Alternative holiday this year, new entrants to the sector has been serving Elizan Hotels in Fethiye. In fact, Elizan Hotel, Hotel Olive Garden began its activities last year, the new name. I guess the change of name was also changed according to the operator.

Elizan Hotel ‘in the slogan “Prices alternative”. Summer term in April, the prices will be at reasonable prices from the hotel at the moment rezerzayon can do.

The meaning of the new name of the hotel really nice, “Athan sound in the sky.”
www.elizanotel.com

Visiting the Holy Umrah
Realization is a first …
Born in a place …
Eyüp Sultan Mosque right at the …
International Trade Fair and Cultural Center Feshane …
Regulating the organization with Umrah Umrah agencies want to go to all those in this fair
will meet …
Agents, their differences, their alternatives, to show how good they are at this fair …
Also, those who want to go directly to Umrah will talk face to face.
Those who want to go to Umrah also will evaluate all the alternatives, their hearts agencies
will be selected with comfort.
Wrong grab referrals.
Umrah pilgrimage, after this fair will be more a safe and peaceful.

Alternative Tourism
Again …
In almost every province of Turkey, especially for the conservative Family holiday facilities that offer alternative tourism companies in this exhibition are situated.
Domestic and international travel alternatives in this fair will offer.
Face to face with a presentation of the cheapest direct presentation will be made.
In this fair will exhibit all the beauty of plants.
Activities they offer opportunities in this fair will be forwarded directly to the interlocutor.
Campaigns, they will.
Want to go on holiday trips or families will decide deliberately.
This fair, and Umrah, and a new page will open in alternative tourism, quality of service will lead çikmasina forward.
The fair, the number of Umrah to artiracak rapidly, be found to contribute the development of alternative tourism.

Tags: alternative holiday, campaigns, cheap Umrah, Umrah organization, Umrah and Alternative Tourism Fair

2 hours away from Istanbul in the Quarry in the village of Balikesir in Erdek district is serving. An alternative more in terms of Alternative Hotel Balikesir city.At the hotel, separate pools for men and women are. A pool for children is also available. All of the rooms have sea views. The hotel rooms feature a sea view are indispensable.

Go up to wander around without Erdek’s been no return.
ok long and wide beaches, based on BC before the most tourist attraction in the town of Bal?kesir’s Erdek is one of the town.

As follows where you can see over Erdek’de:

Spread over approximately 11 km2 area which is partly standing ancient city Kyzikos. At a distance of 9 km from the city center Erdek.

Today, only ruins of the monastery view with the cherry was used by the Greeks to 1923.

There are 5 units at the top Seyitgazi castle. Castle is 5 km north Muhla.

Turkey’s leading natural beach Erdek have. Narli, January and villages surrounding a natural beach is surrounded by Ilhan. There are beaches along the accommodation centers.

Founded in 1948, Open Air Museum are on display in the ruins of ancient times.

Balsan was very fortunate to receive permission from the Turkish Government to visit the eastern borderlands of Turkey in that period, as he had been told in an initial enquiry to the Turkish Consulate in Paris that “regarding the visit … to the Van district, I hasten to inform you that … the districts detailed in your letter are incorporated in a prohibited area.” Republican Turkey was naturally suspicious of representatives of imperialist France who, following the defeat of the Ottoman Turks in World War I, had sought to incorporate parts of southeastern Anatolia into their overseas possessions. What’s more, the eastern provinces had been rocked by a series of rebellions by the region’s dominant ethnic group, the Kurds. The last and most serious, in the mountainous Alevi Kurdish district of Dersim (modern Tunceli), had only just been quelled.Within a couple of days, Balsan and his wife, accompanied now by the enthusiastic Setke Bey, were on a train bound for remote Elaz??. The Frenchman was not enamored with the Anatolian landscape, ‘pretty though it is most of the way, it’s all pretty much of a muchness’

Balsan’s firm saw Anatolia as a source of wool for “uniform cloth” which, in the months leading up to the outbreak of World War II, was in very short supply. Turkey, with an ultra-protectionist economy, was in desperate need of foreign currency. Money talks, and a few months after his initial enquiries Balsan learned that not only had “the Turkish Government agreed” but that he would be given a “guide provided by the government … to smooth out all complications in the military areas.” So confident was the Frenchman of success that his wife, Marie-Laure “at once decided to accompany me.” Balsan’s account of his travels, “The Sheep and the Chevrolet: A journey through Kurdistan,” would go on to win him the prestigious “Prix Gallois 1945 of the Societe de Geographie de France.”

Capitals old and new

The couple reached ?stanbul in style, on the Simplon-Orient Express. But Balsan leaves us with few impressions of one of the world’s greatest cities, saying, “I would not be so foolhardy as to attempt to describe ?stanbul; after [Pierre] Loti and [Claude] Farrere it would be presumptuous.” He spends rather more time on the city which had replaced ?stanbul as capital of the new republic, Ankara, which he reached on the overnight train. The station he describes as “constructed in the cubist style and furnished with every modern amenity” and expressed his admiration for a city where “the size and length of the avenues planted with trees already well-grown were on a scale with the buildings, a little too vast for my taste but most effective when viewed as a whole.” But Balsan was not here to admire Ankara’s fine modern architecture but to chase sheep, and soon found himself face to face with the director of “Zootechnical and Veterinary Services,” who told him that “we have chosen as your guide one of our youngest and most brilliant veterinary officers, Setke Bey.”
Kebabs and a Chevrolet

Within a couple of days, Balsan and his wife, accompanied now by the enthusiastic Setke Bey, were on a train bound for remote Elaz??. The Frenchman was not enamored with the Anatolian landscape, “pretty though it is most of the way, it’s all pretty much of a muchness.” He was more struck by the impact the railroad had on what was then a very remote, rural region, writing: “The great stations of Caesarea [Kayseri], Sivas and Malatya were scenes of animation alive with chatter. The passing through of the train was an event, the Messenger of the Republic; people came to see it even if they had no one to meet.”

