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İstanbul, 7 August, 1998
 It was
with a mixture, in equal parts, of panic and delight that I first reacted when asked
to write this piece. Panic; because GAP being a very complex subject, one feels that
it is better if it is left to the expert. Delight; because, the short visit which
I paid to the area during the New Year's holidays in 1997 was among the most rewarding
of all my travels in the emotional richness brought by the experience of it: Going
through the journals of this trip will mean rememberance and enjoyment of its many
pleasures yet once again...
Thursday, January 2nd, 1997
 Maps
show that a trip to Atatürk Dam from Adana should pass through Gaziantep first
and then through Şanlıurfa: As a matter of fact, a really focused visitor could
actually manage this on a single day, but probably missing the point of it all. We
start off at about 10:30 in the morning with only Gaziantep as our destination. The
weather is absolutely wonderful, we savor the fact of being in our shirt sleeves
at a time which should be the dead of winter. We arrive in Gaziantep a little past
lunch time and head directly for the Mazıcıoğlu restaurant recommended to
us by our hotel.
Our
love of Gaziantep food began in İstanbul, after a chance visit some years ago to
Nezih Restaurant, owned and operated by that very nice Hakkı Öztürk, a
true son of Gaziantep. The cuisine of southeastern Turkey is highly typical and uniform
with slight variations depending on the location. Gaziantep, however, is where it
is at its best, with influences from all directions, very rich with recipes of dishes
from many races that made southeast Anatolia their home. In Gaziantep cuisine, in
addition to many sorts of kebabs, there are many soups, casseroles, stuffed or plain
vegetable dishes and many interesting salads. Hakkı bey always uses very fresh and
authentic ingredients and the large baker's oven in the center of the restaurant
turns out piping hot sesami breads (semsek) and lahmacun (pizzas) varieties almost
non-stop, filling the restaurant and its garden with delicious aromas. The area has
a number of good cheeses and a mozzarella-like Yörük cheese, produced by
the Turkoman nomads, low in salt, is eaten with thick olive oil and freshly cut sprigs
of tarragon and is particularly good. December and January are also the months for
keme, a sort of truffle particular to the countryside around Gaziantep. These resemble
the white Italian variety rather than the black ones of Perigord and they are delicious
both cooked and raw. Nezih serves them grilled as part of a kebab dish and also as
a casserole eaten hot. Various pistachio filled baklava, the famous dessert made
with chiffon thin layers of yufka (filo pastry) or the superb katmer, made freshly
for every order, are the perfect ways to end a meal. The künefe, however, an
ancient recipe, is really the epitome of the southeastern Anatolian cuisine, in the
way it brings the wheat of the farmers, the cheese and butter of the nomads together
with the white sugar contributed by the merchant classes. Our meal at Mazicioğlu
does not disappoint and our kindly waiter compliments us for our obvious expertise
about the region's food...
Situated
at an intersection of main roads connecting Mesopotamia, the Mediterranean, the Black
Sea and the Caucasus and Persia, Gaziantep and its environs had been inhabited since
the neolithic times (10,000 B.C.) An important stop-over on the Silk Road, Antep
reached the height of its prosperity during the 16th and 17th centuries. Evliya Çelebi,
the famous Ottoman traveler and chronicler, who visited the city in 1671, reported
that nearly 25,000 people lived in Antep at the time and that it had a large and
very richly stocked covered bazaar.
It was
during the Turkish War of Independence that Antep has experienced its worst wrecking
and fires since the Mongol invasion in the 13th century: Here, the civilian population
of Antep fought, unaided, a fierce war of resistance against the French who occupied
the region between November 1919 until April 1921. Nearly 7, 000 Antep men died during
this struggle and the city was awarded its epiteth of Gazi, in recognition for its
people's bravery.
