This is an inside look at the current cultural, ethnic, historical, religious, historical, social, and linguistic dimensions of Turkey, complete with photos from my 2007 vacation. It also analyses the issue of Islam in Europe as well as their controversial entry into the EU. Is Turkey by any means European? Do the Turks have any right to merge with Europe as the US and EU encourage?
Turkey -- Türkiye --
English name: Turkey
Local name: Türkiye
Population: 71,158,647
Religion: Muslim 99.8% (mostly Sunni), other 0.2%
Language: Turkish, with near-illegal Kurdish minority, Armenian
Ethnic groups: Turkish 80%, 20% Kurdish, minute Armenian
Average fertility/woman: 1.89 per woman
Migration rate: 0 migrant(s)/1,000 population [none leave, none enter]
Per capita average income: $9,000
Unemployment: officially 10.2%
Population below poverty line: officially 20%
Extant populations elsewhere of Albanians: Germany, Bulgaria, Greece, France
I went to Turkey not only with a great fascination for Islam, but also to investigate first hand the question: are Turkey and the Turks by any means European culturally, ethnically, religiously, politically, and historically, and do they have any right to merge with Europe as the United States & European Union so staunchly debate and encourage today? In Germany and Europe to which they (often illegally) emigrate for better labor opportunities and government social monetary benefits, they are generally hated and deemed completely diametrically polar to European culture, history, and modern politics. The nation of Turkey is often deemed a backwards Islamic nation of goat herders, an unstable government, and the wickedly poor. Is this image by any means true, and if not, does this then imply that they have any right to integrate with the Europeans whom reject them?
Turkey is relatively new to tourism due to a popular stigma of Westerners that the Middle East or the Islamic world are dangerous or volatile. Our cruise ship landed in Istanbul and Kusadai, two distinctly Islamic and Turkish cities rife with ancient ruins of other cultures long dead and expelled but by no means multicultural. The Kurdish Sunni minority is responsible for nearly all of Turkey's terrorism (primarily by the PKK [the Kurdish Workers' Party] terrorist group), which is further incited by American support for the Kurdi minority in northern Iraq and Syria, another reason why Saddam Hussein has been executed for genocide of a very volatile minority. The majority of the Kurdi are in the east. They are incited historically not only because they are a different race with a different language than the Turks (the Kurdi being racially Persian with a Farsi-derived language), but also largely because the post-WWI Allied victors promised Kurdish statehood in Kurdistan, which the Turkish founding father Atatürk completely obliterated in a military expansion after the war. Upon learning that the west along the coast would be spared the majority of this ethnosocial calamity, I was anxious to experience the very capital nation of the Islamic world whose Jihad caused Europe to quake in its boots for nearly 5 centuries, not only as an investigation of history, but as a rare chance to experience Islam first-hand. They are unique in their own right as a race, culture, and (in part) history than the Arab tribes with whom they are often affiliated (to the anger of the Turks).