Despite the presence of Setke Bey, the travelers were the objects of suspicion in Elaz??, with both the police and gendarme scrutinizing their travel documents doubtfully. To compound matters, the hotel was a “regular heat and fly-trap” where the owner received them with “a suspicious affability” and the smell of the evening meal, mutton kebab, overpowering. Still, things improved the next day with the arrival of the car which would take the travelers on their East Anatolian sheep chase “a magnificent Chevrolet shining like a wardrobe mirror” — and its driver, Halil.
A new order

The road east from Elaz?? was awful, with “gaping trenches a yard wide” but the countryside, then with the harvest in full swing, looked, to Balsan’s practiced eye, prosperous. He attributed this in part to Atatürk’s reforms, noting, “It should not be forgotten how the Ghazi’s legislation has assisted agriculture. Tithes, consisting more than a third of the imperial revenue, were abolished in 1925. The new taxes that replaced them are levied on income, not on the area of land farmed, and the old animal taxes have been reduced by about thirty five percent.”

The Frenchman was aware that the region he was entering, then predominantly Kurdish in character, had, until the deportations of World War I, also been inhabited by Armenian Christians. He mentioned this to the zealous young Setke Bey, who replied, “The elimination of the Armenians was both salutary and urgent. Even their name should no longer have any significance. All memory of them, their monuments, every trace should disappear! The new order desires it!” But Balsan was a pragmatist, and although he wrote, “I was too honest to conceal that I was, to say the least, concerned at the drastic solution applied to the Armenians,” he went on to say: “I doubt whether the Armenian case actually deserves the pity with which it is normally reviewed in Europe. Why taunt the modern Turks with the subject?” Setke was rather more sympathetic to the Kurds, telling Balsan: “We have been driving through Kurdistan ever since Elazik [Elaz??]. They have given a lot of trouble but they are a fine people.”

The Harput Castle in Elaz??.

Even today few travelers take the road from Elaz?? via Palu to Bingöl. Impressed by Palu’s remote but attractive situation on the Murad, a major tributary of the Euphrates, Balsan wrote, “I was sorry to leave the old Turkish houses of Palu; they have preserved the true cachet of the imperial age, of which ?stanbul has been bereft by fires and reconstruction.” Here also the Frenchman witnessed the social engineering that marked the early years of the republic, as the modern-looking houses he saw roundabout were those of Pomaks, Bulgarian Muslims forced to leave their homeland when the former Ottoman province won its independence in the early years of the 20th century. They were given houses here, almost certainly on vacated Armenian land, to dilute the “Kurdish nationalism” which “was particularly rife around here.” In fact it was in Palu that the leader of the first major Kurdish revolt in 1925, Sheikh Said, made a last-stand against the Turkish army.

Onto Lake Van

The party now drove on towards Lake Van. Balsan was delighted to see flamingoes and pelicans on the Murad and, deciding to wade across the river, found himself walking on a veritable bed of terrapins. After lodging in a government guesthouse in Mu? they headed down to the vast, blue and alkaline expanse of Lake Van. The town of Tatvan, at the western end of the lake, now boasts several multi-storey hotels and a new shopping mall complete with bowling alley and cinema. At that time the sole, bungalow-style hotel was brand new and the town occupied by “a small garrison” of soldiers. To Balsan, the atmosphere of this Kurdish village with its brand-new Turkish veneer was “thoroughly colonial.”

They reached the provincial capital of Van by its beautiful southern shore, though all the Frenchman could find to say about the 10th-century Armenian island church of Akdamar, situated en route and one of Turkey’s most sublime sites, was “as the exterior of the profaned temple seemed to be intact, we could only suppose that the interior had been pillaged.” In Van they lodged at a semi-official institution, the Sports Club, opposite the then shiny new town hall. They visited the Rock of Van, famed for its Urartian tombs and inscriptions, and swam in the soda waters of the lake, which Balsan described rather unfairly as “an unpleasant experience. …The waves were curiously sticky. They had no tonic effect like seawater.”

End of the chase

The party then headed south towards Hakkari. As they wound up in to the mountains in search of sheep on their summer pastures, the car radiator boiled over several times and it had to be pushed up steep gradients and out of rutted tracks. Eventually they found themselves above a vast yayla (upland) and Balsan wrote, “Was this the goal of my dreams — the phantom I had tracked for months, over interminable miles.” It seemed so and soon the travelers were receiving traditional hospitality from a Kurdish notable called Bey Nafi, in a black-goat hair tent surrounded by the bleating of countless sheep. They were 3,000 meters above sea level, with mountains soaring a further 1,000 meters all around them. Nafi, had, by his own reckoning, some 15,000 sheep. Balsan was fascinated by the timeless way of life on the yayla, with women milking the flocks twice-daily, weaving kilims and preparing the evening meal. Of the women he wrote: “We stood watching the cooks, who stared back unveiled. Atatürk need have decreed none of his Draconian emancipation for these regions.”

After returning to Van, the party pushed on south to Ba?kale, from where they planned to head east to the Iranian border. En route they paused to explore the remains of the Armenian church of St Bartolemos at Albayrak. This fine ninth-century Armenian church still stands today, despite the efforts of the Turkish garrison who, Setke delighted in informing Balsan, were “a bit short of explosives. But whenever they can get their hands on any … the cathedral gets its share of them.”
A long journey home — to war

Unfortunately for the French couple, their valiant efforts to enter Iran (and those of Setke and Halil) were to prove in vain. A couple of over-zealous customs officials guarding the godforsaken Khansur Pass between the two countries refused to let them exit unless they left behind the sum of money (250 pounds) which they had declared on entering Turkey — and was registered as such in their passports. Their adventures were far from over though. Returning to Van, Setke informed them that “there’s no doubt about it; it’s war. All the bridges are blown.” They were forced to make their way to Trabzon, on the eastern Black Sea of Turkey, then return by ship to ?stanbul. Ironically, their fellow passengers included 4,000 sheep! Finally the couple made it back to France and Balsan concluded his adventures with the words, “Not long after that, and with the same glasses that had surveyed Khansur, I was seeking my regiment’s objectives in the hills of Lorraine.”

