The Turk in America

The book, published in 2010 by the University of Utah, was introduced during the March 14-16 Turkish American Leadership Conference in Washington DC. I had gone through its 500 pages but not read it since some of the subjects  in the book are already covered in many books, especially in the two volume “The Genocide of Truth” by Sukru S Aya, “, and in close to one hundred books and articles by Prof.Dr. Turkkaya Ataov, the Turkish International Relations teacher known around the world for his research on the Armenian and other issues.  However, none of Ataov’s  or Sukru Aya’s books are listed in the 28 page Bibliography which includes over 500 books by both  Turkish and foreign writers.  Another important book related mainly to the Missionary activities in Turkey, “Turkiye’deki Amerika – America in Turkey” by Dr. Uygur Kocabasoglu (TAC graduate)  is not included in the Bibliography either, although this is the main topic of discussion in the book. Frank A. Stone’s, “Academies for Anatolia” is in the list.

To be sure, and much to Prof. McCharty’se credit, there are many very interesting revelations in the book, explained in an excellent manner and in great detail. The first chapter, “The Missionaries Depart”, opens with the comments by Pliny Fisk, the first American missionary to the Middle East, presented during his farewell sermon as he left Boston to Turkey:

Judea is inhabited by several interesting classes of men. The principal of these are Mohammedans (1), and Jews; and Roman Catholic, Greek, Armenian and Syrian Christians. The Mohammedeans, who are masters of the country, who posses most of its wealth, and who have the exclusive management of political concerns, are, as you well know, the followers of that artful imposter, who arose in Arabia, about the commencement of the seventh century…” [Read more...]

Ataturk in TBMM (Parliament)

Dedicated To: “19 May 1881: ATATURK at 130 ” & “19 May 1919″

“The foundations of the Ottoman Empire were themselves shattered at that time.
lts existence was threatened with extermination.”

Gentlemen,

I landed at Samsun on the l9 May, l9l9. This was the position at that time:

The group of Powers which included the Ottoman Government had been defeated in the Great War. The Ottoman Army had been crushed on every front. An armistice had been signed under severe conditions. The prolongation of the Great War had left the people exhausted and impoverished.

Those who had driven the people and the country into the World War had fled and now cared for nothing but their own safety. Vahdettin, the degenerate occupant of the throne and the Caliphate, was seeking for some despicable way to save his person and his throne, the only objects of his anxiety. The Cabinet, of which Damat Ferit Pasha was the head, was weak and lacked dignity and courage. lt was subservient to the will of the Sultan alone and agreed to every proposal that could protect its members and their sovereign. [Read more...]

This book tells about what happened to the Greeks of Anatolia at the end of First World War. For many years the Greek version of  events misled the people, never accepting that it was a blunder on  their part and caused untold death and destruction in Anatolia and  resettlement of 1,500,000 Anatolian refuges. Louis de Berniere, a  British soldier whose grandparent fought in the Dardanelle battles, tells about this event,truthfully, including the life of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, from his birth to 1923 when the Republic of Turkey was established.

I visited Kayaköy several times, which is a wonderful place, as you have described in your book. The stories on the last days of the Otoman Empire, the population exchange and the life of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk are very moving. As you have told HDN- SW, Birds Without Wings is the Turkish ”War and Peace.” Thank you for being a friend of Turkey.

On behalf of Turkish Library and Museum in America Project Working Group
Yuksel Oktay, PE
Istanbul, Turkey and Washington NJ

500 Places to Eat

A new book has been added to the long list of excellent books published by National Geographic over the years. The latest one prepared by the book division is:

Food Journeys of a Lifetime – 500 Extraordinary Places to Eat Around the Globe.

The oversize book has 320 pages and begins with a section on The Taste of Travel and covers the following subjects in 9 chapters with an index and an Acknowledgement section.

