Letter from Alanya!

Merhaba!

With this letter, I would like to share some impressions of my summer holiday spent in Alanya. I will write something about place, tourism, Turkish people and reflect some of the historical and actual events in Turkey

Turkey is a place that unites west with east, or as it was called by the ancient people 'a place in the middle of the world'. Alanya is a coastal town, in so-called Mediterranean region of the Turkey. Alanya has around 120 000 inhabitants and it is considered as small city according to the Turkish standards (Istanbul has around 12 million inhabitants), so it happens often that Alanya is not indicated on the map. The biggest closest city is Antalya, 140 Km northeast of Alanya. Turkey has altogether about 70 million of inhabitants. Except Istanbul, other biggest cities are Ankara and Izmir.

Summer in Alanya
Alanya is a modern town, that had an explosive development last years, parallel with the development of tourism. Hundreds of thousands of tourists visit Alanya each season, which signifies the economical and potential situation of this city. During the summer, there are a lot of activities, some locals work 24 hours per day, including Saturdays, Sundays and the holidays. Vendors say that during the winter, town and people are almost in sleep. It is a time for rest and preparation for next season. It seems that, most tourists in Alanya are from Scandinavian countries, but there are also a lot from Netherlands, England, Russia and other countries.

The tourist industry is very developed, almost everything fits to tourism. For example a Norwegian monetary, Crone, can be used without a problem. In many restaurants you can find menus in Norwegian language, even Norwegian food. The Scandinavian's can be impressed when the local vendors talk to them in their language. They have learned some words, in order to communicate easier with Scandinavian's. If, for example, Norwegian tourists want to follow up events in their country, they have possibilities to buy the daily press, even if they lie on the beach. Main Norwegian news papers are not late more than one day here. This tells how far has gone the Turkish tourist industry.

The people are very hospitable here. Turks, those involved in tourist industry or local people do the best they can so the tourists feel good during their stay here. The security is in high level and I have not heard any case of thievery, physical maltreatment or something else against tourists. If something happens, Turkish police is known for severely measurements in these cases. This is probably one of the main preventives.  

Alanya reflects a Turkish modern life, however, the things that turns you back in the history is the beautiful castle that rises above Medium Ocean. This castle is old about 2500 years however, red tower together with high wall (7km) it was built on 1221 immediately after Seljuk’s (first sultan family) invaded the town. The wall and castle have served as a protection of the port and town. Now the castle and wall with 146 towers serve as important cultural and historical monuments but practically as tourist attraction. From castle, you can see the whole town of Alanya. From this point, the city can be divided in western and eastern part, where a long beaches with a lot of peoples where placed.

Otherwise, the town offers almost everything for everyone's taste. For example, market will lot of shops with flexible and propitious prices. It happens that prices can be reduced up to 50 % or more. This impresses you that, sometimes the sale is much more important then profit. We used to haggle over the prices and managed to get things very very cheep. Some of the sellers told us that they almost win nothing selling us, but as there are lot of Norwegians and other who usually buy without discussing the price, everything can be balanced.

During the evening, together with darkness and clear sky, where the moon and stars can be seen very clear, the symbols of Turkish flag, the town's character changes. Tourists and others that spent days on beaches, pools, or other different activities, gather in many restaurants and discos of the town. The music of Alanya is very international, for Turks it is OK even if Greek music in playing, even if it is very difficult to play Turkish music in Greece bars. The food in restaurants is relatively cheep and very good. The Turkish cuisine is not without reason known as one of the best cuisines of the world.

In the evening, different cultural arrangements were made, for example ' A Turkish night', where, except good food there was a rich artistic program. We had opportunity to see the Anatolian folkloric dancing that presents the oldest Turkish tradition.

The people
Who are Turks in reality? Sometimes it is more difficult to answer to the simple questions. The simple answer can be this: Turks are inhabitants of the Turkish Republic. The things that unites Turks in one nation firstly are the language, history and culture. The last one is a abstract definition because the Turkish culture varies a lot, depending on the regions were people live. People live differently in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir or for example in Alanya, differently in undeveloped places in central and eastern Turkey. There, the life is mainly traditional where modernization has still not pushed roots. For example, one Turk from Alanya has much more common with an European citizen then with one Turk of one pure village of the Turkey, even if they talk same language.  

