East meets West in Istanbul
By Zack McMillin ’07
Getting to the Sakip Sabanci Museum required the 2007 Knight-Wallace Fellows to negotiate a not insignificant hike from the banks of the Bosporus.
We were breathing hard once we reached the top, but what a view awaited us: Dusk settling over Istanbul, the Bosporus drifting below, bridges linking Europe to Asia, soaring minarets planted on the hills among the city’s congested and endlessly interesting neighborhoods.
Like so much with this Fellowship year and the trips we took, the moment outside the museum felt like a gift for posterity, yet another mind-expanding moment many of us will no doubt employ when we return to our cubicles.
Time will inevitably blur much of what we saw, tasted, learned and imbibed. Our eight action-packed days in Istanbul— from the Turkish bath beginning to the surreal finale at a secret mosque—gave us a much deeper understanding of the challenges facing this secular Muslim society, its strengths, fl aws, struggles and ambitions all equally fascinating.
On Saturday, our first full day, we visited the Ottoman archives, toured the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, shopped the Grand Bazaar, and dined with Turkish food culture celebrity Engin Akin.
Sunday, we sprinted through Topkapi Palace, then dined at one of Turkey’s trendiest restaurants, Konyali, before a meandering boat ride across the Bosporus to Asia. Th ere we watched one of Istanbul’s big soccer clubs, Fenerbahçe, in a nighttime match. Monday’s seminars explored gender issues and the politics of cultural and religious identity, followed by a visit to the stock exchange. Our aforementioned meal at the Sabanci Museum was preceded by a tour of its Genghis Khan and the Mongolian Empire exhibition, as well as its famous calligraphy collection.
Tuesday became media day—a morning at CNN Türk and a tour of Milliyet, the national daily newspaper where Fellow Nilay Ornek is an editor. We also visited the neighborhood offices of Agos, the Armenian newspaper that became the focus of international coverage after its editor Hrant Dink was murdered. (See Charles’ column)
Angela Shah, Gady Epstein, Steve Fennessy and Richard Lister on the trail of the Sultans at Topkapi Palace.
That night we got another amazing private gallery tour, at the Istanbul Modern, followed by yet another remarkable meal and spectacular view of Istanbul. The highlight was meeting the American journalists covering Istanbul and becoming acquainted with many of the Turkish journalists who are Knight-Wallace alums.
We traveled to the capital, Ankara, on Wednesday, and received a multitude of opinions about Turkey’s past, present and future. On one theme, the politicians, military officials and government civil servants all agreed – the invasion of Iraq has had a significant impact on Turkey and remains a source of enormous concern.
Our final day in Turkey blended politics and culture—a morning lecture on the youth of Turkey and an afternoon investigating the Kurdish issue. It also included a fantastic meal on the banks of the Bosporus. Our last seminar, with member of Parliament and foreign policy advisor Egemen Bagis, was devoted to learning more about the ruling AKP party and Bagis’ efforts to convince the U.S. Congress not to pass a resolution regarding the Armenian question.
CNN Türk Editor in Chief (and our chief of hospitality) Ferhat Boratav took us for one final tour, to the Cerrahi Convent of Karagumruk, where the men of the mosque perform rituals of song and prayer officially not sanctioned by the Turkish government.
We returned to the hotel with only five hours until those of us leaving the next morning would rise and head back to Ann Arbor, exhausted but invigorated.