02 December 2009, Wednesday
TERRY RICHARDSON  ?STANBUL

zaman.com

This city is a clear indicator of China’s development. Giant skyscrapers are ordinary in Shanghai. In a district that is so large it could engulf several Manhattans, giant buildings have been built and are still being constructed. Trade and commerce have resulted in incredible wealth for this city. As you wander the streets of Shanghai, you frequently come across luxury houses and cars. There are giant housing complexes, each of which is more populated than some cities around the world. For instance, one building complex comprises some 250 buildings, each of them with some 30 floors. They say that about 40,000 people live in this complex. There are even larger complexes housing about 100,000 people each. Given their immense population, the Chinese naturally have to tinker with the idea of building complexes of buildings.
A small fishing town just 150 years ago, Shanghai today is among the world’s biggest and most important cities. Shanghai does not have much background in Chinese history, as the city flourished after the arrival of Europeans. Since then, European have never left this major city. The impact of Europeans is clearly visible in the buildings scattered around the city. There are about 500,000 foreigners living in the city.

Shanghai is the heart of the Chinese economy. It is a rapidly growing and developing city. With a population of 18 million, Shanghai is called the “Manhattan of China.” The Shanghai skyline is littered with giant skyscrapers. As the city has seen considerable development during recent years, Shanghai is very different from what it was even 10 years ago.

Chang Jiang, meaning “long river,” flows through the middle of Shanghai. Westerners call it the Yangtze river; it is the third-longest river in the world.

The city has misty and foggy air; this does not change year round. The city’s inhabitants enjoy sunny days only for a week or so each year.

In the city center, the Jin Mao Tower, a 421-meter tall, 88-story skyscraper, is now accompanied by the 101-story Shanghai World Financial Center, which reaches 492 meters into the air. Shanghai is brimming with such grandiose skyscrapers. In order to allow for the smooth flow of traffic, giant, multi-layered junctions have been built, and there are overhead highways where cars travel at a height of a seven or eight-story building. These highways lead to the main centers around the city. Seeing them, one might think such projects could be readily implemented in ?stanbul.

Nanjing Road is the most famous and busiest street in the city. There is where tourists flock for shopping and entertainment. The street is busy at every hour of the day, getting progressively more crowded in the daytime and reaching a peak in the evening. World-famous brands have opened shops along the street.

One sees a flood of human beings flowing through Nanjing Road. Since it is closed to vehicle traffic, people can freely wander to and fro in this junction where Chinese and Western cultures meet. It can be likened to ?stiklal Caddesi in ?stanbul. Nanjing Road is not only crowded; it is also the most expensive place in the city. The leasing prices for shops are astronomical. Small battery-operated cars serve the same function as the historic tram on ?stiklal Caddesi. At night, Nanjing Road becomes luminous and colorful and vivid. It is one of the most-illuminated streets in the world.

Shanghai is a city on a plain, at a low elevation. There are large parks in the city. The city planners placed great importance on vegetation. Although it is located in the far eastern reaches of China, it is extremely Western oriented. Western lifestyles are dominant in the city. There is a Shanghai school in response to the Beijing school, the former being more progressive and open than the latter. Having mingled with Westerners for many years in the past, the city has always represented the progressive school in literature, philosophy and commerce. The traffic signs are bilingual, Chinese phrases being followed by their English counterparts.

Chinese citizens need to obtain permits in order to live in this city. Working in Shanghai is also regulated, as the people who aspire to work in this city are required to obtain a permit for this. Obtaining this permit is a difficult process. This is intended to curb migration from rural areas to cities.

There is a matriarchal structure in China. In Shanghai, it is ordinary for men to cook meals, wash the dishes and do the cleaning. Women are the heads of the household. It is said that this is the case for a large percentage of households in Shanghai. Shanghai women are depicted as practical bosses.

We go from Shanghai to Suzhou, a one-hour highway trip. Suzhou is called the “Venice of the East.” It is famous for its canals as well as for its gardens and pagodas. The historic Auspicious Light Pagoda, a Buddhist temple, is a popular destination for tourists. Built in 1004 B.C., the pagoda is 53 meters tall. It is a mostly wooden structure. The pagoda was built to reach up to the gods. We climb to the highest point in the pagoda and gaze over the surroundings of the temple.

Then, we pay a visit to the Humble Administrator’s Garden, a 500-year-old garden built during the Ming dynasty. It is one of the four most-famous gardens in China. It is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The garden, spanning an area of 5.2 hectares, was built over the course of four years. Local and foreign visitors show great interest in the garden. As guides speak about the garden, tourists carefully listen to them.

We start to tour the streets of Suzhou. Souvenir shops line the streets lying parallel to canals. The owners of these shops both produce and sell a variety of souvenirs.

As we travel toward Hangzhou, we remember a famous Chinese saying. In order to depict the beauty of Suzhou and Hangzhou, the Chinese say: “Paradise above. Suzhou and Hangzhou below.” Hangzhou has a lake called Xi Hu, or West Lake. The landscape around the coast of the lake is beautiful.

Silk is one of the symbols of China. China has sold silk to the world for centuries. We visit a silk factory and touch silkworm cocoons. For many years, China maintained strict control over knowledge about silk production. It is said that when several silkworms hidden inside the hair of a Chinese princess were taken out of China, the rest of the world learned how to produce silk. We watch how cocoons are processed in the plant. With awe, we observe how silk is transformed into thread. Silk threads are carefully peeled away from cocoons and wrapped around reels.

Cocoons may be spun separately or side by side. Single cocoons generally produce higher-quality silk, which is used for apparel. Double cocoons produce lower quality silk which is used for rugs, carpets or covers.