1.  Specialties & Ingredients

2.  Outstanding Markets – fig harvest from Turkey

3.  Seasonal delights – includes old fashioned candy stores in Turkey and balik pazaril

4.  In the Kitchen – nothing about Turkey

5. Favorite Street Foods – nothing about Turkey

6. Great Food Towns  – historic restaurants include Asitane in Isatnbul

7. Ultimate Luxuries – nothing about Turkey

8. The Best Wine, Beer & More

9. Just Deserts- sweet shops, shops and cafes in Istanbul’s Kadıkoy district

Turkey and Istanbuare included in several sections, beginning with “Fig Harvest” on page 23. The full page article begins with: Southwest Turkey has the perfect climate and souil for growing a fruit that localpeople regard as sacred.”

Ali Muhiddin Haci Bekir store is included ion the list of Old-fashioned Candy Stores on page 56. On page 59, Istanbul’s Balik Pazari is featured which states that Istanbul’s covered fish market has a reputation for selling the best fish and shellfish available in Turkey.

The Top Ten Historic Restaurants includes Asitane in Istanbul.

A full page photograph of Kilic Ali Mosque with Topkapi Palace in the backround (mistakenly referred to as the Ortakoy Mosque,) is given on Page 296 with another full page article on Page 297, Sweet Treats in Istanbul, describing the tea houses, sweet shops and cafe’s in istanbul’s Kadikoy district.

However, there is no mention of the Gaziantep cuisine available not only in Gaziantep but in all major cities of Turkey. It is a major work with many photographs but omissions about the 3rd best known and loved cuisine in the world. Let us hope that the next edition of the book will include coverage of excellent dishes found only in Turkey.

Yuksel Oktay, PE

10 March 2011, Gaziantep

Dorling Kindersley Ltd. , Sr. Editor Debra Clapson, Publisher Andrew Heritage,  (www.dk.com)

Timelines of World History is an excellent reference book, a product of fifteen years of self-study by John B. Teeple, whose great uncle, a civil engineer and a devotee of world history, gave him the idea and most of the material. Unfortunately, Mr. Teeple died in 2002 before the book was published.

The book, first published in 2002, has been reprinted in 2003 and 2006, hence thousands of copies are available at libraries accross the USA. It begins with the Origins of Life on Earth and concludes at the outset of the 3rd Millenium.. The first section covers the 10,000 to 500 BC span and advances through the years to the period from 1800 to 2005 in five year intervals, full of maps, photographs, list of dynasties and historical facts. It is a very useful reference book and I enjoyed going throught its pages, which will be a good reading material, perhaps for the next 15 years. It is close to 800 pages. [Read more...]

Altan Zeki Unver

According to the latest census, there are over 32,000 villages in Turkey located in 3,200 Municipalities and 81 Provinces. It is well known that many people who move from villages to cities never cut their relations with their roots and either continue owning homes in the villages or visit regularly. While growing up in Safranbolu, our greatest joy was to visit Cal, a village near Eflani, where my maternal grandparents used to live before they moved to Istanbul but kept their home. During my many trips to Turkey in the last 15 years, I visited Cal several times and many other villages across Turkey , including Aknehir in Hatay last week, which is one of a few with a library. Villages are wonderful places to visit even though some are in poor shape.

One of the greatest triumphs of the early educators was to establish the ”Village Institutes” . Many authors have written about the life in the villages, including Yakup Sabri Karaosmanoglu (Yaban) and Mahmut Makal (Bizim Koy.) Recently, the members of the TAC graduates were made aware of another author, Altan Unver, whose  book “The Road Less Chosen”, published in 2005, is his personal account of Rural development in Turkey from 1965 to 2005.

Altan Unver, a graduate of Tarsus American College 1954 – 1957 and  Robert College in Istanbul , 1961, went to Texas for postgraduate work. He received B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering and M.A. degree in Economics between 1961-1965. After several jobs, including at Atlas Chemical in Wilmington , Delaware , Altan decided to return to Turkey . This is how he describes his decision in the introduction of his book:

“… I have not yet decided what to do upon returning to Turkey. Chemical engineering, lecturing, completing my military service, teaching at village schools and in addition to all that (or instead of all that) conducting voluntary work camps – all these are passing through my mind.. But regardless of the road taken, the aim is the same: to give Turkey some things from myself, be able to do something no matter how modest it may be..”