From
an architectural point of view, however, Gaziantep does not appear to have recovered
from the destruction experienced during this episode. A rather ordinary looking provincial
city with ugly new buildings greets one upon arrival and several "Organized Industrial
Zones" accompanied by shanty towns complete the look. The bazaar, too, is a bit of
a disappointment: I was keen to buy a few copperware bowls and yet, most of the shops
in the coppersmiths' section only sell mass produced aluminum pans and plastic bowls
instead.The bazaar gets slightly more interesting where dry goods and foodstuffs
are sold: Sackfuls of pistachio nuts in various stages of dryness and processing
make a lovely, colorful display and my daughter has great fun watching two workers
in a small shop produce kadayıf, those strands of semi-cooked pancake mix, chief
ingredient in a dessert known by the same name and, of course, in the famous künefe.
It is
as we prepare to leave the bazaar through the coppersmiths' section that someone
touches my husband's shoulder, asking whether we still wanted to see some copperware.
We follow İsmail the copper merchant into his small shop in the outer corner of the
bazaar: It is really an Aladin's cave in miniature, with many original pieces in
good condition and plenty of tastefully made reproductions. İsmail says that the
Yörüks, the Turkoman nomads, sell or exchange for aluminum or plastic goods,
their used copper goods: So, after all, the merchants in the bazaar were responding
to a popular demand! We buy some very nice bowls (made of copper!) and some giant
sized old keys made of iron.
The
Gaziantep Museum of Archeology has an unpromising exterior, but, inside, it turns
out to be very well stocked with relics from all the periods of the city's past.
Proofs of ancient and advanced civilizations which are only recently coming to light,
it is a very special thrill to see these artifacts in a local museum, located only
a stone's throw away from their place of actual discovery and origin. There are a
number of important historical sights in the area between Adana and Gaziantep, many
of them containing larger relics that cannot be seen in a museum. With our decision
to visit the Atatürk Dam still intact, we decide to indulge in time-travel for
one more day. We feel that tomorrow's selected destinations, Karatepe and Yesemek
will bring a deeper appreciation of the magic of southeastern Anatolia.
Friday, January 3rd, 1997
We wake
early, still feeling a little tired after yesterday's tour which was also very stimulating.
My daughter wants to sleep longer saying she is too tired but agrees to get up if
we promise to include a climb to the Yılankalesi into the day's program. We ignore
the curious logic and make a deal and go out into another lovely, warm and sunny
day.
Yılankalesi:
It is known that some leaders of the latter day Crusaders began to take a more permanent
interest in Anatolia, and that some self-appointed "counts" established themselves
as rulers both in Urfa and in Antioch around the early 12th century. These new counts
kept in touch with each other and kept an eye on local developments by way of a network
of staging posts in the area, in the form of strategically located hill-top castles
and Yılankalesi is one such castle. Its citadel has a breath-taking vista of 360
degrees over the surrounding Ceyhan plain and it is well positioned to send and receive
fire signals from the other castles in the area. As they left, the Crusader knights
turned over Yılankalesi to local Armenian monks and eventually the castle became
an Ottoman property following its capture in the 12th century by forces commanded
by the Ramazanoğlu family, a prominent name in Adana even today.
Ascent
to the castle is by foot only and the stunning views of the river and the plains
below make time fly. Warm, sunny weather, the gentle breeze and the absolute silence
make one wish to stay on, but we have other calls to make. On the way down, my daughter
occasionally turns to check whether any snakes are following her (Yılankalesi=The
Snake Castle/Fort): There is none to be seen, but there are a number of large lizards,
quickly disappearing into the stonework as soon as they feel that you saw them.
Karatepe:
For any traveler to this area, Karatepe is a must. Situated on a small wooded hilltop
with views over the silent waters of the Ceyhan Dam lake, Karatepe was the location
of the splendid summer residence of the good King Asitawatas of the city of Adanawa
during the 8th century B.C. Among the displays in the museum is a masterfully written
account of his reign: Here, Asatiwatas expresses satisfaction that his time was one
of peace and plenty but explains that this was only made possible by the destruction
or subjugation of his city's enemies. Asatiwatas seems to have been an early subscriber
to the maxim of heaven being possible only under the shadow of the swords. It is
a pity that he was too focused on the ‘sea people' who usually attacked from the
north and the west: It was a much older enemy from the south, the Assyrians, that
brought an end to the wonderful city he had created between the two rivers.