A small test is held for tourists in order to show whether two scarves are made of real silk. Only one of the scarves is made of real silk. Scarves are burned. Only the scarf made of real silk emits neither black smoke nor a bad odor. This is not the case for the fake scarf. This test clearly shows which one is authentic.

The importance of silk around the world has always given China an upper hand in trade. For this reason, silk is an important commodity for China. When silkworms were smuggled out of the country, other countries started to produce silk, which dealt a large blow to the Chinese economy. Even local Chinese buy imported silk, thinking that imported commodities are of higher quality. Even today, this is a common perception among the Chinese. Although China is a textile giant, its people still prefer to buy imported apparel.

We tour a silk showroom in Hangzhou. Colorful clothes made of silk are displayed for prospective buyers. One thing to note is that bargaining is important in China. Whatever price is offered to you, you should bargain with the seller because the Chinese like to bargain.

[QUICK FACTS]

Capital: Beijing

Language: Standard Chinese or Mandarin, Yue (Cantonese)

Government: Communist state

President: Hu Jintao

Premier: Wen Jiabao

Area: 9,640,821 square kilometers

Population: 1,330 ,044,544*

GDP (PPP): $7.8 trillion**

Religions: Daoism, Buddhism, Christianity (3-4 percent), Islam (1-2 percent)

*July 2009 estimate **2008 estimate

20 August 2009, Thursday
SA?M ORHAN

Fortunately, the 19th-century Ottoman sultans also adorned the city with a number of secondary palaces and hunting lodges, including the beautiful Beylerbeyi Saray? and the Küçüksu Kasr? on the Asian side of the Bosporus. Most of their hideaways were, however, on the European side, where the most important was Y?ld?z Saray? (palace), a surprisingly little-visited complex just inland from the Ç?ra?an Palace Kempinski Hotel in Be?ikta?.

The complex at Y?ld?z began life during the reign of Selim III (r. 1789-1807) when the sultan had a park laid out here for his mother, Mihri?ah Sultan. However, it didn’t really come into its own until the reign of Sultan Abdülhamid II (1876-1909). In 1878 an attack on the waterside Ç?ra?an Saray? highlighted a potential weakness in security at the nearby Dolmabahçe Saray?, causing the nervous Abdülhamid to opt for retreating inland to what he saw as the greater protection of Y?ld?z.

Once moved, Abdülhamid occupied the State Apartments built by Selim III, which are not currently open to the public. Instead, you can visit the Y?ld?z ?ale (chalet), a completely separate guesthouse dating back to the 1870s. When Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany paid a visit to ?stanbul in 1889, the sultan had the small existing guesthouse expanded especially to accommodate him. Expanded again in 1898 when the Kaiser visited for the second time, it ended up as a suite of 60 rooms lurking behind a deceptively simple façade, rather fancifully described as resembling a Swiss chalet. What is more surprising about the building is that it somehow manages to look cohesive despite having been built in three different stages and under the supervision of architects with such different visions as the baroque supremo Sarkis Balyan and the Art Nouveau genius Raimondo d’Aronco.

Inside, the ?ale is predictably extravagant, the over-the-top decoration culminating in a magnificent dining room still set up as if the Kaiser might walk through the door anticipating a banquet. Almost equally impressive is the huge Ceremonial Hall, where guests used to be received. This is home to the largest Hereke carpet ever woven, which covers an impressive 400 square meters of floor.

Unfortunately, Y?ld?z is not a particularly visitor-friendly site. Unlike Dolmabahçe but like the much-older Topkap?, the palace consists of a collection of buildings, in this case separated from each other by a wall through which visitors cannot pass. On one side of the wall, you’ll find the State Apartments rubbing shoulders with the Y?ld?z Saray? Müzesi (Y?ld?z Palace Museum) and the ?ehir Müzesi (City Museum), which between them house a fine collection of paintings, Art Nouveau bric-a-brac and wooden furniture made by Sultan Abdülhamid, an enthusiastic carpenter in his spare time; on the other side of the wall, the ?ale presides over a landscaped garden at the top of Y?ld?z Park?, which is also home to the Çad?r and Malta Kö?ks. These lovely pavilions now serve as small café-restaurants, and the Malta in particular is a delight, with the small marble pool on the ground floor looking much like the larger model that graces the interior of Beylerbeyi Saray?. Also inside the park is the Imperial Porcelain Factory, where from 1896, replicas of Sèvres porcelain were turned out for the palace to reduce the expense of importing the real thing.

Y?ld?z came to an unhappy end in 1909 when Abdülhamid was deposed and the palace ransacked. For the rest of the 20th century, its future looked uncertain. For some years, the ?ale served as a casino, but eventually most of the buildings were abandoned. Then in the 1980s, they were restored by Çelik Gülersoy’s Touring and Automobile Club of Turkey before being returned to the state and opened to the public. Even today, though, there are many ?stanbul residents who have never visited Y?ld?z, although the coming of the big new Dahill restaurant (Tel.: 0 […) behind the factory may help to publicize it. Weekend brunches here come coupled with breathtaking Bosporus views, and afterwards you can walk off the calories with a stroll in the palace grounds.

Not far from Y?ld?z, Be?ikta? is home to another small gem from the late imperial period. The Ihlamur Kasr? (pavilion) was built for Sultan Abdülmecid I (r. 1839-61), who wanted a lodge where he could break the journey between Dolmabahçe Saray? and the Golden Horn shipyards at Kas?mpa?a. The sultan commissioned Nikogos Balyan, who had worked on Dolmabahçe, to come up with the design, and the end result was a pair of pavilions in a small landscaped park, one of which, the Mabeyn Kö?kü, would host the sultan and his guests, while the other, the Maiyet Kö?kü, would host his harem. Like the slightly larger Küçüksu Kasr?, the Mabeyn Kö?kü is thickly festooned with baroque carvings on the outside. Inside, however, it has only eight small rooms, each of them adorned with lovely parquet floors, porcelain fireplaces and indigo-colored glass. As at Küçüksu, there are no bedrooms since the sultan rarely spent the night at Ihlamur. Today, the steps leading up to the pavilion form the backdrop for myriad wedding photos since the Be?ikta? Registry Office is just across the road.

