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Last weekend the usual suspects, Mariem (Tunus) and Chaterina (Denmark) went for one more adventure, this time to Mount Nemrut (Nemrut Dağı) and Malatya. The places we’ve been are amazing, but the focus this time will be on the travel itself and on the people we met.

Our first goal was Nemrut Dağı, so we headed first to Adıyaman and from there directly to Nemrut without stopping to see anything. We got very lucky on the road and got to Nemrut before planned. Hitchhiking is like that, you never know what is going to happen or the path you will take to get where you want.

Trajectory (Red – Saturday; Black – Sunday)

Fafy enjoying the fresh air and the landscape in the best lift ever

Nemrut is… I think the pictures speak for themselves!

West side of the tomb

Eastern terrace

Mariem inspired by the mountain

This sacred tomb was erected on the mountain top by Antiochus I, King of Commagene in 7 July 62 BC. The precise date of the beginning of the construction is known because there is at the site a large slab showing the arrangement of stars and the planets Jupiter, Mercury and Mars!

There were originally sitting statues of the King, two lions, two eagles and various Greek, Armenian, and Iranian gods. Probably due to religious quarrels, the heads of the statues are now scattered throughout the site. The statues appear to have Greek-style facial features and Persian clothing and hairstyling, a fusion originated due to Antiochus Greek and Persian ancestry. The tomb is 49m high and is pyramidal shaped. It was excavated several times, but no attempt has been successful in revealing the tumulus of the King.

There we met a couple that offered to take us to Malatya. Karam is from Istanbul, Kia is from Arizona, USA, and their 5 year old jewel is Nika. Their perspective of life, open-mindedness and general knowledge was mind-blowing for me. They chose the mountain route to Malatya, and while struggling to fit in the back seats the whoole ride, we were having a very interesting talk about different subjects, since their and our life stories to politics, religion, America, etc... Kia was also a volunteer for a long time in South America. I was particularly incredulous with the pedagogic way they educate their daughter. She is 5 and I don’t know many grown up people with such ideas about religion, and I also don't know many parents that provide their children this kind of freedom to make conscious choices about it.

Sight from the “mountain road”

We arrived late in Malatya and after having dinner with the couple in the University campus, we met Ferhat, this English teacher with also a broad view on interesting topics.

The next day we visited the city in the morning and headed back to Adıyaman. Luck was stıll with us as we found Erbaa, or he found us. Erbaa is a good friend that knows the cool places between Malatya and Adıyaman to take photos and to have lunch!

Erbaa, me, the lake and the mountain

From Adıyaman on, Lady Luck was already tired of us so she left somewhere else, as we took more than six hours to get back home, but the damage was done – each trip gets better and better and in this one, in addition to nice places we had the pleasure to meet this fantastic people.

Paco

Afiyet Olsun :)

Sharbat or Sherbet  is a popular Wext and South Asian drink that is prepared from fruits or flower petals. It is sweet and served chilled. It can be served in concentrate form and eaten with a spoon or diluted with water to create the drink.

Popular sharbats are made of one or more of the following: Rose, Sandalwood, Bael, Gurhal (hibiscous), Lemon, Orange, Mango, Pineapple, Falsa (Grewia asiatica).

Most of the sharbats are very common in Indian, Turkish, Arab,  Iranian, Afghan, Pakistani and Bagladesi homes. These are claimed to have several medicinal values and to be ayurvedic in nature.

The word Sharbat is from Persian "شربت" "sharbat", and Sherbet is from turkish "şerbet" "sherbet", both of which in turn come from Arabic شربة "sharba" a drink, from شرب "shariba" to drink. Also called "sorbet", which comes from French "sorbet", from Italian "sorbetto", and in turn from Turkish "şerbet". The word is cognate to syrop in Brıtısh and American English. Historically it was a cool effervescent or iced fruit soft drink. The meaning, spelling, and pronunciation have fractured between different countries. It is usually spelled "sherbet", but a common corruption changes this to "sherbert".

In the 12th century, Persian book of Zakhireye Khwarazmshahi, Gorgani describes different types of Sharbats in Iran, including Ghoore, Anar, Sekanjebin, etc.

