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Istanbul
A lot of sight-seeing and Afghan coat buying went on in Istanbul. And a lot of
photographs were taken!
Iona remembers:
I shall always remember going to the loos at the Istanbul campsite. Squat variety,
of course, they were in a University building 100 yards or more from the tents. It
was creepy being large and empty and you wound your way along various corridors and
down stairs. I thought I was completely on my own but on emerging from a cubicle
I found myself confronted by a terrifying, knarled, ancient Turk who I thought was
making a grab for me. I was just about to take to my heels, as there would have been
no point in screaming, when I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.
It turned out he was the lavatory attendant and obviously couldn't speak English. The
gesticulations. which could have been interpreted as lewd, weren't meant that way.
They were an explanation that paper was not to be used in the loos. Instead, one was
to use a small tap near floor level and he explained exactly what that was for. We
ended up smiling at each other in acknowledgment of a lesson understood.
Jim Lindsay's diary:
July 25th
We were camped in the grounds of the training college but had access to its facilities, including what were
at the time unfamiliar squat toilets. All Comex contingents were expected to offer cultural specialities and
ours included Scottish country dancing and a performance of a Midsummer Night's Dream. There was a dance rehearsal
on this day and I was fortunate enough to turn out to be so uncoordinated that I was excused further duty.
No such luck with the Shakespeare, although we seemed to keep changing roles and as a result had to start learning
new lines every few rehearsals. I don't think we ever actually performed any part of it in public. Most people went
over to Istanbul that day, leaving a handful of us feeling rather bored. There was a water fight involving mechanics
from another contingent and Fay got soaked.
On the first night another contingent (Kent) had had some kitbags rifled by thieves who crept in and groped
under the side flaps for loot. This brought about a bit of a panic. There were rumours that unsavoury characters
were coming from far and wide and being let in at the gate and the college staff, who naturally enough spent some
of their time staring at their odd visitors, were suspected of colluding with them. To add to the air of siege,
children hung over the walls at one side and threw little stones at the contingents closest to them. After a lot
of discussion we in the Edinburgh contingent decided that for security we should henceforward lock all our
belongings in the bus overnight apart from sleeping essentials (a policy that only lasted for two or three days).
As a result of all this we organised night patrols, augmented later by the police and some vigilantes with torches
and clubs. There was a shop at the gate that sold wine as well as traditional Turkish products like Omo and Daz,
and some of us sat up until the small hours with bottles of acid Tekel wine.
July 26th
Most of the contingent crossed over to Istanbul again. The traffic was no different but on closer inspection auto
spares shops were almost as numerous as banks. It was wet and foggy and later on it rained hard. Istanbul in a
downpour did not really live up to expectations. Standing in a bus shelter for half an hour until the rain eased
off was something we could have enjoyed at home. However we dutifully did predictable tourist things - changing
money, wandering round the bazaars and being harassed by touts, visiting the Blue Mosque and the Topkapi Museum.
Back in Üsküdar, we visited the markets near the college. It was a much less tourist-orientated area and
we were buying utility goods for the next leg of the journey, so the in a couple of days, and the security issues
at the college added to an air of apprehension. It did not help that one of our two press representatives (Bob Dixon)
suddenly decided to go home. Rightly or wrongly we suspected that he just did not want to face whatever might
happen further east.
There was another night of patrols although the rumoured invasion by all the thieves of Turkey did not materialise.
We patrolled with sticks and whistles. Yorkshire had managed to organise a wood fire and offered fireside tea to
patrollers from other contingents. There was an odd ex-Army character called Harry from Manchester who seemed to
be on one-man patrol all the time with a particularly large stick.
July 27th
Our last day in Üsküdar. Somebody (this diary does not record who it was) organised a contingent breakfast in bed
with tea and grapes, a rare enough event to merit mention. Cuddles the coach had to have some running repairs. The
mirrors and the little flagpoles above them tended to suffer on roads with limited clearance and periodically had
to be welded back on. Most people went back into Istanbul but I was stuck in camp on Fay's orders putting together
a nominal roll for the Afghan Embassy, something that absolutely had to be done by 1700. Like a lot of our "urgent"
tasks this turned out to be a total waste of time since the Embassy in Turkey did not issue visas to overland
travellers. So I lost a trip into town and had a sulk. Hilary and I went shopping for fruit locally and this was
doused in permanganate solution, one of our attempts to keep gastro-enteritis at bay.
