Zefir bayram

Today's a holiday: zeyfir bayram, which celebrates the victory of the Turks over the Greeks in 1922 (1923?). Didn't know they'd had a war? Neither did we - it's one of the little events of the 20th Century that gets lost in the history books. Seems like Turkey chose the wrong side in WW I, not being too happy about fighting alongside its old enemies the Russians. So we had Gallipoli (Gelibolu here) with the ANZACs and the Turks holing up in neighbouring trenches on the north side of the Dardanelles. They got along pretty well, considering that each side lost tens of thousands of young men; at one point the Turks were firing tobacco at the ANZACs and the other side was returning fire with matches and chocolate.

This was all part of the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire. After the war a young, heroic general named Mustafa Kemal (he'd commanded the Turkish troops at Gelibolu) and his friends took over the country. (Mustafa later, when his new government ordered all Turks to adopt surnames like the rest of the western world, took the surname Atatürk - "father of Turkey".) The Brits and French tried to carve up Turkey between them and the Turks said No! (Never try to override a Turk who says No - you'll never win). The Europeans told Greece to go ahead and take back its ancestral territory along the Aegean, and the Greeks gave it a good try. They landed at İzmir and settled in nicely. But then they made the mistake of getting greedy - they decided to march on Ankara, in the middle of the country. Didn't work. Dumb idea. Their supply lines got overextended and they were no match for the Turks, who are pretty unbeatable fighters when it comes to defending their own homes and families. On August 30 the Greeks were eliminated in a battle within sight of here. Then the Turks went and destroyed İzmir, which was basically more Greek than Turkish at the time, which is why most of the city is relatively new.

So today was a public holiday. Not that it seemed to make a lot of difference. You can't tell a Turk not to work if he (or she) wants to or needs to. Our street, which has been being dug up since we moved in last Thursday, continued to have holes dug in it and closed in again (all by hand). Most of the stores are open. There was some sort of gathering downtown - we saw it on local TV - this morning and three jets and a dozen helicopters flew over us, but that was about all. I think there might be something in the local park this evening, though - that's where we'll go after this.

Yesterday with the help of Semiha - our landlady - we tried to get a telephone line for our apartment so we can have high-speed internet there. No luck (yet - but remember Semiha's a Turk and she's going to make it happen). We couldn't get one in our own names because we don't have a residency permit (we're planning on leaving every three months and to get our visas removed, or if Ron gets a job he at least can have a work permit and stay for a year at a tıme). So Semiha tried to get one in her own name. A little iffy, since her family already has a phone, but it's in her husband's name so it looks like she can get a phone of her own. But she needed her identity card and she'd left it at home. Thursday we'll try again. It might take a couple of weeks after that, we'll see.

We keep encountering things that we couldn't do here at all on our own. Partly it's the language barrier, but part of it is just not knowing how the system works. I'm so grateful for the Turks who have helped us so willingly & well. Without them we could never do this.

It's not easy being a stranger in a strange land. I will have a lot more compassion for immigrants in Canada when we're back.