Istanbul: Confluence of East and West

Any walk or ride in Istanbul invariably turns into a journey through history. Centuries-old civilizations stand sentinel to the passage of time in this fabled Turkish city where East (Asia) and West (Europe) literally meet. For 16 centuries Istanbul was the imperial capital, first of the Byzantine (Roman) Empire and then of the Ottoman (Uthman) sultans. Now it is a thriving city, perhaps the only city in the world where it is possible to see humanity as a whole, in peace and joy, instead of the walls dividing peoples and races everywhere else, instigated by the powerful blinded by racism.

Blue Mosque

My wife and I sat in the courtyard of the Sultan Ahmet Blue Mosque at various times of the day and watched the stream of tourists from around the world flow by, from dawn until midnight, curious, unstoppable, alive. As the ethos of this cosmopolitan city, “Let them come to Istanbul” can do for our times by way of inspiration what Kennedy’s famous words did for the free world over half-a-century ago in Berlin.

Aya Sofya Museum

In the courtyard are the Hippodrome, site of Roman chariot races, and obelisks describing the history of the place. Across the expansive courtyard is the Aya Sofya (Divine Wisdom) museum and adjacent to it is the Topkapi Palace, a sprawling wonder that was the residence of Ottoman sultans for nearly 400 years, now housing a sui generis collection of robes, porcelains, jewelry, calligraphic manuscripts and other Ottoman treasures.

History suffuses Istanbul but what also struck us was the pervasive presence of cats, dogs, crows and seagulls. The dogs lie on the marble floor of the courtyard, docile as doves. Children pat them without fear. The cats roam the cobblestone alleys and hotel lawns with aplomb and are provided food and water at regular intervals by the locals. In the Golden Horn hotel where we were staying, we saw hotel staff replenishing bowls with water and spreading cat food at designated spots with purpose.

Feeding seagulls and cats

Just before noon prayers at the Firuz Aga mosque near my hotel one day, I saw a cat walking about in the main prayer room. In any other mosque in the world, a devotee would shoo the cat away. Not in Istanbul. I watched with gratitude and admiration as a young man ever so gently lift the cat up and place her at the exit door. I have never seen people as friendly toward animals as Istanbul natives. They do not merely tolerate them, they love them. In front of the biggest mosque in Istanbul, the Suleymaniye Mosque, I saw a caretaker feeding fish to raucous seagulls and cautious cats as part of his job.

If history is everywhere in Istanbul, so is fabulous, fragrant food. Istanbul is as close to paradise as can be imagined for foodies and non-foodies alike. Just the sheer variety of kebabs left us in awe, particularly the Testi lamb kebab, cooked in the dancing flames of a barely controlled fire before the wondrous eyes of patrons. It’s al-fresco on both sides of narrow alleys, with a shallow divider between to feed the cats who wander around like tourists out to have a good time. I tried everything: lamb, beef and chicken kebabs. I found the shawarmas irresistible. Tasted sea bass, prawn, and whatever else they haul in from the waters around, always served fresh. We ate with pleasure and without guilt. “You can always fast,” an inner voice told me, “when you return to California.” There’s a time to fast and a time to feast. In Istanbul, there’s always some excuse to feast, unless you are a Muslim traveling during Ramadan.

The Bosphorous cruise on a spacious boat is something to write home about. The Strait connects the Sea of Marmara to the Black Sea. Proceeding toward the Black sea, Europe lay on our left and Asia to our right. Light moved enchantingly across the face of the water and we felt in its ebb and flow the rise and fall of civilizations. The historical buildings made their presence known with authority amid modern utilitarian homes: Dolmabahche Palace, Beylerbei Palace, Anadolu Fortress and the Rumeli Fortress, built in 1452 by Sultan Mehmet II, the largest and strongest fortress of the Middle Age.

At some point, modernity overwhelmed history in the form of … Selfies! When historians chronicle the 21^st century, one milestone they are bound to acknowledge is the moment when “I Believe in Myself” morphed into “I Believe in My Selfie!” The selfie-takers were easily the dominant homo sapiens in Istanbul. No place was too secular or sacred. We saw as many selfies being snapped inside Aya Sofya, the Blue Mosque, the Suleymaniye Mosque and the Ayub al-Ansari Mosque, as in the plaza and the courtyard, in the Grand Bazaar and in the eateries. Ah, the bottomless vanities of humankind!

Istanbul is not immune to geopolitical reality. We saw Syrian refugees everywhere, mostly women, eyes hollow with despair, arms outstretched for alms. We did our share to help but there is no end in sight for these proud people whose country is in ruin, and where return, at least for now, is unthinkable.

In Istanbul, there are no pedestrian rights, only the rights of drivers. It took us a day to adjust to this reality, particularly after I made some narrow escapes with my life and limb intact. Thereafter, we became pros in jumping from the edge of the street to the curb at the last moment to avoid being hit by taxis, cars and buses. “Nimble” is the only word I can think of to describe our new-found athleticism.