For a brief historical walkthrough, the region of today's Turkey (Anatolia) was originally populated by a variety of peoples, the majority of whom Iranians and Scythians before and during Zoroastrianism took root long before Judaism's dualist monotheism was founded. After the heroic conquest of the old Zoroastrian Iranian state (Persia) by the Greek Alexander the Great, Anatolia became populated by Greeks. This later coalesced -- after the Roman conquest -- into the heart of the Byzantine Orthodox Empire. But by the 10th century, the many nations of the Turkish race (at the time in central Asia) adopted the Sunni faith of Islam, and, pressured by the Mongol tribes and in search of better crop yields, traveled by equine into Anatolia. Here, they encountered and conquered the infidel Christian Greeks with every mile. The battle of Malazirt (Manzikert) in the 11th century foreshadowed a dark future for the powerful Christian Byzantine Empire. The next 3 centuries marked a reality that the Turkish Muslims were superior to the supreme power of the past. These Seljuks (Salçuk) Turks established a powerful Seljuk Empire, which conquered much of then-Sunni Iran and Iraq (Mesopotamia), as well as eastern Anatolia. Annihilated by the coming Mongol hordes, the Turkish Muslim race re-established itself under Asman, establishing the "Ottoman" Empire in central Anatolia. By the early 15th century, under the banner of the holy Jihad, the Ottoman Turkish Muslims had encircled the Byzantines by conquering their Slavic and Greek neighbors: the Greek city-states, the Byzantine land in today's Greece proper, Slavic Bulgaria, Romania, Albania, later Bosnia, Serbia, and nearly all of southern Hungary, where they forced the conversion of millions of their subjects with death or unlivable taxation as a penalty for not submitting to Islam. On 29 May, 1453, the Turks completely stormed the Byzantine capital of Constantinople, which they renamed Istanbul ("Islam aplenty"). By the 19th century, though, they had declined due to bankruptcy and internal rebellion by the variety of races that they had conquered. Russia had crippled their fleets in nearly a dozen Russo-Turkish Wars. In World War I, the Ottomans allied with the Germans against Russia. Failing, their former lands in the Arab world became ruled by the French and British. In 1923, the sultanate was abolished, and Mustafa Kamal "Atatürk" (Father of the Turks) banned the Arabic alphabet (hence it is today written with a German and Latin base), declaring a secular republic with an ultraconservative and centralized government. By no means at all was this out of admiration for freedom, tolerance, or multiculturalism, but rather to alleviate the Turks' post-war economic collapse by opening economic and political ties with the victorious West. The rebellious Armenian Christian minority that was accused of massacring Turkish soldiers (and did) and civilians was slaughtered by the Turks in the denied Armenian genocide. The statehood claims of Kurdistan, Greater Armenia, and Western-ruled land was completely conquered. The government of Turkey became an ultra-right wing military state until today. Today, the very people who rose the banner of Jihad against Europe is seeking to exploit its multicultural liberal goals to integrate universally with its former mutual enemy.
A statue of Mustafa Kamal, the founding father, next to a massive Islamic flag.
My photo of a huge gallery of sultans' tombs inside a mosque, with hand-sewn cloths with Arabic inscriptions and strange "headstones" with turbans.
Istanbul is arguably the greatest city in the world archaeologically, historically, and culturally. Nowhere else but in Muslim Turkey do nationalism and pride in culture, heritage, history, their distinct race and language, the Islamic faith, and tradition coalesce so strongly into national awareness. Aside from the endless mosques, there are thousands upon thousands of massive Turkish flags proudly announcing the Turkish heritage rooted in the star and crescent of Islam. Nearly every home has a Turkish flag on display for all to see, often right next to government-ordered sets of 20-flag standards or 25-foot massive flags in the center of town. From its cultural capital (not political) of Istanbul, the triumph of Turkish and Islamic history, culture, and heritage over its predecessors of the Romans and Greeks (Byzantines) can be studied in the same city. By no means but politically is Turkey a secular or godless state as they accuse America of being. The Turks embrace their secular politics today with great wisdom: by being politically secular but culturally a staunchly Islamic nation, the Turks can distinguish themselves from the Arabs they hate and deem so primitive, and trade amply with Europe and America as well as the Islamic world, without limiting the importance of Islam in daily life to the Turks. Prayer or "Ezan" is sounded for miles five times per day to be heard from miles and miles away from the hundreds upon hundreds of mosques whose massive minaret spires reach for the heavens:
In Arabic:
Allahu Akhbar; Allahu Akhbar.
Ashadu-allah, Ilaha il Allah. Ashadu-allah, Ilaha il Allah.
I confess that there is no majesty but Allah. I confess that there is no majesty but Allah.
I confess that Muhammad is his messenger. I confess that Muhammad is his messenger.
Hurry to prayer. Hurry to prayer. Hurry to success. Hurry to success.
God is great. There is no majesty but Allah.
My photo of flags everywhere. This is not simply a trait of monuments; such is seen with every turn of the head.
Islam, the Ottoman Arabic heritage, and Turkish national pride are indivisible here.