The importance of the shipyards on the Golden Horn meant that there was a need for somewhere close at hand where the sultans could stay while visiting them. The answer lay in the early 17th century Tersane Saray? (Shipyard Palace), originally built for Sultan Ahmed I, who liked to practice his archery in the Okmeydan? on nearby Hasköy Hill. Today all that survives of the waterside palace is the Aynal?kavak Kasr? (Pavilion of the Mirrored Poplars), a pavilion added to the site by Sultan Ahmed III, who wanted a pied à terre within easy reach of the Ka??thane and Alibey streams (then the pleasure grounds known as the Sweet Waters of Europe), where he could throw his famous tulip-peeping parties. In 1730 the palace lost its raison d’être with the overthrow of the sultan and his powerful grand vizier, although it received a new lease of life in the late 18th century when the music-loving Sultan Selim III had it restored as a venue for private concerts. It was restored again during the reign of Sultan Mahmud II (r. 1808-39). In theory, it’s once again under restoration, although the signs stating that fact have now been in place for so long that they’re growing rusty with age. For the time being, you’ll have to content yourself with inspecting the tiles at the base of the Eyüp funicular, which depict the pavilion in its heyday, with the sultan watching acrobatics taking place on the Golden Horn right in front of it.

One final set of imperial pavilions can be found just a short drive out of Maslak on the road to Sar?yer. Built by Sultan Abdülaziz as a gift for his son Abdülhamid, they too are currently closed for restoration. Here, however, you can at least stroll around the grounds, which make an astonishingly serene and inviting oasis just a hop and a skip away from Maslak’s full-on business buzz. Hopefully, the Hümayun Kasr? (Imperial Pavilion) will eventually reopen to the public since it contains stair-rails and mirror frames made by Sultan Abdülhamid himself.

Like Beylerbeyi Saray? and Küçüksu Kasr?, all the above palaces and pavilions are closed on Mondays and Thursdays. Both Y?ld?z ?ale and Ihlamur Kasr? must be visited on guided tours, usually only available in Turkish.

12 July 2009, Sunday
PAT YALE  ?STANBUL

zaman.com

City of Antalya, the “Turkish Riviera” in the Mediterranean is hosting more than 10 million local and foreign tourists, thanks to its archeological and natural beauties.

There are ancient cities, ports, tombs, picturesque bays and beaches, forests and museums on the 674-kilometer-long Antalya coast. Also, there are many plateaus in the inner parts of the Mediterranean Region for people who want to feel cool on hot summer days.

City of Antalya, itself, is a historical place where people can visit the historical sites around the castle including Kesik Minaret, the city walls, Hadrian’s Wall, and restored old houses. People can also see the fjords in the city.

Also, Antalya is offering various night life alternatives, including discos, clubs, bars and cafes in Konyaalti Beach Park, Lara Beach Park, Sirinyali and Kaleici (old city).

For tourists who are interested in archeology, Antalya Museum, Perge, Aspendos, Side, Termessos ancient cities, and Karain Cave are places to see.

People who like sports can not only enjoy water sports, but also trekking, rock climbing and mountaineering around Antalya.

The Gidengelmez Mountains near Akseki town is a good place for people who like hunting, whereas Elmali town is rich of tumulus, mosque and tombs. Korkuteli town is a plateau used by residents of Antalya during hot summer days.

Alanya is another tourist town of Antalya with its beaches, historical attractions, modern hotel and accommodation facilities, fish restaurants, cafes and bars. Selcuklu (Seljuk) Castle, dating to 13th century, and Kizil Tower are worth seeing in this holiday resort town.

Damlatas Cave, Ethnography Museum, Fosforlu (phoshorescent) Cave, Kizlar (girls) Cave, Asiklar (lovers) Cave are also other tourist attractions in Alanya.

Also, Koru Beach in Antalya’s Gazipasa town, with its natural swimming pools carved out by the sea with their own natural water circulation system, is perfect for children and new swimmers.

Situated in the west of Antalya, Kas town was an important settlement during the ancient civilization of Lycia. The town is also a place for diving, paragliding, canoing, yacht tours and trekking.

People can find the traces of first democratic parliament of the world in this town. The Patara Ancient City in Kas is preparing to host a meeting of parliament speakers in the world in coming years, with the initiative of Turkish Parliament Speaker Koksal Toptan.

Kemer town is a holiday town preferred mostly by Russian tourists. People can climb on 2,365-meter Tahtali Mountain with a cable car in Kemer and enjoy the panoramic view. Also, tourists should see the Phaselis ancient city near Kemer.

Manavgat waterfall, Side ancient city and theater are also other tourist attractions in the vicinity of Antalya.

Also, Olympos and Rhadiopolis ancient cities are historical places that should be seen around Antalya’s Kumluca town; whereas Limyra and Arykanda ancient cities are also attractive for tourists in orange-famous Antalya town of Finike.

Demre is world-famous for being the town where Santa Claus lived. Santa Claus Museum and Myra ancient city, and Kekova ancient city, that remained beneath the sea due to an earthquake, can be visited in and around this town.

Belek is a town which offers luxurious holiday options around Antalya.

05 July 2009, Sunday
THE ANATOLIA NEWS AGENCY  ANKARA

zaman.com

I looked up to where a patch of snow was twinkling on a Taurus peak and decided I could stand the sea no longer. Up in the mountains … were brisk air and cold nights, grass and snow-fed runnels, and the thrill of journeying from one high saddle to the other.”
Dennis Cecil Hills’ classic travel memoir, “My Travels in Turkey,” devotes a few pages to Turkey’s Aegean and Mediterranean shores, but his real passion was for its high plateaus and mountains. No ordinary traveler, Hills arrived in Turkey in the mid-1950s to teach English, having already pedaled his linguistic wares in Nazi and post-war Germany, Poland and Romania. Like so many visitors, he’d only intended to stay a short while, writing, “I would teach the Queen’s English to young Turks, enjoy the Asiatic sunshine and consume my generous holiday allowance in an orgy of violent exercise; and when I had had enough; pack my nailed boots, rucksack and grammar books and move elsewhere — to Kabul, Addis Ababa, Peru?”

