Icing on the Cake

Things are heating up here in Turkey as clashes are progressing between the PKK, Kurdish Workers Party, and the Turkish government. Reports of thirteen dead Turkish military soldiers have been made public, but rumors of over a hundred dead are spreading. Turkey is looking to pursue the PKK into Iraq at all costs. In the midst of this turmoil the U.S. has also recognized the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turkish forces “genocide” (CNN news, webpage) in World War 1. A report by CNN news is quoted:

“President Bush and key administration figures lobbied hard against the measure, saying it would create unnecessary headaches for U.S. relations with Turkey.

The full House could soon vote on the genocide resolution. A top Turkish official warned Thursday that consequences "won't be pleasant" if it approves the measure.

The resolution arrives at a particularly sensitive point in U.S.-Turkish relations. The United States has urged Turkey not to send its troops over the border into northern Iraq to fight Kurdish separatist rebels, who launched some cross-border attacks against Turkish targets. Watch a report on the gathering storm along the border »

The Turkish military is poised to strike across the border to fight the group -- the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK -- a move opposed by the Bush administration. The Turkish parliament could give approval for the incursion into Iraq as early as next week.”

Potentially severing ties with a NATO ally, the U.S. will likely no longer be able to funnel a significant amount of its forces through turkey into Iraq. As turkey has been a strategic location for U.S. forces.
The U.S. fears that turmoil in Northern Iraq could disrupt the stability established by the U.S. forces. However, the Turkish Prime Minister seems determined to pursue the aggressors. Things will likely become very interesting in the weeks to come. Keep me in your prayers.

Pamukkale and Library in Ephuses

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Ramadon Holiday

We have made it back it Istanbul safe and sound after a week long trip through western turkey. Traveling down to Paumkkale known for its calcium terraces then to Fethiya, a resort town on the Mediterranean, and finally to Ephuses. Along the way we met up with another student from Yeditepe, Ishmail, traveling home for the Bayram holiday. Ishmail quickly became our unofficial tour guide while welcoming us to this family and village.
While in the village we toured his family farm, eating freshly picked grapes and figs. For lunch, his mother made for us a totally homemade meal of bread, cheese, tomatoes, butter and roasted corn. Later that evening we went to "Iftar" the breaking of daily fasting at 7:00 pm where the village joins to eat and fellowship.
We traveled to Fethiya that night in the back of a pickup taking in the fresh mountain air and beautiful starlit sky, quite a contrast from Istanbul. Ölüdeniz was a beautiful beach, mostly populated by English tourists, a short distance from Fethiya where we soaked up the sun and did a considerable amount of snorkeling. Our group also took a 12 island tour through the Mediterranean on a sail boat.
Additionally Ölüdeniz was my first experience at a topless beach; however, many of the exhibitionists were retired, buxom, English woman. It did spark a small desire to bring the speedo back into popularity in the U.S. as it is a very popular little article for Europeans. Again, most of the spandex clad men where will fed English men.
Our final stop was in Selçuk outside of Ephesus. The ruins where astounding. Only four to five percent of the city has been unearthed. While in Selçuk we met some very friendly men who own a rug shop and they invited us for nargile, and some great conversation. I took a look at their carpet collection and was awestruck at the magnificent works of art, and the price. I settled for purchasing a few scarves. These men were actually Kurdish from the city of Van in eastern turkey. It just so happens that these men are cousins with another man I met in Istanbul through a friend back in Montana. We ended up smoking, drinking wine and chatting in their shop until 1:30 am.
Turkey really does have a beautiful country side which to me is overshadowed by Istanbul's popularity. It's nice to be "home" but I loved the quiet small town atmospheres.

Baffling

Today all the foreign exchange students took an hour and a half bus ride to the police station as the residents permit applications submitted by the International Office here on campus where incorrect. That’s right 50 applications, all wrong. Our applications, which consisted of several papers, where sent back from the Police station to the international office in a completely disorganized mess. Everyone’s info was mixed together and many papers dealing with our proof of registration at Yeditepe where lost. However, after spending three hours at the police station there where five of us that found out we would not be able to file anything today and our trip was done in vein, but had to wait for the rest of the group even though the Yeditepe bus would not be taking us back to campus. So we sent an additional two hours until five o’clock when they closed for the group. On the following day we would have to get back to the same location on our own accord as Yeditepe would not be furnishing a bus for us and complete the process on our own w/o any assistance from the International Office. Let me just add that this trip was much like taking a trip to the D.M.V but w/o air conditioning, few speak English and much more of a pain in the ass.

The American student’s found out that they would have to set up a Turkish bank account containing 1,200 YTL in order to receive a permit. Here is the dilemma, in order to set up an account one needs a residence permit and in order to receive a residence permit one needs a bank account. However, on a large sign posted outside the office are requirements for U.S. students filing for a residence permit. It states that individuals need a copy of a U.S. bank statement containing at least 1,200 dollars. Dan, one of the Americans, had a print out from his banks website containing all the necessary information but it was not accepted as it needed to be notarized. They informed us that a receipt of a 1,200 dollar transaction into YTL would, in some way, be more official however this a percentage taken off of transactions and in this case we would be losing 400 dollars to obtain a receipt!

We are going to contact the U.S. consulate tomorrow in hopes of some definitive answers. I’ve taken the orginazional/efficiency of the U.S. for granted; this has been such a stressful ordeal. I look forward to the days of actually using technology to make processes like this so much easier. I’ve realized how advanced America has truly become in information processing. We are the hardest working country and it truly shows. It’s a hard transition from such efficiency to literally none.