The 150 page book describes in 2 parts the efforts of Altan Unver including the establishment of voluntary work camp movement in Turkey in 1958 while he was at Robert College . This is followed by the creation of “Social Service Club of Tarsus American College” in 1965, which paves the way to the establishment of  “Turkiye Kalkinma vakfi – Development Foundation of Turkey) in 1971. In Part II, selected examples of TKV’s field experience is given, including wheat improvement program, campaign against Varroa in beekeeping, poultry production program, livestock improvement model and others.

Yuksel Oktay

22 Agustos 2009

During our high school years at Talas and Tarsus, books by Mark Twain were among the many that we read with great joy, including Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. To many, Mark Twain was the Lincoln of the American literature, whose real name was Sam Clemens (1835-1910). Among his wonderful travelogues are “Roughing It’’, “Following the Equator”; “Life on the Mississippi” and “The Innocents Abroad” published in 1869.

Twain was a reporter who joined the six month expedition to Europe and the Middle East on board the steamer “Quaker City.” The pleasure tour had been organized by the famous pastor Henry Ward Beecher and Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman (who is famous for burning Atlanta.) Neither of these notable made the trip citing other obligations. Twain roomed with a young man from Elmira New York and after a visit to Elmira he meets his friend’s sister Olivia. She would become his wife and the mother of the couple’s three daughters.
The Innocents Abroad is a long book of 500 pages. Twain travels through Florence, Rome, London, Paris and meets Czar Alexander II in the Crimea. He tours Syria, Lebanon, Greece and Israel and spends some time in Istanbul, known as Constantinople at the time. In Capter 34 (pages 233 -241), Twain tells the story of his visits to a Slave-Girl Market, his confrontations with dogs in the streets, experience with nargile and indulgence in a Turkish bath. The chapter opens with the following statement:

“Mosques are plenty, churches are plenty, graveyards are plenty, but morals and whisky are scarce. The Koran does not permit Muhammadans to drink. Their natural instincts do not permit them to be moral.”

At the end of the chapter, Twain writes about his dislike of the Turkish coffee, stating that , “of all the unchristian beverages that ever passed my lips, Turkish coffee is the worst.” Now, even Starbucks sells Turkish coffee.

This is an interesting book with a lot of funny episodes but certainly not in praise of a country which he saw  only a part of, Turkey.

Yuksel Oktay

6 August 2009

By Ercument Kilic, in Turkish, 2 Volumes, October 2008, Babil yayinlari, istanbul

Very few books have been written over the years by the Turkish-Americans or Turks in America as compared to other ethnic groups on the Turkish experience in America. The number of Turkish-Americans is estimated to be around 300,000 although the President of “Turkish Coalition of America” gave a figure of 500,000 during a recent conference at Bahcesehir University in Istanbul on May 26, 2009. Even though Turks started coming to America in late 19^th century and early 20^th century, they did not establish a large community like the Greeks, Armenians, Arabs and others who also migrated from the Ottoman lands and Anatolia and many Turks returned to Turkey for various reasons, including many prominent members of the Turkish community and wrote books in their homeland (1).

There are over 60 Turkish-American associations in the US, some dating back to 1930s. However, most of these organizations were established after the 1970s. An umbrella organization, Federation of Turkish-American Associations (FTAA) was established in 1956 which had only 7 member component associations in 1973. This number eventually grew to 12 in 1973 and now stands around 50.

In 1979, another umbrella organization was founded in Washington DC with the support of the Turkish Ambassador to the U.S. and two associations in WDC.  Its members include most of the component associations of the FTAA but also individual members, perhaps around 400, as the exact membership is not usually mentioned publicly. Therefore, this is a hybrid organization which has gone through a difficult period during the past several years, but now pursuing its primary goal of promoting U.S. – Turkish relations.