Hills, though, was captivated by a land where he was to spend seven years. For him, Turkey was “too big to be explored in a hurry, and the Turks do not wear their hearts on their sleeves for all to see at a glance. Lured each year by the prospect of another long summer vacation spent amongst Turkey’s mountains or dawdling along her coasts … I have been unable to tear myself away.”

Travel in the eastern part of Turkey in the late ’50s and early ’60s was difficult. Foreigners had to apply, through their embassies, for written permission from the security authorities in Ankara. It was usually refused. Hills was lucky, and in 1957 set off for the East, where Turkey’s frontier nuzzled up to the shah’s Iran and the Soviet Union. His goal was Noah’s mountain, legendary Mt. Ararat — at 5,165 meters, by far the highest peak in the country. He first reached Do?ubeyazit, a ramshackle town in the shadow of the mountain. His hotel, ironically dubbed the “Hilton” by travelers forced to overnight here en route for Iran, he describes as “a mud building of creaking, oil-lit rooms swarming with bed bugs and farmers sleeping fully clothed under dingy quilts. The lavatory was an unspeakable hole dug into the floorboards at the end of the corridor. A man with a squint brewed us tea in a tin boiled over burning dung. So thick were the flies we were driven to drink it up on the roof.”

Do?ubeyazit retains a reputation for wildness and discomfort, but there are now several passable hotels. More importantly, the fairytale ??hak Pa?a Saray?, the fortified palace-cum-mosque of a Kurdish chieftain, described by Hills as “pitted with gunfire and falling disgracefully into disrepair,” has been beautifully restored. Having explored the 18th century palace, Hills and his ill-assorted team — including Ahmet, a chain-smoking journalist who’d never climbed in his life, Dr. Bozkurt, who’d shown his inexperience by trying to fit his crampons to his boots backwards, and the inveterate bachelor Muzaffer, a wiry staff sergeant in the Turkish military — set off for the mountain.

Buffaloes ferried the team’s loads to the lower slopes of Ararat, where they came across a Kurdish encampment. They were greeted by “three turbaned men” who “sat us down on a rug spread out on the grass, called a young woman twirling a spindle to bring us a bowl of yoghurt, and fingered out ice-axes with amused contempt.” Their hosts were less than impressed with Hills and his fellow climbers, saying: “Some claim to have reached the top of A?r? (Ararat), but where is the proof? When you return you may boast of your success, but we shall never believe you.” Undeterred, the team set up camp and spent a day acclimatizing to the altitude.

The following day they made progress up Ararat’s slopes, this time on foot. That night they rolled their sleeping bags out on a broken bed of rocks and slept uneasily in the freezing cold. Awaking early, they found the weather changed. “A thunderclap exploded directly overhead, and a flurry of ice-flakes turned almost instantaneously into a violent gale of snow.” Two of the party gave up hope and retreated; the rest waited and were rewarded when the storm abated an hour later. They carried on and soon “we caught sight of the top, shimmering through torn clouds — a broad and smoothly rounded dome of ice covered with fresh snow a few hundred yards away.” Hills and his companions climbed the summit, congratulated each other on their success, bemoaned the lack of visibility, shivered violently in the bitter wind (this was August) and retreated.

Hills scaled Ararat’s icy heights a couple more times, and was to ascend two other volcanic peaks, Mount Erciyes (3,916 meters) and Mount Hasan (3,250 meters), both of which lay on the fringes of the weird and wonderful Cappadocia region in Central Anatolia. The alpine peaks of the Kaçkar range, rising high above a band of temperate forest parallel to Turkey’s eastern Black Sea coast, proved even more of a challenge. The lushness of the range impressed Hills’ climbing buddy, the same staff sergeant who’d accompanied him up Ararat. “Muzaffer, used to the treeless spaces of Kayseri and Elazi?, could hardly believe his eyes when he saw the dense jungle that covers the valley walls — beech, alder, firs and pines crowded on an impenetrable carpet of brambles, great ferns and rhododendron thickets.” Hills was fascinated by the ethnic mix of the hills, Laz on the Black Sea side of the range, Georgians on the Anatolian side, both of whom still used their own tongue amongst themselves — and, in true highland tradition, each vehemently disliked the other.

The pair finally reached the upper heights after a couple of miserable days walking through rain and low clouds. The sun came out and illuminated a breathtaking “alpine paradise” that so moved Muzaffer he exclaimed, “Why go to Switzerland when we have all this at our doorstep?” The next day the intrepid climbers reached the top of the 3,937 meter Mount Kaçkar.

Hills’ greatest feat, however, was to wangle permission to climb in Turkey’s wildest region, the Cilo-Sat mountain range, which rises majestically in the far-flung southeastern corner of the country. From Yuksekova, on the main road to the Iranian frontier at Esendere, the now familiar partnership of Hills and Muzaffer headed west across the Gevarova plain toward a wall of gleaming alpine peaks — the Cilo range. They pitched their tent in a Kurdish yayla (seasonal grazing ground) in the shadow of Turkey’s second highest mountain, Re?ko. The yayla dwellers were as curious about the strangers in their midst as Hills was about the timeless routine of yayla life (grazing, milking, butter-churning and cheese and yoghurt-making). According to Hills, the aged wife of the encampment’s headman “frowned distrustfully at Muzaffer — to be a grown man of 29 without wife or children was unnatural and improper.” Not that Muzzafer was uninterested in women. When a group of the younger shepherdesses “began to dance rhythmically back and forth” outside their tent as the two men were retiring for the night, he whispered to Hills, “The girls are very beautiful — but they smell of goat.”