Looking in one direction in one portion of the massive city of Istanbul, one can see anywhere from 5 to 50 mosques with two or more minarets each towering above the city's Muslim inhabitants. There are hardly any Christian churches or synagogues that are not museums that were not burnt by the Ottoman Jihad. Turkey is reportedly 99.8% Muslim (majority Sunni). These mosques are built 500 years ago as they are only recently. The "secular" government funds the construction of mosques as well as pays their imams (equivalent of priests) and mullahs a form of government salaries. Many argue that this is to allow pro-government (right-wing) imams to prevent radical militant Islam that is commonplace in Turkey among Turks and Kurdi both. There are signs everywhere in the city listing the latest times of the call to prayer based upon adjustments to the direction of the sun. When the loud pencefold prayer (five per day) is not being echoed with synchronism between the endless mosques in the nation for several minutes at a time, one can hear Islamic lectures, chants, and prayers from the mosque's loudspeakers throughout the day, reaffirming the Turks as a Muslim people who are by no means akin to their Arab, west Iranian, or Uzbek subjects of the past. Prayer can be heard even from ships outside the harbor at all hours of the day: as early as 0200 and as late as 2300. Stars and crescents not on flags are visible all throughout the city, distinguishing the Turks' usage of these symbols from being simply their traditional flag, but rather an expression of their heritage and submission to Islam. Unlike in some parts of the Islamic world, like in Uzbekistan and Morocco, the nation's Muslims do not generally just bow on the spot and initiate prayer. Rather, hundreds of people can be seen walking into each mosque all throughout the day (though prayer can be performed at home or at work, and often is instead of going to the mosque all day long). Women in veils or full burqas, men with regular conservative clothes, men with full beards and Hamas-esque frightening turbans and aggressive expressions, and children of all ages can be seen hurrying to prayer. Many Turks are militant and ultra-nationalist in their faith, which frightens the secular government and its military state. Islam is ultraconservative: men must cover shoulders and legs, and women must cover shoulders and their heads with veils or headscarves. No infidels (Christians, Jews, etc.) are allowed in mosques during prayer. Inside the mosques, though, foreign white tourists can be seen bypassing this law to the dismay of the imams who cannot regulate some 400 people in one mosque at a time. Shoes may not be worn inside the mosques nor anywhere on the steps around it (which is strongly enforced). Men and women can be seen performing ablutions (washing the hands, head, and feet to void the soul of sin, dirt, and worldliness) in local blessed fountains with Arabic writing around them before entering. Outside of mosques, ablution fountains can be seen everywhere in Turkey by the hundreds to encourage both cleanliness as well as prayer in solitude away from mosques. Men and women are strictly segregated inside and outside of mosques during religious rituals and prayer, virtually in separate rooms. Turkey is nonetheless one of the few places in the world whose big tourist cities allow infidels to enter mosques. During prayer, again, no infidels are allowed. The "whirling darvishes" (or dervishes), Sufi monks who stand and spin about to near themselves to Allah, are celebrated and sold all throughout the city in pewter, plastic, and wood, as the Sufis played a large role in the conversion of world peoples to Islam.
My photo of Istanbul from the sea. Notice the massive minarets everywhere (Suleyman mosque left, Ayasofya right).
My photo of the magnificent Blue Mosque.
My photo of the Blue Mosque interior.
My photo of the Blue Mosque interior.
My photo of another interior shot. No infidels (Jews, Christians) allowed in the main area. Women are segregated.
My photo of another interior wall with Arabic inscription on a plaque.
My photo of the Blue Mosque's ceiling.
My photo of an ablution bath for ritual bathing under an Arabic verse from al-Qur'an.