We took in a performance of the whirling dervishes one evening, a Sufi tradition that induces spiritual ecstasy among practitioners through rejection of the material world and evocation of the inner realm. The inspiration comes from the words and practices of Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, a Persian poet and Sufi master from the 13^th century whose poems have sold in the millions in the U.S., making him the best-selling poet in America. “What you seek,” wrote Rumi, “is seeking you.”

Departing Istanbul was difficult for we had fallen in love with this magnificent city. The friendliness of the Turkish people overwhelmed us. We were fumbling with our tickets one day, trying to get into the subway that would take us through the tunnel under the Bosphorous from Europe to Asia. A middle-aged man, responding in Turkish to our English, took us through the whole process without making us feel small or embarrassed. This gesture repeated many times every day during the week we were in Istanbul. Even the smallest shop we visited treated us to Turkish Tea and Turkish Delights. Everyone had a smile for us. It is true: Smiling is indeed charity.

Jet lag made us lethargic after we returned to California but as soon as we regained our bearings, we began planning our next trip to the city that sits at the intersection of East and West, mysterious and manifest: Istanbul.  

Doing the Right Thing in Syria

U.N. observers have confirmed the horrific massacre that took place in Mazraat al-Qubair, a farming village of about 160 people in central Hama province. Nearly 80 men, women and children were shot, hacked and burned to death by Assad’s bloodthirsty death squad known as ‘Shabiha.’ The observers could smell the stench of burned corpses and see body parts scattered about the village.

The massacre follows one in which 108 people were slain in the Syrian town of Houla on May 25. Reports have surfaced, particularly in Germany, that Syrian rebels were actually responsible for the Houla massacre but most sources close to the ground, including a UN Human Rights Council group, said evidence pointed towards militia loyal to Assad in the region.

Bashar Assad has been exploiting Kofi Annan’s peace plan to continue his genocidal suppression. In the 15 months of bloodshed, he has been instigating fear among the country’s 2.1 million Alawites – 12 per cent of the population – that they will be massacred by the Sunni majority – 75 per cent - if he were to fall.

As the moment of truth nears in Syria, the opposition has been at pains to assure the Alawites that they will not be targeted in a post-Assad Syria. “We are all in this together,” has become the opposition’s motto as they implore ordinary Alawites to defect.

For many pundits and policymakers in America, however, the situation in Syria can only be understood in the context of a geopolitical chess game.

Writing in the Washington Post, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger summarized his analysis of the Syrian situation this way: “Military intervention, humanitarian or strategic, has two prerequisites: First, a consensus on governance after the overthrow of the status quo is critical. If the objective is confined to deposing a specific ruler, a new civil war could follow in the resulting vacuum, as armed groups contest the succession, and outside countries choose different sides. Second, the political objective must be explicit and achievable in a domestically sustainable time period. I doubt that the Syrian issue meets these tests.”

In other words, let the killings continue because we are not sure who will inherit power and whether or not they will push America’s interests. A well-known columnist, writing in the Los Angeles Times, raises the same concern: “The situation in Syria is further complicated by the familiar question of who's the good guy. The bad guy is clearly Bashar Assad. But his opposition is a mixture of unattractive clerics and their followers, liberal reformers and left-wing radicals.”

The question of what is just and what is right do not figure in the equations of these analysts.

One consistent voice in the wilderness has been that of New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof who wrote in a recent column that “when a government devours its own people, as in Syria or Sudan, there are never easy solutions. That helps explain President Obama’s dithering … Yet the president is taking prudence to the point of paralysis … In Syria, we should make clear that unless the security forces depose Assad in the next 30 days, our Middle Eastern allies will arm the Syrian opposition. We should work with these allies, as well as with major powers like Russia and China, to encourage a coup, or a“retirement” for Assad … Stopping a government from killing its own is an uncertain business. But our existing policies in Syria and Sudan alike are failing to stop the bloodshed, and they also are putting us on the wrong side of history.”

Muslims are aware of the serious problems that can follow the fall of Assad. The path to openness and responsible governance after decades of tyranny and dictatorship is not achieved in weeks or months. Just look at Egypt and Libya. The peoples’ revolution is far from complete. It will take time for a new era to dawn. So it will be in Syria.

Besides, Western fear that intolerant religious zealots (always a minority but exaggerated by Western media) will find a way to turn the Arab Spring into a Winter of Despair is unfounded. Using a statistically sound sampling technique called “controlled snowball,” 186 opposition activists were asked about their preferences for a post-Assad Syrian government. 73% said it was important for the new Syrian government to protect the rights of Christians. While many respondents voiced support for religion in the public square, only a small fraction favored clerical influence in government. As to which country they would like to see Syria emulate after Assad, 82% chose Turkey. Perhaps the biggest surprise was that the U.S. earned 69% favorable rating as a political model, followed closely by France, Germany and Britain.

Bashar Assad may soon be forced to flee to Moscow as opposition forces overcome their differences and mount a united assault against the government. There will, of course, be chaos and turmoil. Some Syrians will be tempted to settle old scores. Sectarian conflict may raise its ugly head. UN observers may have to be deployed to ensure a peaceful transition so that one tyranny is not replaced by another.

But there is also reason to believe that Syrians will come out stronger through their trial-by-fire and forge a government of consensus, justice and accountability, with “malice toward none and charity for all.”