It was a quiet evening with occasional outbreaks of bickering. Scrawny local cats had realised that we might have
something to offer but their luck was uneven. Soft-hearted Ally B fed them but Don Clarke tried to kick them. Being
streetwise moggies, they got the food and evaded the boots.
The first rumours began to circulate about cholera further east. This gave us food for thought as we did our final
night patrols.
Reflections on Istanbul by Liz Y
We weren't prepared for this teeming, complex, edgy metropolis, our gateway to Asia. The journey so far had been on fairly
open roads and through smaller, easily negotiable cities.
The atmosphere in northern Greece had felt sober and restrained under the rule of the Colonels, but here we were thrust into
a chaos of traffic, jostling people, exotic architecture and dank backstreets full of unfamiliar sights, sounds, tastes, smells.
This city, once the heart of the Byzantine Empire, an empire which endured for over a thousand years, had been a formidable
centre of learning, the arts, science and invention. Then in the 15th Century, the city became the capital of the Ottoman
Empire. This in its heyday was progressive and tolerant of cultural and religious difference, as well as embracing of
scientific thought.
By the 19th Century, the Ottoman Empire was in decline. It lasted until WW1, when alliance with Germany finally led to its
collapse and break-up into various Middle Eastern and Arab states.
Britain, France, Italy and Greece for a while controlled what later became modern Turkey. This would have been in living
memory of older people we met. In 1969, the Republic of Turkey as we know it had been in existence for less than half a
century. It was founded at the end of the Turkish War of Independence in 1923, when Mustafa Kemal Atatürk became its first
President.
Strides were made under Atatürk and some of his successors to modernise the country, to tackle illiteracy and develop an
industrialised economy. Many people began to move from the rural heartland to Istanbul in search of work. By 1969, more
than 45% of the population of Istanbul lived in slums (gesekondular) around the outskirts of the city.
Life was tough in Istanbul in 1969. I remember a water carrier with a large tank strapped to his back, hawking water by
the glass via a tube over his shoulder, a porter bent double under a heavy stack of boxes and a little girl offering sweets for
2 kuruş.
This was the backdrop to our sojourn in this city. It was an amazing place with overwhelming impressions, ranging from the
magnificence of Agia Sofia and the Blue Mosque, the Aladdin's cave of the Istanbul Bazaar, the strains of Turkish popular
music with its unfamiliar tonal systems and the beautiful, haunting calls from the minarets, to the wonderful food, the
mouth-watering kebabs and the refreshing glasses of black tea.
Istanbul also marked the turning point and true beginning of our adventure into the countries of the East.
The Scout by Liz Y
We were standing idly gazing across the expanse of the Bosphorus before making our way to the Grand Bazaar, when Johan and I
were approached by a young man about our own age. He introduced himself as a student and began to ask our opinions of Istanbul
and that sort of thing, small talk I suppose.
He didn't seem especially interested in our answers but seemed keen to spend a bit of time with us. He offered to show us round
the bazaar and, well, we thought, why not. Anyway it soon transpired that he had a particular destination in mind, a small
establishment in the bazaar selling packets of fresh coffee, coffee pots and similar merchandise. We were slightly miffed to
find that he was a scout for the proprietor, but perhaps his was as good a holiday job as any. He was a plausible student.
We were standing there resisting being enticed to buy coffee beans with the offer of a small cup of Turkish coffee, when we
unexpectedly saw someone we knew coming towards us, not a Comexer but a fellow Edinburgh student. He was an intrepid solo
traveller, quite at ease making his way across the Middle East to or from Israel, I can't remember which.
After some mutual astonishment at the coincidence of meeting here in Turkey, he noted our trying to resist the coffee-seller's
enticement to view his wares and said go on, have a look. I thought about this. Yes he was right. The man was only doing what
all the other vendors were doing, trying to do business to make a living. All this enticing and luring of customers was just
how things were done here. No need to be aloof and unfriendly, just because we were used to the more reserved ways of the North.
We didn't buy coffee beans, we were on our way to India and there wasn't much point in acquiring stuff to clutter up Cuddles
on our outward journey but we did establish a friendly rapport with the vendor. I don't know what happened to the scout. Off to
find more custom I guess.