The father of Turks
The phenomenon nation is relatively new, while even definitions about nation can be different. In Turkey, the idea for nation was for a first time introduced by Mustafa Kemal, later known as Atatürk (The father of Turks). He did this together with establishment of the Turkish Republic, on 1923 after the Ottoman Empire failed. Atatürk did fundamental reforms in Turkey, in direction of modernization, transforming a Turkey from a classic empire to the secular republic, placing a democratic system according to the European models. The figure of Atatürk it is most important symbol of a modern Turkey. Atatürk is dear almost to all Turks and every city in Turkey has his memorial. Usually avenues or main streets bear the name of Atatürk, Alanya as well.

Football 'madness' 
What unites Turks most these days is a historical success of a Turkish representation in e football world cup in Japan/South Korea. I had opportunity to see through TV two victories of a Turkish football team while I was here. This means that I participated in celebrations that were held here, notably the victory against Senegal that, for a first time, qualified Turkey in semifinal. I watched the game in one pub together with many Turkish supporters. After that, we went out on the streets, which were full of people. The red flag color, Turkish music and cheering ' Türkyie', ' Türkyie ' together with fire-works and car hooters, dominated. The atmosphere was really celebrative. Even tourists went out of the beaches to experience this celebration in the town, which continued during all night. Police was trying to open up traffic, but nothing. The buses with lot of tourists that  just came had to wait in the middle of the chaos of the city, maybe this was an interesting beginning of their visit in Turkey. It is amazing the fact that how much enjoyment  the success of Turkish football team brings to the people in the street. Except happiness, this success in the international sports raised a feeling of self - confidence among Turks. Now, the Turkey is known also for success in football field.

The Kurds
When I said that the Turks are united people in idea for one nation, I was not totally correct. I need to mention that a big part of a Turkish people do not like to identify themselves as Turks and more less to be united in idea of undivided Turkish republic. I’m talking of course about proximately 15 million of Kurds that mainly live in the eastern part of Turkey, the region that not casually remained as most undeveloped region. They want to protect their cultural identity, some of their political groups fight even for establishment of an independent Kurdish state. The unsolved conflict of Kurds status in Turkey and armed conflicts between regular Turkish forces and Kurd rebels, was the biggest evil of Turkey in last decade. War against 'terrorists' was followed very often with a serious abuses of a human rights and a collective discrimination of Kurds. The peaceful solution of Kurd problem, together with improvement of a human rights in Turkey, are among the main requests for acceptance of Turkey as a full member of European Union. 

Model
However, Turkey had a lot of improvements in this and other fields. The rapid modernization of Turkey and the history of the country tells that Turks are people with a lot of abilities for readjust to a new circumstances. Old military and administrative traditions, taken from the ottoman empire together with new Atatürk democratic traditions and propitious, geo - strategic position make the Turkey a place with lot of potentials. The tourism is one of the most important resources for Turkish economy. Except this, the arrival of millions of Europeans each year in Turkey together with presence of millions of Turks in west countries, not to talk about Turkish attendance in euro Atlantic political and military structures, connects Turkey closely with the west. Turkey is a full member of NATO from 1952, member of European Council, OSCE and associative member of EU from 1963. Because of democratic form and secular republic, the west orientation and rapid modernization, Turkey is serving as model for some "new democracies", especially for some former Soviet Union republics in central Asia or in “Euroasia”, as it is called by the Turkey.

Also Alanya should serve as model for all coastal cities with tourism potentials. When Sultan Alaaddin Keykubadi from Konya built the town of Alanya on 1221, the town became the prime port of the powerful empire “Sultanate of Rum”. Later Alanya was known based on its castle that proved the old and great history of this place. However, for a short time, Alanya became one of most famous tourist centers in Turkey. Good experience from holidays spent in Alanya, makes many tourists, including me and my family, to choose Alanya as most preferred place for summer holidays.

SylJ, Alanya, June 2002