ATAA is not a lobby organization, as stated in an article by Presxident-Eect Gunay Evinch published in the Turkish Daily News last year on November 1, 2008 (2). It holds annual Conference in WDC and lately in different cities and provides support services to its members and sometimes even speaks on behalf of the entire Turkish-American community. During its 30 years of existence, many individuals served as the President of ATAA, including Ercument Kilic, who served from 2006 – 2008 (3). Last year, Ercument Kilic published a book in two volumes which basically the story of his 30 years in America and covers his term in office with very little on the formative years of ATAA and its relation with FTAA. There are hundreds of photographs covering a wide variety of subjects, but mainly those of the author taken with important people from Turkey and the U.S. including President Bush. Volume 1 is 279 pages, and Volume 2 is 312 pages, and each is sold separately (TL 22.00 and TL 26.50) although they are available at reduced price from Amazon.com.

I read the two volumes  during two long flights between New York and Istanbul in February 2009 and took notes. It was advertised in the internet and a brief review was published in Hurriyet newspaper under Oktay Eksi’s column, ‘’ABD’deki Turkiye – Turkey in USA.’’ Aksam newspaper published a full page interview with Ercument Kilic, complete with his photograph and Ercument’s suggestions on how to be strong in America.

Evidently, Turkish Gazete, published in America, ran an article stating that  the book would create an  earthquake in Ankara’’, which is yet to happen, as I have not heard of anyone who has even read the book, including former or present presidents of prominent Turkish-American organizations in the U.S. If I have missed anyone, my apologies. I believe the book should be read by everyone who has volunteered or has been hired to work with Turkish-American associations and those how are interested in the improvement of Turkish – American relations.

First, the book has a wealth of information on the history and the practice of lobbying in the United States and how ‘’Turks’’ still lag behind other countries in presenting a true and accurate face of Turkey.

There are 6 main sections with the first one presenting examples of real lobby activities in the U.S. In the second section, the author presents his own lobby activities in Turkey and the U.S. and under sub-section 15 makes reference to late Ahmet Ertegun, claiming that he admitted the Armenian genocide and to Senator Robert Byrd (sub-section 17) and his tireless efforts in defending Turkey in the U.S.

In Section 3, the author explains how Turkey does lobby activities and which paid U.S. Lobby organizations are used. Sub-Section 2 is devoted to the activities of Turks in America and the civil organizations, including ATAA and FTAA, mostly narrating the lack of success in many areas, referring to the annual Turkish March on Madison Avenue as a failure which the author states that it is never attended by Americans (P.148.)

In Section 4, the author explains why Turkey needs lobby activities, especially to fight the anti-Turkish media. In Section 4, dangers that face Turkey, from banking wars to Armenian issue, is described, making a note of the Armenian genocide Museum under construction which will be a tremendous headache for the Turks. Section 6 describes the shares for sale and those responsible for this in Turkey.

The second volume has 5 sections and several annexes. The first section is ”The Sale of America, Early Years. The second section is ”How is America Being Sold Today? The third section is ”’The Organizations that manage USA. The fourth section is ”How does the Official Pyramid of American castle Works. The fifth section is ”Suggestions for Solutions.. Road Map for Lobbying.

There are 15 Annexes, all related to the United States. There is nothing on the work of the Past Presidents of the Assembly or the Federation or individuals who have been fighting the anti-Turkish movement in the U.S. for years. No mention or photographs of the Proclamations that have been issued over the years by various Cities and States on important anniversary dates. Annex 8 presents a List of all the Armenian organizations in the USA, but no list of the Turkish-American organizations is given.  Annex 12 gives a list of some of the Armenian monuments around the world but there is no list of Ataturk monuments abroad. As President of ATAA, perhaps one of the things that he could have done was to make sure that at least one city in the USA has a monument dedicated to the greatest leader of the 20th century, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. The final chapter of Volume one is devoted to Fettullah Gulen movement in the U.S. and around the world

There is much more that can be written about this two volume book which has its strong and weak points. Nevertheless, congratulations to Ercument Kilic for taking the time to write the book and I hope he will discuss some of his proposals in person in front of Turkish-American organizations in order to inspire them to work for Turkish causes and defend Turkey in these troubled times and perhaps write a third volume on the impact of President Obama on Turkish-American relations.

Yuksel Oktay

June 13, 2009, Washington New Jersey