Aside from the Islamic religion, which is rejected and found incompatible with European culture by most Europeans, the issue of the headscarf and veil is a common conflict in the European theatre. The millions of Muslims who immigrate to Europe (illegally and legally) are more and more being forbid to wear the headscarf in public and in schools, with some claiming that it has no place in Europe and others arguing that it is an object of female oppression. During the sultanate period (pre-1923), all women were forced to wear a veil or headscarf. Since the republic was declared, women are no longer required. Today, most Turkish women still do wear veils or headscarves, arguing that it is an element of Islamic heritage expected of them by their families and their nation. Many do not cover their heads (especially the youth), with some arguing that it is limiting and uncomfortably hot, and others arguing that it makes them look like the Arabs they deem so primitive and violent; it is not a rejection of Islam, though Islam and al-Qur'an require all women to cover their heads in public at all hours of the day every day. Most younger women (prepubescents to 23 or so) do not cover their heads, but most adults and elderly do (who comprise the vast majority of the Turkish population). Many women of all ages wear not only a multicolored personal headscarf, but a full hijab (body covering with the face exposed) or occasionally a Taliban-esque burqa (covering all but the feet). Most men dress conservatively, but some wear full white robes with turbans and beards (which reminds a European of terrorist mullahs to great personal fright). Most youths of both genders dress conservatively instead of sexually or promiscuously, which is rejected in Islam and in Turkish Muslim culture. The hijab (any type of head covering) is forbidden in most government buildings, though in most shops and buildings women still cover their heads, and al-Qur'an is proudly visible even in government offices and state buildings. A perceived shift of the Turkish women's dress from ultraconservative and veiled to "Westernized" with an exposed head does not indicate a liberalization of Islam or right-wing "Turkishness" as the EU and USA would love to see occur, but rather a celebration of separate Turkish culture and heritage instead of affiliation with "Arab terrorists". Illegal in Islam as well, beer is legal in Turkey and is drunken by many Turks (though many refuse it), the most famous of which being Efes, a very strong lager-type beer. During Ramadan or even during prayer-time, many stores and bars which normally sell beer refuse to do so as Muhammad demanded.
My photo of Muslims performing ritual collective bathing. Women are segregated.
From these conclusions, the liberal goals the European Union has embraced as imported by the post-war victorious powers of tolerance, freedom, complete social and political secularism, and social rights are rejected in every sense of the word in the possible Turkish membership and merger with its former victims of its Jihad. Turkey and the Turks are by no means European – culturally, ethnically, politically, historically, and socially – and thus have no right to merge with Europe. This reality by no means denigrates the Turks nor their proud and glorious Islamic nation.
The Turkish national founding father, Mustafa Kamal Atatürk (Father of the Turks) is virtually mythologized in Turkish life. Having brought the Turkish Ottoman state from complete economic and political collapse into a powerful and proud new Turkish nation and military power that conquered its neighbors in less than two years (and successfully assaulted the new Greece to return "lost" land), this culture-creating leader is celebrated with a portrait in nearly every major building, every office building, every police station and shack, in every public monument, and in hundreds of homes and ships. He acts today as a paradigm for all future politics of Turkey, which is why current efforts to Islamicize politically-secular Turkey is met with a sizable public outcry. Aside his portraits and statues are dozens of flags, some stretching 20-feet in length, to celebrate independence Turkish nationhood and Islam. Many of his statues are adorned with Arabic script and quotes from al-Qur'an that he today in the West is perceived to have assaulted. Turkey and Islam are indivisible, though the Turks have been smartly able to avoid the theocracy of Khomeini or bin Laden. This ulterior political goal must be recognized.
The Turkish and Muslim traditions other than in the mosques is subsidized by the state to protect it from the "Western imperialists" who are encroaching on their Islamic and homogeneous heritage. The traditional and world-famous rug/carpet-producing techniques are paid for by the boards of culture and economics. Here, the exclusive double-knot Turkish carpet-making tradition requires female members of families to produce carpets for years and years at a time by hand from the ilk of silk worms for sale around the world. This is but one of the cultural measures protected by the Turkish government today. The Turkmen minority (a people related to the Turks by race, history, and the same Sunni Islam) dominate this field. This is a great source of income for Turkey on the world market for textile production where Iran (Persia) and India are their biggest competitors. The traditional Muslim dowry (akin to bride-price) is generally paid and encouraged to be paid by the man to the woman upon marriage, though the Muslim near-universality of polygamy is illegal in urban Turkey. Most Turkish women still receive dowry in the form of money, carpet, or other heirloom to cement the Muslim marriage.
