Tatvan - Day 2
Got up to see that the rain had stalked me from Ankara. The plan was to go to Ahlat (40km north) and see the Seljuk graveyard there. But as I'd have to wait half an hour for a dolmuş and the rain showed no signs of abating, I decided to do some grocery shopping and internetting instead. This took longer that expected, as I ended up having tea with some old dudes at the baklava shop.
Next stop: tourist info... But on the way there I stumbled into Sevda, and she invited me over to her house. Very welcoming, homely place, with a horde of siblings and cousins constantly popping through. Interesting family, as 4 of Sevda's siblings are at university or have degrees. Her sister would have gone to university, but decided against it based on her strong muslim beliefs and their clash with the Turkish government's ban on hejab at universities.
Being served lunch was a very pleasant surprise. Given the amount of the food, I dread to think what would have happened if my visit had been expected. Got to drink real milk again (pasturisation is a terrible crime against the sanctity of dairy).
Went to tourist information afterwards and suprised the distinguished man in charge, who told me that I was the first foreigner to come to Tatvan in 2005. Bad news though - chances of getting to the Armenian island churches were minimal, and Nemrut was out of the question, with a 2 metre snowcap. Some Kurdish girls turned up and I ended up asking them to teach me some Kurdish, possibly offending the man at tourist info in the process.
In the evening I went to a dodgy music shop, and spent about an hour listening to music with the guys there, telling them what I wanted burnt onto CD. Back at the hotel, ended up drinking more tea and talking more politics with the Kurdish owner. Sevda's cousin Irfan came to visit me at the hotel and we ended up back at Sevda's place (drinking more tea). Her brother was in, and I found out many interesting things from him.
I hadn't realised that before 1999, the Kurdish language was banned in Turkey and one could go to prison for buying/selling Kurdish music or literature. The paranoia was so intense that they changed green traffic lights in Batman to blue, because the colours of the Kurdish flag are Green, Yellow and Red. To this day, kids are punished at school for using Kurdish, and watching Kurdish satellite t.v. channels (precisely what we were doing at the time) is illegal.
Next stop: tourist info... But on the way there I stumbled into Sevda, and she invited me over to her house. Very welcoming, homely place, with a horde of siblings and cousins constantly popping through. Interesting family, as 4 of Sevda's siblings are at university or have degrees. Her sister would have gone to university, but decided against it based on her strong muslim beliefs and their clash with the Turkish government's ban on hejab at universities.
Being served lunch was a very pleasant surprise. Given the amount of the food, I dread to think what would have happened if my visit had been expected. Got to drink real milk again (pasturisation is a terrible crime against the sanctity of dairy).
Went to tourist information afterwards and suprised the distinguished man in charge, who told me that I was the first foreigner to come to Tatvan in 2005. Bad news though - chances of getting to the Armenian island churches were minimal, and Nemrut was out of the question, with a 2 metre snowcap. Some Kurdish girls turned up and I ended up asking them to teach me some Kurdish, possibly offending the man at tourist info in the process.
In the evening I went to a dodgy music shop, and spent about an hour listening to music with the guys there, telling them what I wanted burnt onto CD. Back at the hotel, ended up drinking more tea and talking more politics with the Kurdish owner. Sevda's cousin Irfan came to visit me at the hotel and we ended up back at Sevda's place (drinking more tea). Her brother was in, and I found out many interesting things from him.
I hadn't realised that before 1999, the Kurdish language was banned in Turkey and one could go to prison for buying/selling Kurdish music or literature. The paranoia was so intense that they changed green traffic lights in Batman to blue, because the colours of the Kurdish flag are Green, Yellow and Red. To this day, kids are punished at school for using Kurdish, and watching Kurdish satellite t.v. channels (precisely what we were doing at the time) is illegal.
posted by nekonote1903 at 10:55 pm
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