We woke and a few of us began to wander around town.  It was about the time the town square was waking up and kids off to school.  They were wearing their uniforms and carrying their books.  It was fun to watch the town of Guzelurt wake up. Guze means beautiful.  Yurt means homeland. Our morning meal was at the home of a mother and daughter- a traditional meal of  potato pastry, cucumbers tea, hard boiled eggs, breads, honey, butter, tomatoes, olives—all home grown.

It was charming and they were very welcoming. We found out that Meli had built a room onto their house so they could rent it out like a bed and breakfast.

We spent some time at the house talking about various subjects. For instance 90% of the people in Anatolia own their homes- they are built for them by their parents. They don’t need mortgages since they build as they can afford to.

Apple tea is a tourist tea.  Different olives have different types of curing. The curing is typically done by placing the olives in baskets with a layer of olives, rock salt and fig leaves.  You hang the basket and the salt penetrates the olives and cooks the olives. The same tree can bear both green and black olives. Kalamata olives are treated with vinegar.

Meli shared her experience of first coming to Guzelyurt. She was traveling with Rick Steves on one of his tours.  She had been doing tours for cruise ships and found most people not really interested in the historical and cultural aspects of Turkey.  One afternoon in traveling with Rick she decided it would be best to have a picnic, so she went into the stores and purchased groceries. She then began to look for a good place to lunch, but it was raining so hard she could not find a good place.  After quite an experience she found the Hotel Karballa, which is where they had lunch.  After that she fell in love with the town and the people at the Hotel.

After the Roman period was over, Christians living in this area no longer had to hide in underground cities, and this area became the center of orthodox Christianity. Father Gregory pondered what they could do to pull the Christians together, so he went to the Black Sea area to contemplate what to do. While there he realized they needed to have a better education of religion so he began to establish monasteries, where they could teach and educate the people.  Here he established the oldest Monastery in 385 CE, now called Gregory church. 

Christians began to live very comfortable lives, until around 1074 AD Christians, under the threat of Arabians, either had to convert or go underground. The Turks came back, wiped out the Arabian threat and told the Christians they could be as they wanted. In 1360 the Ottomans allowed the people of Guzelyurt to mint coins in their own name and these coins have been found in great cities like Egypt.  They also were involved in trading iron and stained glass.

During WW1 the British wanted to split Anatolia and choke the Ottoman Empire, go through the Dardanelles to get to Russia.  The Turks stopped the British, French and therefore Communism, which took hold in Russia.  This was the beginning of the end of the British Empire. In Turkey, 1920-1922, Ataturk (father of the Turkish republic) began an independence war, pushed the British and French out and stopped the threat to Turkey. In 1922 the British, French, Italians, and Greeks signed a treaty with the new Turks and the new republic.  Europe wanted no Ottoman Empire i.e. no Muslims.  Europe was willing to acknowledge Turkey, but Turkey had to take all the Muslims out of Europe, so there was an exchange of all the Muslims for Christians. All the Muslims were displaced from Europe and all the Christians displaced out of Turkey.  The families and peoples were not given a choice in the matter.  Turkey also had to clear all the debts the Ottoman Empire owed to other countries and they abolished Sultanates and the Caliphate. 

Meli’s family lived in Thessalonica with Sephardic Jews and they had to leave and march to Istanbul with just a few of their belongings. Her grandmother was pregnant with her father. The family in the house we visited moved to Greece, lost their identity, their pictures, everything.  Christians from this town had to walk to Greece. Mary strongly recommended reading “Birds Without Wings.” Meli’s parents were never given a visa to visit their home town in Greece and her grandparents never went back to Greece. Those that went to Greece longed for Turkey and those in Turkey longed for Greece.  In the 1970’s grandkids returned to Turkey, to Guzelyurt, and they call the town the “house of peace.”Meli then began to talk about Islam. There is a common denominator with all religions—they must make the people happy and help meet the social, economic, political needs of the people. If the needs are met by another institution the religion is dropped.  The example she gave

Catholics eating fish on Friday.  Perhaps it was the need for nutrition, perhaps there were economic benefits. The needs are no longer necessary, therefore the rule drops out of sight.  For Muslims it was not drinking wine.  Why? Because of the heat they would get drunk easily.  Or not eating pork—it was because pork was not well treated. These were secular issues that then became so-called religious issues.  In Islam, what percentage of the inheritance is given to whom is governed by civil law.  Obviously there was a need at some point to have such a law. The practical needs of the people dictate religion.  If we lived on a volcanic island we would pray to the god who controls the volcano.

Hinduism started in a society with a dramatic caste system. One can’t move within the caste so they decided that if you did good here, when you died you would come back in another caste i.e. reincarnation.