A white imperialist sitting with shoes on the steps of the mosque. The sign reads "sitting on the steps is absolutely forbidden." Turks look at her with rage.
My photo of the ancient government-subsidized silkworm extraction art for rugmaking.
Regarding the cities themselves, Muslim Turkey has more treasures from ancient empires of the past than can be seen completely in a lifetime. Outside of Kusadasi, an ancient provincial capital of Greek-ruled Anatolia (later to be annexed and expanded by the Romans) called Ephesus remains the very greatest and most well-preserved city in the world. Like Pompeii, a city some 5 centuries before the life of Jesus can be traversed in near entirety. A world monument, the House of the Virgin Mary can be visited as a major Christian (almost exclusively Catholic of course) site of pilgrimage. It is proported to be the very house of Mary, the virgin mother of Jesus of Nazareth. Inside, very little can be seen other than walls and a commemorative tomb with no corpse therein. A wall can be seen on the way out with endless notes from pilgrims to Mary and Heaven. The modern Islamic Turkey has its own endless treasures. Turkey is very economically upright and apt for Western trade; English is highly common amongst the youth and adult alike. Almost no English or other language is used in the cities though. There is almost no trash visible anywhere on the street, and almost no graffiti at all. Oddly, there are literally almost no trash basins anywhere in the cities of Turkey. We learned that this is a security measure imposed by the military government to stop from fires as well as Kurdish terrorism (assumably, bombs in trash cans). Soldiers with machine guns are everywhere in Turkey, as Turkey's government is regulated and controlled by the huge military to a large extent. There are hardly any broken or collapsed houses with waste affront. The buildings are all plain and simple. There are no blatantly poor areas like "ghettos" like in America or some of the larger European cities. However, there is little safety precaution unlike in the US to resist lawsuits, and it is very easy to injure oneself. The streets are largely narrow in the bigger Turkish cities. The drivers are outright maniacs. Many drive at top speed in complete traffic without stopping, even driving on one-way streets through popular business areas with food carts to get to their destination more quickly. Driving is impossible. Everything in the society seems economically uniform and upright. However, there is a relatively pungent and foul smell throughout much of the Turkish cities, and bathrooms are virtually impassable to a European or American. Water and a thick foul smell seem to flow on the ground of every bathroom. The toilets are generally sunken into the floor or are a hole for defecation, always with a horrific smell. There are an endless amount of stores on every corner with businessmen on the streets watching for pedestrian tourists like vultures. Some 50% of these stores are all for the sale of rugs, totaling hundreds of thousands of carpets each hundreds of dollars in worth. Nearly every store has goods ranging from t-shirts to traditional veils and headscarves, pewter, metal, jewelry, illegal DVDs, etc. Nearly every store offers dozens of huqqah (hookah) waterpipes for smoking tobacco (marijuana and other drugs are, fortunately, illegal). Tobacco and huqqah, which are believed to have both originated as a cultural device in the Ottoman Empire, are a source of pride for the Turks. Many of their victim nations of the past or regions to which Turks and Muslims immigrate have popular huqqah "bars" for smoking, especially in Ukraine where the Turkic Crimean Tatars offer it to the local Slavs. A trait unique to Turkey occurs upon passing any business: business owners and employees literally stock passerbyers for miles to coax them into seeing their wares. Several people at once pursue pedestrians for several minutes and even later in the day again if another encounter occurs, offering tea and friendship, asking from where the visitor comes and his nationality. This hospitable ploy is in reality an attempt to make a sale to the coming wealthier tourist from Europe. Businessmen can be seen carrying trays of ultra-strong Turkish tea all over the city to be brought to later shop clients. One can barter in any store. Many stores are willing to drop as much as 50% of a product's worth to make a sale with only little effort by the client. Turkmen and Azerbaijani (Azeri) businessmen can be seen everywhere in Turkey, as both descend from the same race (though the latter professes Iran's Shi'ia Islam); they integrate well into the society of their brethren. Kurdi minority businessmen can also be seen in their tight-knit yet marginalized society that is directly hampered by the government. Their language is illegal in schools and government, and the Kurdi Iranian-based language may only air on television by law on a select few number of channels for a small number of minutes per week. Armenian Christians and Jews are given just as few rights in this staunchly Islamic society. This inequality, along with Turkey's denial of the genocide of Armenians (who were in reality assaulting Turks in an independence movement), is a major criticism by the social-liberal US and EU against Turkey. Turkey is incredibly homogeneously; nearly all the inhabitants are of the same race (Turks) or their descendants (Azeris, Turkmen, Tatars), with some unrelated Muslim Baluch, Arab, and Uzbek minorities (aside from the marginalized Armenian, Greek, and Georgian Christians).
