to complain about
hardships during the trip to Turkey. The
Ministry fired off a warning to the Turkish
Association of Travel Agencies (TURSAB)
notifying the agency on the bus drivers,
which caused accidents, sometimes resulting
in deaths, and informing them of the
negativity Turkey created on Russian
travelers.
Traffic jams too are commonplace here and
extend beyond the traditional rush hour
time. In the Fatih section of the city, on
Ordu Cad (cad denoting a secondary road even
though a tramway runs across it and where
the Sultan Ahmet Camii (pronounced Jami, a
mosque)as well as higher learning facilities
are located, is a prime example, where car
traffic and tram traffic merge into one,
creating monumental impasses. This, after
all, is a commercial area, which runs across
the length of the old walled city, as winds
northeastern ward passing through Kapali
Carsi (Grand Bazaar,) a short distance
inland from Aghia Sophia, presently a
museum. Here one can find almost anything
one can think of, in a colorful setting of
banners, multicolored dresses and costumes,
diamonds and jewelry, leather and onyx
craft, and souvenirs galore, in short
everything but a device for coffee that
bears a Turkish name, for which they
referred me to Antalia, in southwest Turkey.
Speaking as I did of Aghia Sophia, the
Byzantine cathedral built originally by
Constantine the Great and greatly expanded
by subsequent emperor Justinian, is squeezed
between the Sultan Ahmet Camii, most widely
known as the Blue Mosque to the south, and
Topkapi Sarayi, (Topkapi Palace) to the
north, all by the water, facing the Asian
side of the city across the sea of Marmara.
East of these three monuments and facing the
Golden Horn, known today as Halic, are
lesser known mosques, such as Suleymaniyie
and Fatih Camii.
There’s little distinction between the
structures built by the Byzantines and the
Ottoman Turks who conquered them. The dome
is the main feature of all mosques, but
isn’t the dome the focal point of every
church built in the Byzantine style? Many of
the early churches have been turned to
mosques, which is also the original fate of
Aghia Sophia (the Holy Wisdom church,)
before international pressure forced the
Turkish Government to turn it into a museum,
after they erased some of their Arabesque
with which they had covered the precious
iconography of the post-iconoclastic period.
The only way one can tell if the mosque was
preceded by a church is to look for the
detail. The dome of a church is usually in
the center of a cruciform, that is, on all
four sides of it there are smaller domes in
the form of a cross. Let us also remind the
reader that had it not been for this
remarkable and outstanding house of worship,
the Russian hordes of that day would’ve gone
the way of Catholicism. Having sent envoys
to both the Vatican and Saint Sophia, the
Russian leader decided to go with Orthodoxy
when his representatives to the East
described Saint Sophia as the ‘closest thing
to heaven.’
Then again, this huge cathedral is
associated with many events of Orthodoxy and
Byzantine era Greece. For instance, it is a
fact that when the colossal center doors
made of heavy wood were opened for the first
time at the church’s inauguration, Emperor
Justinian stood between the exonarthex and
the church’s interior , himself awed at his
accomplishment, uttering the words in Greek:
“Nenikikasse Solomon” (“Solomon, I beat
you,”) a reference to Jerusalem’s Solomon
Temple. When Byzantine forces beat back the
enemies at its northern frontier, the
victory was attributed to the Virgin Mary
and the Akathistos Hymn vespers were
established on five consecutive Fridays,
with chants praising Christ’s mother with a
central theme as the Hymermacho (Defender)
chant.
One item which has been destroyed over the
years is the courtyard’s fountain with its
famous inscription which could be read from
both ends «ΝΙΨΟΝΑΝΟΜΗΜΑΤΑΜΗΜΟΝΑΝΟΨΙΝ,»
which translated means “Rinse away
transgressions, not only the face.”
Now one thing I do not wish you to think is
that you can reach this and any other
historic places with the greatest of ease.
Lines are long and you must be prepared for
a long wait. Whether it is Aghia Sophia,
Topkapi, the Blue Mosque or any other
monument, the wait is long but worth it. If
you have been to Topkapi before, be ready
for aa big surprise as everything on display
has been shifted around. Particularly if
you’re looking for the big diamond as it was
featured in the namesake movie, expect to
find it somewhere else, not that its new
position is more prominent than its old
nesting. But you’ll get a big thrill from
ogling the extensive acreage involved in
this Sultan’s Serayi (palace) with the
secluded area of its Harem and the Eunuchs
guarding his many wives concubines, away
from the indiscreet eye.
