Back in Istanbul

We have left the coal filled air back in Konya, although it caught hold of us yesterday and delayed our 55 minute flight back to Istanbul for some five hours. The pull and the love that is palpable in the air there has been replaced by crisp sheets and a European comforter. There is a certain relief as we are able to sit at tables with chairs and eat, rather than sitting on the floor with a table positioned about 12 inches from the floor. Interestingly, with the low tables, the table cloth becomes your napkin, and one's legs are protected from any spills.

The journey continued today with a tour of the Jewish synagogues and the Jewish musuem in Istanbul. Mostly I learned that during the Holocaust Turkey rescued its Jewish citizens. In a documentary by Victoria Barrett called Desperate Hours that we viewed, we learned that Turkey's diplomats worked hard in European countries to get people released from camps and took them to safety. Several of them, notably Sclahattin Ulkumen and Necdet Kant, put their own lives in jeopardy to save people.

Necdet Kant, upon hearing that 70 Turkish Jews were put on a train to a death camp boarded the train and demanded their release. The SS soldiers gave him a choice: get off the train or go with them. He said he would go. They shut the door and the train traveled some three hours to the next stop where he was approached by other officers who realized that they had a problem because they had a Turkist diplomat on a death train, and they told him to get off and to take the 70 people with him.

One reason that the Turkish government was able to maneuver and save people is that they made no distiction between Jews, Muslims and Christians on passports and documents. They simply insisted that that their people were free to return to their native lands. Many of them had left Turkey years before and had given up their citizenship.

I am surprised by the power on the intention on neutrality.

Turkey, historically, has always been a multi-cultural multi-religious place where people have been able to recognize and connect with each other's humanity and not elevate or highlight the differences in their religious.

Our tour guide indicated that factions and division is beginning in Turkey, but he expressed confidence that people would figure out a way to continue to connect.


Istanbul is a city of 15 million and is both cosmopolitan and ancient.