The House of the Virgin Mary. Mythology or truth?
A wall for pilgrims' notes and offerings to Heaven, Mary, and Jesus.
My photo of the Greco-Roman Celsus Library, considered one of the greatest ancient monuments still standing.
My photo of the Greco-Roman city of Ephesus' walkway. Akin to stepping back in time.
My photo of a downtown Turkish bazaar only 20 paces from a lovely mosque.
My photo of downtown Kusadasi with a mosque in view next to restaurants and a huqqah bar.
Just walking through the cities of the western coast (especially Istanbul and Kusadashi), one can encounter Byzantine Greek Christian treasures before the Turkish conquest, pre-Christian Greek cities preserved in entirety, Roman arches, and ancient Iranian tombs. The Ayasofya (Hagia Sophia) – considered among the greatest buildings ever built – rests in the center of the Islamic cultural capital (Istanbul) of the last 500 years (after Baghdad before it and Damascus before that). With its foundations built before the life of Jesus, and its massive domed walls built by the greatest Byzantine empire since Constantine the Great himself, Justinian (conquerer of the southern German conquerers of the Roman Empire), the Ayasofya was the largest Christian building in the world until St. Peter's Basilica was built in the Vatican in the 11th century. It was so magnificent a Christian church that it impressed the heathen Slavic king Vladimir the Great, king of the Germanic-built Kievan Rus, to convert all Slavs of Europe to the Orthodox faith of the Greeks. In the 15th century, when the Muslim Jihad delivered the ultimate fate into the heart of the Byzantine infidel capital of Constantinople (now Istanbul), the holy Orthodox church was converted into a mosque. Today, it remains among the greatest and most majestic mosques in the world; a true testament to the victory of Islam over Christendom. When the republic was declared, it was converted into a museum. Nonetheless the call to prayer is firmly and proudly emitted from it for the entire city to hear. The interior is ancient, tarnished, and fading as expected from its age. It is rich in ancient Orthodox Christian mosaics and frescoes of John the Baptist, Jesus, and the Saints dating over 1,500 years of age. All evidence of Jesus was entirely erased or burnt when the Jihad reached the Byzantine capital, with the mosaics of Jesus and the saints covered in a plaster base. This was later uncovered when the building became a museum, and can be seen today with much of it removed due to age and peeling. The original Byzantine design during the Roman period and afterward (under Justinian) can be seen, oddly with Hakenkreuze (or the Indian Swastika) all throughout the building and arches in obverse and reverse both. The building is almost entirely in reconstruction with painters carefully repainting the surface. Original massive plaques cover the walls of the building with verses from al-Qur'an and the holy 99 names of Allah all about the massive overhead dome. The original Mihrab (the gate in the center of the mosque showing the direction of Makkah to which all must pray) and Minbar (the steps to heaven from which the imam or mullah speaks to the taliba) are in perfect golden condition. Only 200 paces from the huge mosque, the walls of Constantinople that the Turks struggled for years to overrun can be touched. One can even see the black marks where the Mujahidin's cannons bombarded the Christian gates for years and years before final victory. Within eye's length from the Ayasofya, one can see the greatest mosque in all of Turkey: the Blue Mosque or the Sultan Ahmed mosque. Built in the 15th century, its blue iznik domes is arguably the center of Istanbul, where most of the most famous imams and Islamic scholars attend. The interior is gorgeous, massive, clean, segregated, completely covered in carpets, and decorated in blue flower designs with Arabic inscriptions and plaques with "Allah" written on nearly every wall. The main area for prayer is forbidden to infidels during all hours. Sitting in the courtyard between the Ayasofya and Blue Mosque during prayer is a sad reminder of the collapse of faith and tradition in the US and gradually Europe, and the strong resilience of faith in the Islamic world.