The Palace’s kitchen itself occupies the
entire length of the palace on the side
closest to the water. In one indoor spot, a
tree-like trunk has a deep and narrow hole,
which is associated with a Sultan who once
had a headache, and was healed by sticking
his finger in that opening. Just like the
opening where one can put his entire arm
across the coliseum in Rome, visitors can
try inserting their finger in this opening,
hoping for as blessing and a cure from your
headaches.
A pleasant surprise awaits you at the
northern exit of the palace, where a garden
undoubtedly belonging once to the palace has
now been transformed to a continuous row of
restaurants where you can dine in style and
al fresco, served by native costume-clad
women.
Believe what you wish from your guide, just
make sure you don’t fall for the fib that
Alexander the Great is buried somewhere in
the complex underground system of the city.
Don’t forget that in his day, Constantinople
was a tiny village of no consequence named
Vyzantion, (with a ‘V’) built by a Greek
general called Vyzas, from where the name of
the empire has derived.
Now if you crave for delicious fresh fish,
call one of the spots in restaurant row
across the Golden Horn (its Turkish name is
Halic) over the Galata Bridge. The
restaurants are located beneath a viaduct
resembling a bridge flush to the water, from
where a thousand fishing rods descend into
the water in the hope of a fat catch. The
problem for you though, is that your head is
right on the firing line if you wish,
meaning that as novice fishermen from above
cast their lines, may instead atch your hair
or clothing as opposed to fish. The trip and
the risk however is worth it. The service in
these little spots is great and the food
even better. Even the view across, at the
mouth of the Bosporus is gratifying with
yachts, cruise ships and local tourist boats
sailing back and forth creating huge waves
and great scenery. The stage is set at
night, when in the crisp, clear sky you can
view from a distance the combined image of
Aghia Sophia, Topkapi and Blue Mosque, lit
up in shimmering colors.
Florya, a district west of Istanbul’s
International airport is a residential one,
but not as quite as one world expect it to
be. Besides a park and a recreational center
on the main drag, both named after Moustafa
Kemal, there’s a plethora of restaurants and
nightclubs, all of which are doing very well
customer-wise. The strange thing however is
that this is also where most of the
automotive dealerships are located.
You’ll pick the restaurant of your
preference with great ease. The food is good
adhering to the mid-eastern cuisine, most of
which you’ll find in both Turkish and Greek
kitchens, with some of the Arabic thrown in
for good measure. One can visit a restaurant
here for multiple purposes, not only for a
meal. For instance, the waiter will not give
you a dirty look if you sat at one of his
tables and all you’re willing to order is a
shai, the tea served here in abundance since
it appears that Turkish coffee has gone out
of style. For that same shai, you can get a
set of backgammon to play with your friend
who also ordered just a tamarind drink. Most
popularly however, for those who will play
backgammon, is to order what they call a
Nargilee, widely called Hookah in Egypt and
other mid-Easter nations. It is an upright
sort of a bottle with a stem protruding on
one side, where a pipe-like device is
attached to its end. On the main body of the
bottle which is filled with water there’s a
holder circumventing its narrow neck, the
holder filled with small pieces of charcoal.
When a guest asks for this Nargilee, the
waiter will go and select one from a long
array resting on a shelf, and after
thoroughly cleaning the holder part, will
light up the charcoal. At this point it
becomes a long-drawn procedure of making
sure that the lit charcoal warms up the
water, which delivers through the pipe-like
apparatus a smoke, which the waiter tests as
if he were the one to use it. It takes
several attempts at fanning the charcoal as
well as taking in the smoke, before the
waiter can deliver it ready for use to the
customer, after he’s had his mouth on it for
a while. I guess the smoke cleanses any
germs hanging around the lip piece.
The visit to Florya served a good purpose,
since when arriving in Istanbul and looking
for a cab to take me to the Hilton- which is
one of several-but the Greentree being
located centrally but in some distance from
the arrival point, I had the misfortune of
getting one of these folks lurking on the
unsuspecting. The end result was that he
asked-and received- €50 for the fare, when
the total fare should have not exceeded 50
Turkish Lire. Now the total in Euros is
roughly three times what it should’ve cost
me, since the going rate for one Euro is
three Lire,
(you get two lire for the dollar.)
As I make my way towards Attaturk Airport
(named after the same man I called earlier
Moustafa) for my departure, I am paying
close attention to the signs ahead and above
me. They read Attaturk Havalimani, Hava
being the Turkish word for Air, but Limani
denoting Port, in none other than Greek
(from Limin-Limenos, colloquially Limani )
the language the Turkish Government loves to
distance itself from. To say the least, I
found it amusing.