It was popularised in the Indian subcontinent by the Mughall rulers, one of whom sent for frequent loads of ice from the Himalayas to make a cool refreshing drink.

In the gardens of the Ottoman Palace, spices and fruits to be used in sherbet were grown under the control of pharmacists and doctors of the Palace.

The person responsible for preparing and serving sharbat in Turkey is called a serbetci (şerbetçi). Some serbetci sell sharbat on the street in the traditional way. On their backs they carry a big brass flask with a long nozzle (called anibrik) and hold glasses in their sash or brass cup-holders. They serve sharbat by bending forward and filling a glass from the nozzle curved over their shoulder. The Şerbetçi family name is derived from this occupation. In rural areas of Eastern Turkey, the groom's family comes to the bride's house after the dowry is agreed upon and brings an ibrik with sharbat for the future bride to drink as a sign of acceptance of the groom.

Victoria

In English, please!

A main component of Share Your Own Impression is English teaching. We go every week to Abdulkadir Konukoğlu Lisesi in Gazikent and we also mediate English Conversation Club at Millet Hanı (which by the way, if you are in the area, you are welcome to join... Mondays and Thursdays at 16 pm. Tamam mı?).

 

In High School we have 9^th and 10^th grades. We choose and prepare interesting subjects for them and then all of us discuss them together. A leading question does the trick – “Would you like to live in Australia?”, “Who is Mark Zuckerberg and what did he create?”, anything that can keep them interested, even if it just an English words game! I think the kids enjoy and the feedback so far is being amazing.

We are participating in a theatre project as well. It is a play inspired in the 1970’s British comedy TV Show “Mind Your Language”. All of us are trying to make it funnier than the original, it’s a nice way to make English conversation and the play regards breaking racism/xenophobia prejudice. It’s all good, then!
 

Lesson on important people in multimedia & art

English Conversation Club is a funny way to learn or develop one’s English skills. There are participants with good and not so good levels of English, so me and Victoria have different ways to approach everyone.
 

English speaking is a problem in Turkey, at least in this area. These people horizons are limited because of English illiteracy, and not because of not being able to communicate with people during those dreamy holidays abroad. Roughly half of “our kids” at High School want to become doctors. If they want to excel at their jobs they need to go to seminars, read the main international publications, and everything is in English.

This is why it is so rewarding when I notice someone’s English capabilities improve due to this effort TAŞEV allows us to do.

Paco

TAŞEV is volunteerism

On 11^th April 2013 our good friend Emre wanted to get a profound knowledge on the concept of volunteerism, so he Googled it in turkish - "Gönüllülük nedir" (What is volunteerism?). Than, he clicked on Google Images ("Görseller") to get a better perspective on the subject...

Do you recognise anyone there? We give you a subtle hint: It's me and Victoria.



We want to thank Google for recognising our enourmous effort to make this world better, one day at a time. That's not why we do it, but it is nice and motivating to receive this distinction. We would also like to thank our families, our friends and also and everyone that made this possible.

Paco

Dr. Anas Bakir

Abakader Hewedi, Hassan Hassan, Aballah Barama and Mohammad Soubu. Anas Bakir doesn’t stop to think when I ask him to write the names his friends who died on the Syrian war…

When we arrived in Harran, we went to the only restaurant we could find in that part of the town. The cooker, the only English speaking guy there, came to translate the order he himself was going to prepare. After preparing our meal, Anas, with his apron, brought it and sat with us, interested to get to know these foreigners from the Iberian Peninsula. After he told us who he was, the focus of the conversation turned to him.

I asked if I could interview him and he gladly accepted. I wanted to know about his life, something more about the Syrian uprising, and his story in this tragic war. In his good English he explained everything with passion but always rationally.

 

 

An activist against the criminal Syrian regime, Anas was arrested 13 months ago during a protest in Damascus University where he was teaching Economy as an Assistan Professor, and spent six days in prison where he was brutally beaten. The second time the Government went after him, they couldn’t catch him, he fled to Turkey to work and sustain his family in these dark days.

For now he is working… and living in this restaurant in Harran. He wants to go to the capital of Líbia, Tripoli, where he has his friends and where he can easily find a job teaching. Being a cooker in a restaurant is as a respectable job as any other, but the potential this Master in economics and Doctor in accounting has – with 27 years –asks for something more.