In Islam the focus is on the happiness, worldliness, well-being of human beings. We are to be well and happy in this life.  There are 5 pillars in Islam:

1. Believe in 1 God, and Mohammad is a prophet
2. Pray 5 times  a day
3. Fast during Ramazan
4. Give alms
5. Make a pilgrimage to Mecca

She compared this to an architectural form: take 4 of the pillars down but the dome still stands.  Pillar # 1 is the dome, carved in a rock.  To submit oneself to Islam is to know “God is One and Mohammad is Prophet.

There are no rules of baptism or circumcision.  In the Koran there are 28 other prophets, such as Noah, Abraham, David, Jesus. There are another 100,000 prophets mentioned without names. If you believe in your heart, you are Muslim.

The Pillars are for the well-being of man. For instance, before you pray you are to wash-- that is for hygiene. You pray 1.5 hrs per day: 25 min, at sunrise, 20 min. at noon, 25min. in the afternoon, 15min. at night, and 25min. at bed time.  This starts when one reaches puberty.   She then showed us the way in which they pray.  The exercise keeps them limber and flexible. It is also a way to take time to yourself and sense that you are important. The prayers are set and all prayers say the same thing. The objective is to stay in a posture and stretch as long as possible.  The prayer is “I’m a good person, God let me stay a good person.”

During Ramazan they fast, fasting is a way to feed the mind. The month they fast changes 10 days each year so in 33 years time there would have been a 330 day rotation.  They begin to fast at puberty, but not before. They eat and drink nothing.  When they break fast they must do it with others. They are awakened at dawn when they then decide to fast or not, then they fall back to sleep.  When they waken they begin their fast.  It is a form of control.  They identify what gives them pleasure and they remind themselves not to be happy around those things.  There is typically an internal conflict when fasting, but it builds self esteem.  One point is that when one is hungry, regardless of who they are they all crave water and bread--“all equal as teeth of a comb.”  This is also a form of humility.

Ramazan is a time to be happy, many businesses close during the month

Islam also teaches that hatred should not last as long as it takes a scarf to dry in the sun. Fasting also provides a rest to the body and a cleansing of the body.

There are 99 different names for God and that is the number of beads on their string of worry beads.  They use prayer rugs called Seccada. 

One of the sayings in Islam is that “working is the best form of worship.”  To be happy one must take care of their mind, organs and physical ability.

There are no leaders in the Islamic faith. There are positions like elders in the Christian church. These are ones who go to theology school and receive a degree. They must also pass civil exams. They then become teachers themselves, both men and women.  There are Friday services in the mosques between lunch and afternoon prayers.   Here there is a preaching on a subject from the Koran.  A question was asked about the Ayatollah in Iran. He is really like a prime minister.  Turkey is not a religious state, but they are using 1400 years of Islamic law so it’s not secular.  A political position using Islamic law is called Seriat.

Giving of alms: sharing the wealth. If you don’t owe anyone anything 1/40^th of your wealth each year goes to someone who needs it.  This excludes money owed to a bank or owed for a business. You go to someone and find out a need they have and then you meet that need.

Going to Mecca: you go there once during your life. Once there you take off your clothes and robe yourself in a white shroud, which represents not showing one’s status.

The mosques include Turkish baths, orphanages, insane asylums, places for prayer and stores on the outside to financially support the mosque.

We loaded into our trusty bus and headed for a Monastery built in 385 AD. Driving into the mountains we saw many holes and/or caves in the mountains. We were going to the first monastery in Anatolia--perhaps in the Christian world--called Kirsi Camsi- St. Gregory’s (it is now a mosque). Gregory was from this town. There is a miracle related to Gregory’s camel—apparently the camel sat down and from there water came up out of the land, so they built a church there. Ayazma is holy water, so they built a stairway down to Ayazma (like a well house).  The church became so important for the Orthodox Church that Czar Nicholas from Russia brought the pulpit.  There is a crown for the czar and on each side is the word ‘Allah’, and pictures of Jesus and John on one side and Gregory and Mary on the other. This is apparently the first church where there was music. After becoming a mosque, the frescoes were white-washed. The church was used as a pilgrimage center for the orthodox for many years.

For many years people lived in the surrounding rocks, but have been moved out because of the threat of danger.

Once again we’re back on the bus.  Meli stopped the bus to take pictures of a caravan of women on donkeys.

We arrived in the Cappadocia area and our first stop was an underground city. It was first built by the Hittites 1800 years before Christ. It was then taken over by the Christians for the purpose of hiding so they could maintain their faith. There were various rooms: living rooms, birthing rooms (they had animals to keep the babies and mothers warm), kitchen, church, temporary cemetery, air chambers, wineries (to make them calm), storage bins, and bathrooms.  There were no lights because the light might give away their hiding place, so they moved around in the dark. To stay safe they would roll large stones in front of the doors and lodge them with stone slats so no one could get in.  It was an amazing place.

We then went to the Cappadocia Museum, now a hotel, to stay for the night.