My photo of an ancient Roman water reservoir.
My photo of the exterior of the legendary Hagia Sophia -- one of the greatest buildings ever built.
My photo of the interior of the Hagia Sophia.
My photo of another interior shot.
The center of the Ayasofya mosque: the Mihrab. This shows the direction of Makkah.
An ancient ablution area for ritual bathing outside the Hagia Sophia.
My photo of a covered Christian mosaic in the Ayasofya. It was sealed after the Jihad.
The hundreds of other mosques throughout Turkey and Istanbul are equal treasures, as are the endless temples and palaces built by the numerous Turkish sultans, especially at their main palace of Topkap (Toep-kop-uh) whose halls and harems seem to bear no end. Inside the sultan's main palace, a fantastic treasure horde of the personal swords, helms, and standards of the most valiant of Islamic Jihadists and conquerers can be found. The swords of Mehmet II (who obliterated the Byzantine Empire forever), Sulayman the Magnificent (who led the golden age of the Ottomans), Sultan Ahmed (who brought a height of Islamic architecture), and other Jihadist Mujahidin can be seen with Arabic script and surah quotes from al-Qur'an engraved in gold leaf on the scimitar blade. Other collected treasures taken from European victim nations can also be found dating centuries before the conquest of the Christian Balkans. There is a separate chamber for white eunuch slave guards forcibly conscripted, converted to Islam, and castrated after being taken from their Christian families in Europe after the conquest (excluding tens of thousands of white Christians regularly converted and forced into the janissary elite armies). Under the city, a massive and still-damp Roman aqueduct can be traversed. The ancient and world-famous indoor Grand Bazaar with its 20,000+ shop stalls is a national treasure with endless products for sale at cheap prices; it is easy to get lost.
My photo of the entrance to the Grand Bazaar, with Arabic script atop.
My photo of the interior of the Grand Bazaar.
My photo of the entrance to the Topkapi sultan's palace.
My photo of the exit gate to the palace.
My photo of a sultan's mausoleum.
My photo of a ceiling of a mosque in the Topkapi palace, the sultan's main home.
My photo of Mehmet II the Conquerer's sword with verses from al-Qur'an written on it. He is the sultan whose Jihad ended the Byzantine Empire forever.
Turkish music is entirely unique in its own right, but is greatly akin to traditional Arabic, Farsi, and Berber music. The Christian European nations subject to the Jihad (including Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Albania, today's southern Ukraine [the Crimea], etc.) all have in part a degree of Turkish or Arabic influence in some of their music aside from the works of foreign immigrants. The tobacco and huqqah culture of the Muslims has spread there with great success in popular youth culture. The Crimea in Ukraine, where the previous Turkic Tatar Muslims were time and time expelled by the Slavs before being conquered and saved by the Ottomans, is rife with Turkish influence where it was not exterminated. The strange Turkish "blue eye" (a figure with a black center, white interior, and light blue exterior against a deep blue base), which is used as a Turkish cultural agent of superstition and piety to Islam can be seen in all of the Muslims' former conquests, including Greece, Ukraine, and in the far south of Russia near Chechnya and Dagestan. Turkish food (which is fantastic), including kebabs of lamb and beef along with vegetables and rice, yogurts and dates can be seen in each of their subject Christian states as well. Pork is obviously unavailable by and large, forbidden by al-Qur'an.
Traveling to Turkey was one of the most amazing experiences of my life, especially in Istanbul, but it was utmost important to come to the conclusion via personal experience that the Turks are distinct -- politically, culturally, ethnically, and historically -- from Europeans in every fashion of the word, and any possible effort to merge them with the peoples of Europe or its EU-puppet governments is not the employment of logic but rather a blind act of incompatible multicultural union.
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Article added to SearchWarp.com on Monday, October 15, 2007 View other articles written by Hans Mayfield(488)
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