The two climbers set out early the next morning. Their aim: to scale Re?ko’s 4,134-meter peak. They finally reached the summit ridge in the late afternoon “a broad, tilted platform flecked with ice patches, precariously joined to the massif we had ascended by a ridge of rotten stone no wider than a goat track which spanned an abyss of terrifying depth.” Wisely the experienced pair decided to turn back; with darkness hastening on, retreat was the only sensible option. En route, in a narrow gorge “facing us on the track, was our first bear.” Fortunately Muzaffer knew what to do and “fired his small pistol into the air and gave a tremendous shout and, to our surprise and relief, the bear turned and lollopped harmlessly away.” A dangerous abseil in the half-light followed, then a row as to whether to hunker down for the night where they were or carry on. Hills won the argument and the descent continued. Out of food, the torch battery lifeless, Hills conceded their retreat was “a deserved nightmare” and at midnight they were forced to sleep on rocks next to a snowdrift.

They reached the village of Serpil the next morning, where their mule-driver, Raschid, awaited them. Hills and Muzaffer spent the next few days wandering through Turkey’s remotest valleys, today unfortunately strictly off-limits because of the danger of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) attacks, right up to the Iraqi frontier. This border is now heavily guarded, but Hills describes a deserted spot where “a single boundary stone marked the frontier,” adding, “With my feet in Iraq I sat against the boundary stone and sucked a lemon.” Muzaffer commented bitterly, “This is the stone that has cut Turkey off from the oil-fields of Mosul. But for this mark we would be rich!” Hills was more interested in the fate of the Nestorian Christians who had once inhabited these mountains and valleys — only forty years before his visit they had been driven out of their ancestral homeland for supporting the Russians in World War I.

Hills concludes the section of his book that deals with the Cilo-Sat ranges, and its largely ethnically Kurdish population, with words that still hold some truth in 2009: “In this isolated enclave, Turkish influence is at its lowest ebb. But for a scattering of soldiers and officials, the Turk himself is a stranger to the wild valleys east of Çölemerik (Hakkari). Suspicious of government, mobile, clannish clinging to their own language and songs, and to the old ways perpetuated by their chiefs, the Kurds of Hakkari are no easy subjects to handle.”

DENIS CECIL HILLS

Born in Birmingham, England, in 1913, Hills studied philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford. He was, however, remembered more for his womanizing, wrestling, night climbing and rugby than his academic achievements. He fought in World War II and worked for the military after the war. Following his sojourn in Turkey he went to Uganda, where in the leaked manuscript of a new novel he labeled Uganda’s leader, Idi Amin, a “village tyrant” and compared him to Nero. Sentenced to death by Amin, only the personal intervention of the British foreign secretary, James Callaghan, saved him. Hills died in 2004.

19 May 2009, Tuesday
TERRY RICHARDSON

www.zaman.com

It’s never very difficult to find spots throughout Turkey where you feet can really get re-acquainted with the earth and where your lungs can load up on oxygen. Everyday, interest in the environment and sensitivity about how we should treat the land increases here. Some of the most important signs of this are the projects that are aimed at protecting the environment. About a year ago, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry started up the “One Nature Park for Every Province” project, and now this particular project is beginning to show its first fruits. Almost 10 different forests and state-held lands have been declared nature parks. One of the last plots of forested land to fall into the official nature park category was the Kap?cam Nature Park, which opened at the end of last year in Kahramanmara?. But what conditions does a “nature park” need to meet in Turkey in order to be able to earn that title? Professor Dr. Mustafa Kemal Yal?nk?l?ç, general manager of the nature protection and national parks department of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry notes the importance of the blend of water, plants and animals that constitute these geographies. In order for a piece of land to be labeled a nature park, according to the National Parks Law in Turkey, there are certain standards that need to be fulfilled by its geographical position, its flora and its fauna. These are, after all, parks that go beyond just providing a place for people to rest and relax, parks that are also meant to teach and expand people’s views of nature. They are parks that boast a variety of geological, biological, zoological and floral dimensions. And in Turkey, the sheer range and variety of flora found in some of our natural parks is of a level that cannot be found anywhere else in the world. Take, for example, the “peygamber çiçe?i” or “cornflower” found along the shores of Ankara’s Mogan Lake.

In most of Turkey’s nature parks, you can also enjoy activities like canoeing, trekking, cliff parachuting, biking, etc. And all of these activities take place in a setting you would never find in man-made parks, or, of course, indoor arenas. Turkey’s nature parks are generally chosen from forest and state plots of land. And the most important factor in choosing these parks is that they be completely natural. If there are any structures on them, the structures should be made of wood or stone, and built keeping the local ecology in mind.

We paid a visit to the nature park in ?stanbul’s Polonezköy. This park is spread out over 30,000 hectares and boasts many of the characteristics you would expect from a perfect nature park scene. This gigantic park has hundreds of different kinds of plants and animals. In fact, at one point, the photographer that accompanied us to the park started to jump  around in excitement. Depending on the time of year, you can also see every shade possible in the trees and leaves here. We also visited the spots where deer and pheasant live; there is just so much to see here. Mostly, we realized this is really a great opportunity for people living in ?stanbul because it is so close.

Nature tourism, guide in hand
Eco-tourism, or nature tourism, has been rising in popularity in recent years. The Ministry of Environment and Forestry has been fast to recognize this, and has printed special guides to Turkey’s various nature parks and national parks. Their guides — which include guides to Kayseri Kapuzba??, Çanakkale Gelibolu, Bal?kesir Kaz Mountain, and Rize Kaçkar — allow people to head out on their own and enjoy adventure tours, zoo-tours, bio-tours, etc. There is a separate and different program recommended for each park. And so, finally, rather than just being filled with people who are relaxing and enjoying themselves on the weekends or holidays, Turkey’s many nature parks will be filled with people who know precisely where they are relaxing, and amid which kinds of flora and fauna!