 

 

Bashar al-Assad is cruel. I never heard his side of the story but that’s not really necessary, everyone knows that. With the support of people and corporations with interests in the country, his orders to kill civilians are frequent. Just two days before Dr. Bakir escaped to Turkey, his neighborhood was destroyed by rockets. His house is intact, but 19 people, including 5 children, were killed. He explains that that’s the normal Governmental reaction after losing a territory they previously controlled. The rebels fighting the regime, the Free Syrian Army, mainly composed by defected soldiers and civilian volunteers, are supported by the big majority of Syrian people and even people all around the world that want freedom to Syria, and it is expected that they will be able to depose the regime, but who can imagine what will al-Assad’s do to his people in desperation, right before the end?

 

There are now over a million refugees and 2 million displaced (UN). Half of the refugees are children, most of them under 11 and often traumatized by their experiences. Dr. Bakir’s family is still in Hatlah, a small village near Dayr Az Zawr, in the east part of Syria. They’re afraid but won’t leave the country they love. Even if it’s now completely destroyed by the war.

 

When I ask him if he wants to come back to his country when the war is over, does not hesitate: “Immediately, the same day!” he promptly replies.

 

 

Paco

Trip to Harran, Şanlıurfa & Eski Halfeti

The weekend started early for me, Ana (Spain) and Filipa (Portugal), other volunteers in Antep. At 7 a.m. we were already hitchhiking our way to Harran, about 40 km southeast of Şanlıurfa.

Resting in a gas station near Nizip

When we got there, we found this interesting place that, according to the earliest known records, exists at least since 2.300 BC. Harran is famous for its traditional dome houses – kubbe evler – which are constructed entirely without wood. It is thought that these pieces of ancient engineering have been unchanged for at least 3,000 years! A guide explained us that the purpose of this shape and the materials used is to keep the interior of the houses cool in the summer and warm in the winter.

The interior of a dome

To see these curious houses was the major reason to visit this ancient city in Upper Mesopotamia. We didn’t expect much more, so the surprise was brutal…

During the late 8^th and 9^th centuries, Harran was a centre for translating works of astronomy, philosophy, natural sciences, and medicine from Greek to Syriac, and thence to Arabic, taking the knowledge of the classical world to the emerging Arabic-speaking civilization in the south. So, Harran is the place of the first Islam’s University!

The grand Mosque of Harran, also known as the Paradise Mosque is the oldest mosque built in Anatolia as a part of the Islamic architecture, between the years of 744 – 750 AC, and it’s minaret is 33,3 meters high.

Unfortunately, translations at the site are not good and we couldn’t understand (and still don’t know) if the University and the grand Mosque are part of the same structure or not.

There is also a castle being rebuilt, part of the effort to bring back the old Harran’s cultural symbols.

It was becoming late, and we headed to Şanlıurfa. That night we decided we still had energies to visit the city, and it was the right thing to do. Balıklıgöl was waiting for us. It’s just the place where the miracle of Abraham took place…

The story goes like this:

“Abraham, peace be upon him, the father of prophets, taught people that the stars are only stars, the moon only the moon, the sun only the sun and that King Nemrud was only a human being who had been created by Allah the mighty and the merciful in order to destroy the truth of wisdom and love which were embodied in Abraham’s existence. A fire the likes of which had never been seen was started right here and…"

  
... then the miracle occurred. The fire turned into water and pieces of wood into fishes, and Abraham escaped alive.

I didn’t know this story and place and I find them fascinating. It is best to go there at night, the illumination is very good and there is less people.

The next day we continued our discoveries, in this place and around, we visited the hill of the castle, where we could see the old part of the city.

Panoramic view of the old part of Urfa

Coming back to Antep, we still had time to visit Eski Halfeti, a small town on the east bank of river Euphrates (Fırat) and a place with one of the most beautiful landscapes I’ve been in my life.

Interestingly, after the construction of the dam at Birecik in the 1990s most of the villages in the margin of the river were submerged. The old town of Halfeti is only partially submerged and is now a turistic site.

Eski Halfeti and river Euphrates

It is good to be informed about the history of the area where you are going and places to visit, but it’s also nice to be surprised by the history and astonishing beauty of such places!

Paco