Until
fairly recently, there was not any great motivation to learn more about the history
of Anatolia, because of Anatolia's low image as a cultural back-water, a secondary
and even a second-rate recipient of imported ancient Greek and Hellenistic civilizations,
without a significant indigenous culture of its own. It is now known that the Hittites
from 16th century B.C. onwards had created a much earlier and a very advanced and
original material civilization and that they were very sophisticated legal and political
thinkers. Their civilization lived on in the smaller city states that were established
after the destruction of the larger Kingdom and the kingdom of Adanawa of Asatiwatas
was one of them. As a student deeply interested in history, I now blushingly remember
that even I wasn't all ears when our good Professor, the late Bahadır Alkım, talked
to us about the ancient Anatolian civilizations. Thus, it was very moving to see
his name as a major contributor in the team who unearthed the summer residence in
Karatepe and started a whole new chapter in the study of ancient history by first
deciphering the writings left by Asatiwatas and his courtiers.
Yesemek:
After a late and hurried lunch in Gaziantep, we are back on the road to find the
Yesemek Open Air Museum which was a sculpture and stone decorations workshop that
provided sculptures to Hittite palaces and temples for seven hundred years. The road
to Yesemek is not properly sign-posted and we get lost a few times. The inordinately
pretty village of Yesemek greets us suddenly, just as we are about to lose hope and
give up. We enter the ancient ‘factory' shortly before dark. There are several hundred
pieces of unfinished basalt sculptures at various stages of progress, the place has
a very eerie feel. It is as though the ancient Hurri masons and carvers broke for
the day, only to be back the next morning. Yesemek appears to be still rich with
basalt, many land plots and villagers' garden walls are made with basalt pieces held
together with red-brown mud. The friendly and very lonely caretaker of the museum
insists to show us around, giving post-cards to my daughter as farewell gifts...
Saturday, January 4th, 1997
 Feelings
of regret of having only one day to spare for a visit that includes Şanlıurfa
fills our hearts as we prepare to start our last and longest day in the region. The
Atatürk Dam remains our chief destination but after the last two days we spent
wandering on the roads of a countryside which is so full of history, we feel that
we must see at least some of Urfa and Harran, too. We let our hotel provide some
packed lunch and set off purposefully with a decision of no stop overs before Urfa.
In the fuel station near Gaziantep, however, it transpires that neither of us remembered
to take our credit cards along and the amount of cash we have between us is less
than the cost of gas we would need even if we returned to Adana right away. We drive
into the busy Saturday morning traffic of the Gaziantep town center, feel a sense
of relief that the sign on the door of the local branch of our bank says that they
will be open between 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. on this day. We sulk quietly in the
car, it feels a total, complete shame to waste such a morning just waiting. A bank
clerk arriving earlier than the stated time puts us out of our misery by informing
us that the bank will not be doing any regular business today as their year end stock
count is still in progress... Just as a good row on whose fault all this was is about
to begin, our silent brainstorm comes up with the best, and the most obvious, answer
to our problem. Who else is there in Gaziantep that can help us but our friend Ismail
the copper merchant? İsmail's shop is closed but he is quickly found by his neighbors
and within half an hour, we are back on the road to Urfa, fortified with generous
funds provided by İsmail, who kept insisting we should take that little bit more
than what we originally asked for, "just in case something happens". Parting from
a sizable sum of hard earned cash, he wouldn't hear of any guarantees, says he just
knows that he can trust us and that his reward is in the knowledge of having helped
a traveler in hardship. This was a most touching example of hospitality culture,
the memory of İsmail's kind, smiling face will always stay with us.
As we
approach Şanlıurfa, the weather begins to change, it feels colder although
the temperatures are the same as Gaziantep. This is because of higher levels of humidity
in the air. In the empty areas on the roadside, we see groups of Turkoman tents made
of goats' hair, with women cooking gözleme bread on large, round griddles placed
on open fires in front of the tents. Their lambs and goats are contained in the nearby
fields behind makeshift enclosures. By the time we reach Şanlıurfa, we see
about eight of such camps.
