Of Tokat and Taksim

Dear friends and family,

This weekend in Turkey was an adventure. Last Wednesday, I flew to Tokat, checked into a hotel, and began follow-up research for my book. I stayed until Sunday morning.

A view of Tokat castle from the seventeenth-century Voyvoda Han

The all-marble entry way to Tokat's Meydan Mosque

I had low expectations for this trip to Tokat, since I had little time to prepare ahead of time for in-depth research. However, it turned into a very productive venture. I met with a professor at Gaziosmanpaşa University the first full day I was there. He agreed to read my book draft and send comments. It's important to have other local historians do this type of review, because there are some important errors that they alone might catch initially.

The early crop of kiraz cherries

On the second full day on Friday, I reconnected with my grad school friend Zekeriya, who has become a well known and respected professor in Tokat. He's moving to a lucrative new position in the capital Ankara in the fall. They'll be sore here to lose him.

Cattle in a mountain meadow opposite Tokat

Although Zekeriya had to go to his hometown on Saturday to see his ailing father, he connected me with a group of his friends, and these friends made it their mission to give me a good tour. On Saturday morning, a local renaissance man and history aficionado named Hasan shared his research with me about his hometown of Tokat and passed along a lot of useful computer files. He's a twenty-first-century version of the nineteenth-century Tokati mover and shakers I study in my research. Another new friend, Ekrem, was the director of the local museum, and he gave me an expert tour of Tokat's major monuments.

That evening a group of ten of us crossed the bucolic Kazova plain below Tokat and ascended to the high mountain meadows south of town. The gravel roads up were rocky and treacherous. When we reached the mountain top meadows, surrounded by groves of oak, we walked to a brick cottage for the shepherds and made a barbecue of roasted lamb, eggplant, tomato, peppers, and onion. I refused some of the more "delectable" cuts of meat on offer.

Apart from the hearty companionship of the company, I really enjoyed getting to taste the sour cherries in the village below the mountain meadow. I also liked the ever patient Anatolian shepherd dogs that rested around us. These dogs are working dogs; they are fixed with sharp metal collars to protect them from the wolves they may have to battle in the high country.

An Anatolian Shepherd doggie hard at work

Grilling out (Ekrem Bey standing with staff; Hasan Erdem preparing peppers)

A feast of lamb and stew inside the cabin; Hasan -- a local history buff -- in red

So, I had a very full and eventful visit to Tokat. However, my adventure was to continue on my return to Istanbul. While I was gone in Tokat, protests had irrupted in the city center of Taksim Square. The trigger for the protests was the proposed destruction of the last major green space in the center city for a commercial development. The true underlying cause of the protest is the fear of left-leaning, secular-minded Turks that the current president, a center-right Islamist named Tayyıb Erdoğan, is "drunk" with ten years of unchallenged power. Erdoğan denies strenuously that he is any kind of king or dictator and points out that his party was democratically elected.

It reads "Freedom without Restraint"

Although Erdoğan has presided over a period of prolonged economic growth, average Turks are frustrated with their prospects. As in many market societies, wealth tends to accumulate to the wealthy here. Out of thirty some OECD nations, Turks rank themselves the least content with their lot. Erdoğan and his AK Party have unleashed a series of stodgy sumptory laws that have upset many secular-minded Turks who don't want the state to legislate religious morality.

The most famous police relic in the square

On Saturday, police tried to chase out protesters from Taksim Square with rubber bullets and tear gas. The police failed. I went up and took these pictures from the Square this cloudy afternoon. Hundreds of thousands of people were crowding into Taksim Square or its nearby promenade Istiklal Street. Something like 1,800 people have been arrested.

Reminiscent of the state capitol in Madison?

I'm a comfortable distance away from the protests, but many of my neighbors started banging on pots and pans and switching lights on and off at 9 pm sharp. That mass domestic protest lasted for about half-an-hour of continuous din.

Don't worry. I'll stay alert and out of trouble. I think these protests need not affect this upcoming NJCU student trip abroad.

jkbinturkey