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PHOTOS FROM TURKEY

1992-2000

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Part one: at home

In the first semester I shared an apartment with another teacher, but moved into a single apartment when another teacher moved out of the building.

This was my first residence in Turkey, the Marmara University lojman, or teachers residence, where I lived during the 1992-93 academic year. It was located right behind the SSK hospital in Goztepe.

 

After a couple more moves, I finally moved into a place in Teşvikiye where I would live for my last four years in Turkey.

Actually, my neighborhood was known as Muradiye. It was on the hill between Teşvikiye and Beşiktaş.

One day, the water main broke, creating a geyser and leading to much excitement in the neighborhood

My street--Göknar Sokak--looking up from Beşiktaş.
Snowy day-view from my apartment window

A dumb photo, but I wanted to show people what a fancy computer I had back then

Part two: at work

This was the class I taught the year I worked at Marmara University.
With Özlem and Banu

This was taken my first year working as a teacher, when I taught in a high school in the afternoons. Next to me is Burcu, one of my students.

   
With Nazla in a different classroom at the ITBA

My second year in Turkey I began working for the ITBA--the Istanbul Turco-British Association. The two girls to my right were my students, the girl to my left was from the class next door.

 

At the ITBA I taught the TOEFL preparation class pretty frequently. Here is an end-of-year party with some of my TOEFL students.

In 1995 and 1996 I taught business English to employees at the Koç company through the ITBA. This is the end-of-course banquet, 1995. My boss, Phil, is looking on.

My table at the end-of-course banquet. Gulgun, Nilbahar, Phil, me, Necat, Nedim, and Maretta. Necat and Nedim were students in the course, Maretta was a teacher, and Gulgun and Nilbahar were my bosses from the ITBA. Nilbahar would end up writing one of my recommendation letters when I applied to MA programs in 1998.

End-of-course awards ceremony for the Koç program with teachers, administrators, and students.

Part three: on the road

At the end of January of 1993 I went down to Antalya for a little vacation. This was just a few days before I learned that, due to a bureaucratic foul-up in Ankara, I wasn't going to receive my salary from Marmara University. Happy times!

The view from my hotel room outside Antalya.

A shot similar to the one above, without the smiling man in the background

 

 

 
 

 

The fluted minaret, one of the major sites of Antalya. When I was down there in January of 1993, the journalist Uğur Mumcu was murdered in a car bomb attack (in Ankara), prompting 'secular' Turkish officials to denounce the 'Islamic extremism' of the' Refah Party. This, in turn, led to counter-demonstrations by Refah, which also denounced Mumcu's assassination and rejected any connection to terror or extremism. Unbeknownst to me at the time, the group of men gathering in front of Atatürk's statue constituted the beginning of the Refah rally that day, which was presided over by Necmettin Erbakan himself.

During the same trip, I visited Pamukkale ("Cotton-Castle"). The white travertines are not snow but rather mineral deposits. Back in 1993 people were allowed to walk on them and, in summer, swim in the little pools. This is no longer allowed, however.

Another shot of Pamukkale
 
The kız kulesi, or "Maiden's Tower," is an island in the middle of the Bosphorous. There is now a restaurant in this building, with the restaurant operating ferries to shuttle customers back and forth.
 
On the hill between Beyoğlu and Kadıköy is a walled-off street beyond which are dozens of legal brothels. Just inside the gates, policemen check people's id cards to make sure they're over eighteen.
Istiklal Caddesi
This was shot in the summer of 2000
Street in Istanbul
 
My Dad took this photo inside the Blue Mosque in 1997

In August of 1993 I went to Kıyıköy, a place on the Black Sea about an hour's drive from the European side of Istanbul

Having my picture taken with livestock was still a novelty back then

Swimming in the Black Sea at Kıyıköy

A little mosque in Kıyıköy and the Black Sea

Later in the summer, I headed down to Antalya again. There was a little tea garden here close to the waterfall Manavgat.

Manavgat
I'm pretty sure this is Antalya
After Antalya, I traveled east to Alanya
After Alanya, I went to Antakya (Antioch)

This was shot from Harbiye, in Antakya. That's Syria in the distance.

Antakya
Face of Virgin Mary, Antakya
I then traveled to Adıyaman, where I visited Nemrut Dağı
Inside a church in Antakya
 
Two more shots from atop Nemrut Dağı
Another shot from Nemrut Dağı
View from the mountain

In 2000, I spent the summer on Cunda Island, where I attended the Harvard Ottoman Summer School.

Another shot from Cunda ("Joonda")
Whirling Dervish statue in front of abandoned building

Another Cunda shot

Abandoned church on Cunda
 

More shots from Cunda

Cunda is a beautiful place, and I thought the people who lived there were really nice.

These two shots are from Assos, where I went for a weekend while on Cunda

   

During the Cunda summer, I also went down to Aydın, home of the late Prime Minister Adnan Menderes. I wrote my master's thesis at Princeton on Menderes' political rehabilitation in the 1980s, so was curious to see his hometown. This is the Menderes family farm, where the caretaker gave me the telephone number of Andan Menderes' son, Aydın, who was then a member of parliament. I ended up taking the train to Ankara to meet Aydın, with whom I had tea at his apartment in the parliamentary lojman.

A recently constructed memorial to Adnan Menderes in Aydın

At the end of the Ottoman course, I also went to Bozcaada, an island off the west coast of Turkey.

A couple more shots from Bozcaada

I'm not really sure where this picture was taken
This is Marmaris, taken on the same trip

This shot was taken in Gümüşlük, in Bodrum

This was taken outside the house-museum of Zeki Müren

 

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