With
no city plans at hand, we find our way in Şanlıurfa by trial and error. We
pass through a very poor quarter where small children in torn clothes play happily
around a shallow stream that suspiciously looks like an open sewer. A goat and a
couple of chickens wander around and after a point, the road just dissolves into
an uphill rubble. We are, at the end, able to find the Halil-ül Rahman Mosque
and park our car in the space indicated to us by a sallow faced teen-age boy in religious
attire, opposite the road. Next to us, two donkeys wait sweetly for the return of
their owners, they are tied to the back bumpers of a brightly painted minibus. As
we are getting organized to leave our car for our walk about, a group of three young
women accompanied by a middle aged man appear, carrying baskets and bags full of
shopping. The women are wearing beautiful dresses, made of brightly colored and very
shiny silk material and on top of the dresses they have hand knitted woolen vests
with pretty buttons. Their heads are covered with white muslin head scarves, trimmed
with lacy needlework, and another scarf in a darker shade with floral designs is
tied across their foreheads. Their faces are decorated with tattoos as are their
hands. What they have looks like a permanent type of tattoo rather than the temporary
sort made with henna. They do not talk, they board the minibus and start waiting.
Şanlıurfa
has almost nothing to offer to the recreational tourist, it seems totally devoid
of facilities with the appropriate mod cons that will make a visitor from the west
feel like taking a holiday there. In terms of sight-seeing and cultural adventure,
however, it is hard to think of a more exciting and rewarding place than Şanlıurfa.
Only a few hundred miles to the south of the original garden of Eden in Nevali Chori
and the scene of many floods that must have inspired the great myth of Noah and the
deluge, Şanlıurfa is also the home of many myths shared by the three religions
that have a hold on the consciousness of more than half the world's humanity. Prophet
Abraham, patriarch for all the peoples of the Book, is believed to have been born
and brought up here, put up a fight against the polytheistic religion of the cruel
King Nimrod who tried to burn him alive. The twin pools of water by the Halil-ür
Rahman Mosque are shown as places where the fires turned into water, to protect the
lives of Abraham and Nimrod's daughter, Zeliha, who, besotted with Abraham, threw
herself into the flames after him. The twin columns on the old citadel are said to
be the legs of the catapult where Abraham was thrown into the fire while the cave
where he is supposed to have been born is always full of visitors praying for cures
for the loved ones who are incurably ill. The cave where another prophet, Job, had
lain ill with leprosy, to be mysteriously cured by the waters seeping from the walls
of the cave, is another popular place of pilgrimage, believed to help children with
learning problems and other ills. What is truly most touching in all this is the
earnest expressions of the people who come here to pray, many of them women, accompanied
by sick children.
We leave
Şanlıurfa for the Atatürk Dam with a sense of not having seen enough of
it. Majority of Şanlıurfa people are very poor, many of them live in shanty
towns and even in caves, refugees from the terrorism in the countryside or from the
evacuated villages of the GAP area. The city has received some facelift from the
budgets made available to the Ministry of Tourism under the Faith Tourism project.
The area around the Halil-ürRahman Mosque, for instance, was organized as a
park. Urfa has exciting topography that shows off the original architecture of its
beautiful old houses to best advantage. More importantly, it is the least pretentious,
most authentic city that we ever visited. With the advent of religious fundamentalism,
we see many men and women in hicab and other religious outfits, in all sorts of places.
One reacts with a feeling of distaste, rooted in laicist and aesthetic sensibilities,
upon seeing someone flaunting such attire in İstanbul. In Şanlıurfa, we saw
many men and women in traditional outfits but did not feel any of that sense of alienation.
In fact, the outfit consisting of şalvar pants, worn with a long white shirt
with or without a collar, with a western style dark colored jacket on top with puşi
head cover, looks extremely good and handsome on most men. Carried with a natural
elegance developed over many years, Urfa people seemed to wear their clothes because
they like and feel comfortable in them rather than to make a political statement
or just to get on the nerves of people with different political convictions.