Gölcük
Turkey’s Nature parks

Ölüdeniz-K?drak (Mu?la)

Çatak (Çorum)

Abant Gölü (Bolu)

Yaz?l? Kanyon, Gelincik Da??, Gölcük (Isparta)

Uzungöl (Trabzon)

Bafa Gölü (Ayd?n)

Polonezköy, Fatih Orman?, Türkmenba?? (?stanbul)

Ayval?k Adalar? (Bal?kesir)

Ball?kayalar, Be?kayalar (Kocaeli)

Kocakoru Orman? (Konya)

Artabel Gölleri (Gümü?hane)

Karagöl (Artvin)

?ncekum, Güver Kanyonu, Kur?unlu ?elalesi (Antalya)

Ball?ca Ma?aras? (Tokat)

Hamsilos (Sinop)

Çamkoru (Ankara)

26 A?ustos (Afyon)

Meryemana, Örnekköy (?zmir)

Mesir (Manisa)

26 May 2009, Tuesday
D?LEK GÜRAY  ?STANBUL

www.zaman.com

Looking at the smoke rising from its chimney stacks, this ferryboat appears ready to carry people to various destinations. But in fact, this veteran ferry is anchored on the shoreline and now serves as a hotel-restaurant, the Turan Emeksiz Hotel. From the outside, the ferry appears no different from its original state. People visiting relatives and close friends in Güzelyal? love to tour the ferry the way you would tour a museum. In fact, there is staff on duty simply to show people around the boat and explain a bit about its history. And its history is incredible. After all, the Turan Emeksiz served on the Eminönü-Kad?köy route for 45 years, carrying millions of people between the two sides of ?stanbul. So when it was transformed into a hotel, there was great care taken to ensure that the “life experience” accumulated by the Turan Emeksiz was preserved.

Architect Hulki Tür achieved great success with the Turan Emeksiz Hotel, and all without making any concessions on the history of this floating hotel. What’s more, as a hotel, this veteran ferryboat offers modern bathrooms and toilets, beds, a 200-person conference room, another meeting room, a cafeteria and restaurants, all in a five-star atmosphere.

In fact, this whole concept is a world first. There are many ship-hotels that sail from point to point, but this is the first ferryboat turned hotel. In fact, companies in the Bursa Organized Industrial Zone see this as a great opportunity and often have their foreign guests and visitors stay there. And most of the visitors who stay at the hotel have a very difficult time departing, not wanting to bid farewell to a view that includes the gorgeous green of the mountains of Bursa on one side and the Sea of Marmara on the other.

This hotel is also convenient: There is wireless Internet access available everywhere. It is anchored in the water only three minutes from the Güzelyal? Sea Bus port. And you can reach Bursa by car in only 13 minutes and the industrial zone in 17 minutes. Despite its very central location, this ferryboat hotel is quite quiet and calm. It is in the water, but right next to the shoreline, too. The hotel is used by many people — including the directors of firms such as Bosch, Renault and Tofa? — for meetings that take business people out of boring concrete structures, putting them instead into a unique, unforgettable atmosphere — one which offers, for example, a serene and magnificent meeting salon at two-and-a-half meters below sea level and a large and roomy restaurant at five meters above sea level.

For passengers who traveled for years on the now-retired Turan Emeksiz, a return to its decks is like visiting an old friend. Murat Mestan, a partner and manager of the Turan Emeksiz Hotel, explained a bit about one of these visitors: “A man of around 55 years entered the hotel and started examining the wooden columns in the cafeteria. I went up to him and asked him what he was doing. He told me that he had etched the name of a girl he loved years ago on that column and that he and that girl had subsequently gotten married. He said he was looking to see whether the name was still there.”

“The story gave me goose bumps. The man had not forgotten where he had written the name, and he had wanted to show his wife all these many years later. But since we had cleaned the wood in the cafeteria when we were turning the ferryboat into a hotel, we could not find the place he was looking for. Still, we sat and talked for a long while. There are so many other stories like that one. There are people who come with their friends and point to seats in the ferryboat’s inner salon and say to their friends ‘That’s my seat.’ On the 7:30 a.m. ferryboat, for example, everyone had their own special seats. No one would ever think of sitting in another person’s seat. And the waiters on duty knew without even asking who would take tea and who would take coffee. Anyway, we’ve tried to maintain that atmosphere,” Mestan continued.

Last month, a group of 59 graduates from ?stanbul University visited the retired-ferryboat-turned-hotel to enjoy themselves and recall the old days. They sat, spoke, drank tea and one even got up and did an imitation of the sellers who would aggressively but charmingly ply their wares — like pens and erasers — on the decks of the Turan Emeksiz.

Mestan is actually a volleyball teacher by profession. For many years, he both played and trained in the top league of this sport. It was only when his partner, Berat Tunakan, made him an offer to take the helm of this enterprise that he got into this field. He and Tunakan put $2 million into renovating the ferryboat — which, at the time they took it over from the Güzelyal? Municipality, was about to sink — and they turned it into a 20-room hotel. The cafeteria of the ferryboat, on the entrance level, sits in its original form. Even the life preservers are in the same place. And you can still order yourself tea or coffee in the cafeteria, just like on any classic ?stanbul ferry boat. The hotel rooms are one deck up. On the very top deck is a meeting room, with restaurants in the front and back of the ferry. The captain’s room on the left of the boat has been set aside for couples or people who want to celebrate special days such as birthdays or anniversaries. The captain’s room on the right of the boat is Mestan’s office. Some of the other interesting details that have been preserved from the Turan Emeksiz’s working days are the passenger log, the steering wheel, the compass and the original wall clocks. In fact, the only large item removed from the ferry boat during its renovation was the steam boiler. When this giant steam boiler was removed, it was replaced by a conference room that can host 200 people.

05 May 2009, Tuesday
GÜL?ZAR BAK?  ?STANBUL