Ataturk's Capital

Today we got down to business - no more the great open spaces of the steppes - now it's just the caverns of the mind.

I could reconsider the very fine presentations from our seminar - maybe I will (poor readers!) - but first a bit about Ankara.

Remind me to write to the guide book people (Fodors) who give this city a bad rap. It's a really nice place - tree lined streets, good nice shops, a living city - not a tourist place nor a hugely governmentalized capital. I could see it would be nice to live here.

Yesterday night we had a nice meal to welcome everyone to the seminar and we took a stroll around and about on our way back to the hotel. There is a nice up scale shopping area, and then also a student district (which is where we will likely head for some dinner tonight). It's a nice place which the guide books describe as something of a dusty and windswept prarie city...go figure.

Today started off with a quick lesson on Turkish. I can see why it's so good to study languages abroad - not only for the practice but mostly for the motivation. Our sessions take place at METU, a high end technical college here in Ankara. The campus is modern but beginning to look a bit dated - e.g. the defunct monorail system that once ran from the edge of campus to its center.

In the morning we had talks by METU Professors of Political Science and Sociology/Anthropology. Both talks were very informative - I get a much better sense (both of what I understand and what I do NOT understand) about Turkish politics and history. The first talk centered on Turkish national identity -covering the (rather hidden) origins of the Turks, but also some remarks about their sense of nationalism today. Some of the most recent issues (post 9/11) were particularly interesting - particularly the worsening of US/Turkish relations. After the Turks declined fly-over rights in the 2003 Iraq fight, there were some Turkish soldiers seized by Kurds in Northern Iraq (July 4, 2004), treated badly - and when the crisis was at its height they got absolutely no help from the US on this. I gather this has been the center of considerable ill feeling about the US here.

The second speaker talked about how easy it is to misunderstand ethnic divisions in Turkey. Different distinctions overlap, and it's a complicated and local matter to understand which disctinctions might be more important in a particular context. He strongly supports a governmental secularism, and worries that the US might find itself regretting that it supports anti-secularist parties here.

The current question hanging over all of this (and other talks as well) - is the fact that the Constitutional Court overturned a government law that allows women to wear headscarfs at colleges. The big issue is whether or not this indicates some movement towards a religious state or simply a kind of mild move towards religious freedom. It is serious business because it means that government could be outlawed and removed, the party disbanded, particular candidates banned - and as this is a fairly popular government (at least in some areas) - it could provoke a real crisis.

The other big issue that cuts acoss several of these talks is EU membership and a marked degree of resentment that several European nations - and France is often singled out here - are blocking this.

In the afternoon we got over to the national assembly to meet with a member of the parliament here. He answered a few questions - and we got to look around the outside of the Assembly building (our inside tour was cancelled because the parliament is having extra sessions these days).

So - the Turkish politial system is inscrutable, but I guess trying to explain our own system would not sound any more clear (and at least they do not have State governments in on the mix).

Accomodations here are nice - a magnificent sauna and a small pool downstairs makes for a particularly nice unwinding at the end of the day.

Most Remarkable Thing:

Sorry - the sessions really were good - but breakfast was amazing. Meat, cheeses, olives, eggs, bread, fruits I have never seen before - all in amazing variety and served up on a nice outdoor terrace. Between the breakfast and sauna this has become one of my favorite hotels.

Picture: No new pictures today (left the camera at the hotel) but here is a shot of out favorite carpet store in Istanbul, just to make things look pretty.