Atatürk
Dam: The mind boggling statistics of the Atatürk Dam are available from
all the most easily accessible sources but nothing one reads beforehand really prepares
one to the true magnificence of the actual thing itself. It is indeed most seriously
BIG. The resonance of curious humming sound the electricity plant generates is felt
even from afar and has a curious, spine tingling effect. The lake waters run high
and it already has the look of a natural lake. Because the cultivation of the surrounding
hills are not yet complete, the greyish light brown earth and dark skies of the day
turn the waters of the lake into a rather forbidding shade of dark green. No doubt,
once the greenery is grown and with the return of bright blue skies of the summer,
the lake will assume greater luminosity and a more inviting tone of azure.
The
Atatürk Dam attracts a lot of visitors even at this time of the year. It is
an increasingly popular stop over on the itinerary of the travelers with wider interests
such as archaeology and religious history. The ruins on the Nemrut Mountain of the
religious structures erected by Antiochus, the King of Commagene, during the last
century B.C. are one of the most popular destinations for visitors to Turkey and
they are at very close proximity to the Dam.
Positioned
in a vast area requiring very tight security measures, the GAP project is a nightmare
for the military logistician. A worst case scenario imagines Iraq and Syria, either
separately or together, attacking Turkey, openly or via intensified terrorist campaigns,
with a view to destroy the Atatürk Dam in order to increase their own water
supplies from these two rivers. Indeed, both states have spent sizable sums to build
up their own systems to increase their efficiency in exploiting the water supplies
brought to them by the Tigris and the Euphrates and as they have one river each per
country, they do not really have a conflict of interest with each other over the
matter of water. It is Turkey who risks to offend them both at the same time by suddenly
increasing its own consumption of the waters of these rivers. The keyword here is
"suddenly", as all the three countries in question appear to have planned their hydraulic
policies on individual assumptions with a competitive edge, without a due process
of mutual consultation even on technical and environmental aspects.
The
GAP project is sometimes criticized as a dangerous folie de grandeur on the part
of the Turkish Government and a risky venture at best, considering the unstable social
situation in the region and the currently negative reactions of the southern neighbors
of Turkey. It is a costly project and is expected to cost even more as the work progresses.
Indeed, a visitor that goes directly to see the Atatürk Dam without witnessing
the degree of deprivation around Şanlıurfa and Harran can easily dismiss the
whole project as an unnecessary luxury. Yet, the GAP project promises improved public
services, increased employment opportunities and a more stimulating and happier life
to the people of one of the poorest rural communities in the country who look forward
to it eagerly. Once the project starts to deliver, the people of the area will appreciate
its value, they will cherish and protect it. The project is likely to stimulate considerable
demographic changes in the area, the big cities like Diyarbakır, Adıyaman and Mardin,
in addition to Şanlıurfa and Gaziantep, will experience rapid growth, with
shanty towns and other related problems, unless thoughtful measures are taken without
further delay. Land reform and urban housing support are two items that should be
on the top of the agenda of the implementers of the GAP project if this project will
mean more than a mere shift of the poverty in the rural areas into the cities...
Harran:
The ancient city of Harran lies in exactly the opposite direction of the Atatürk
Dam and after passing by Şanlıurfa, the road begins to worsen. We drive slowly,
surrounded by a sea of plains that seem to go on forever, the deep red of the soil
assuming an even richer tone under the yellowish color of the rays of the setting
sun. With nobody else to be seen on miles on end, it is like being in a Wim Wenders
road movie. The silence and solitude is eerie, almost mystical. In our rush to complete
our program which got almost desperate after this morning's unexpected episode and
delay in Gaziantep, we skipped lunch and did not even stop to have a cup of tea.
We arrive at Harran shortly before darkness falls, tired but filled with a sense
of having accomplished something with our time here, with a lightness of heart, feeling
very happy.
With
its uniquely designed houses made of mud with high, conical domes, Harran is a unique
place in the world, for having been continuously inhabited for more than 6,000 years.
With its unkempt state and its few inhabitants living in abject, primitive poverty,
it is difficult to believe that up until the Mongol invasion during the 13th century,
Harran was the most prosperous city in the area for centuries and a center of high
learning, specializing in the twin disciplines of astronomy and mathematics. It was
to the temple of the Deity of the Moon, Sin, that the rich Kings and humble farmers
alike, came to consult the temple's scholarly priests for their predictions of the
weather, flooding by the two rivers and the impact on the season's crops. This is
also where translations of many important Greek philosophers into Aramaic and later
into Arabic were made, to be studied and built upon by the distinguished teachers
of the first university of the world built on the intellectual foundations laid by
the priests of the Temple of Moon. Mongolian hordes burned the city to a cinder and
Harran has not really recovered from this destruction but continued to be inhabited
more as a village rather than as the distinguished urban center that it once was.
With
scholarly priests of the Temple of Moon and the teachers and students of the early
Islamic university gone forever, only the spirit and memory of Abraham stayed on
in Harran. It is now under the magnificent night skies of Harran and at the doorstep
of the house where Abraham is said to have rested while in Harran that we are sitting
with our cups of tea from our thermos. In local tradition, Abraham's name is synonymous
with peace and plenty: With the GAP project, it looks as though Abraham is now about
to bless this little town with water, coming in tunnels from the rivers that forgot
about Harran for all those years, perhaps as a small gesture of thanks to the city
that looked after him so well as he rested his tired body during his all important
journey...
Sunday, January 5th, 1997
 Today is the anniversary of Adana's
day of liberation, the military music coming from the streets suggests that it continues
to be celebrated with the same enthusiasm as in the days when I was a schoolgirl.
This is also the day we must fly back home, and the unavoidable chore of packing
awaits me. I send my daughter out with her father to watch the parade in case any
of it will be passing by our door. They come back in two hours, and no, they could
not catch the sight of a parade but yes, the Adana Museum of Archaeology was open
and it had a very good collection and yes, again, they bought some freshly made,
still warm burma dessert for our lunch in the room. This is a wonderful dessert,
very fattening, very similar to İzmir's lokma, made by frying a smooth batter of
leavened but runny dough in boiling hot oil, to be drowned in rich, warm, sweet syrup
as soon as it is cooked. The batter is piped out of a narrow mouthed huge icing bag
with a quick twist as the batter hits the oil and the end result resembles a bracelet
and hence the name!
Our
flight home has a slight delay. As we finally board our plane, we do so with a decision
to return soon. We certainly want to spend more time in Şanlıurfa and visit
the other cities and locations of the GAP region: Mardin, Nemrut Mountain, Hasankeyf
and Antioch (Hatay) further south are just a few of the names on our list for future
visits.
Sabiha Reyhan Suner
Partner, Optima Management Consulting
Reading List
Anatolia:
Cauldron of Cultures / by the editors of Time-Life Books, Alexandria, Va. USA, 1995
Turkey's
Religious Sites/Anna G.Edmonds with Gülseren Ramazanoğlu Damko Publications,
İstanbul, 1997
Gaziantep/Tourism
Bureau of Gaziantep, (Ministry of Tourism) Gaziantep, 1997
Şanlıurfa/Ed.:
Seyfi Başkan Ministry of Culture Ankara 1997
(All photographs in this article are from the book Şanlıurfa, published
by the Ministry of Culture)
Gaziantep
 Mazıcıoğlu
Restaurant Tel.: 0342 220 8050
Tourism Office Tel.: 0342 230 5969
Kantara Tourism and Travel Agency Tel.:0342 220 6300 Fax.:0342 233 1578
Organised tours into the region, airline tickets, hotel reservations.
Contact: Ms Güleren Sözmen
Avis Car Rental Tel.: 0342 336 1194
 Şanlıurfa
Tourism Office Tel.: 0414 216 0170
Kaliru Tourism and Travel Agency Tel.:0414 215 3344 Fax.: 0414 216 3245
Organized tours into the region, airline tickets, car hire.
Contact: Ms Rahime Yaşar
Kançul Tourism Tel.: 0414 313 1645
Istanbul: 0212 272 4714 Fax: 0414 314 9928
Istanbul: 0212 272 4757
Best organized tour on paper. Contact: Mr. Maksut Refik Dönmezler
The Atatürk Dam
DSİ Cafe Tel.: 0414 721 2101
TEAŞ Cafe: Tel.: 0414 721 2021
Istanbul
Nezih Kebab-Yuvalama: Tel.: 0216 411 6875
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