A journey to the East of Turkey in May 2014

By Heidi Trautmann

The Atatürk Dam which we have already seen from afar on our voyage to Nemrud Dagi is part of the GAP Masterplan, the South Eastern Anatolia Project, a scheme to develop and incorporate nine provinces of the region into Turkish economy. It was envisaged in 1970 and built between 1983 to 1990, its entire operation began in 1993, It is the largest dam in the country and ranks sixth amongst the largest earth-and-rock fill embankment dams in the world.  It is one of nine dams, one of them, the Birecik Dam, we had already visited the day before. You will find lots of detailed information on the project on the internet.

We were there on the 4^th day of our East Turkey Journey, excited to see it from so close just like all the other mainly Turkish tourists, who came to pay their respects to the enormous project, and to my surprise many busloads of Turkish women – by the way along all the touristic attractions we met them, not only studied women but housewives, and I was told that they were increasingly interested in the culture of their country.

We found electricity woven like a spider net and road systems under construction all across the district…. the area is booming. I quote from an article by the Water Technology Department in Turkey: ‘….The total area of the irrigation scheme is about 75,000 square kilometres. It consists of 46.2% semiarid cultivation farmlands, 20.5% forest land and 33.3% of dry pastures. Irrigation canals are expected to be completed in 2020.

The GAP will double the Turkey's irrigation land and hydroelectricity production and also increase the per capita income in the region by 50%. The GAP is also expected to quadruple the gross national product and provide employment to two million people. When completed, it is expected to supply water to about 1.8 million hectares of land and also generate about 7476MW of power. The total estimated cost of the GAP is $32bn.’

That sounds terrific…..but ….the Turkey GAP project has been receiving strong political resentment from Iraq, Syria and other riparian countries as it significantly reduces the flow of Euphrates. In 2009, however, the three countries initiated talks to establish a water institution to resolve issues related to sharing of Euphrates-Tigris waters…..so far there is no solution.

It gave us food for thought on our bus drive down south – through Şanliurfa to Harran on the border to Syria. Dry land, less trees, wide horizons. Our lunches on our journey have always had picnic character, the ingredients we bought on fruit stands or super markets, fresh bread, cheese, tomatoes and if possible we looked for picnic areas where one would serve tea. It took little time and we could stretch our legs and be in fresh air. It suited us well.

Harran in Upper Mesopotamia, only a few kilometres away from Altınbaşak, is on the most northern bow of the Fertile Crescent – the left bow tip even reaches Cyprus -  and lies between – as I mentioned before - in the fertile land between Euphrates and Tigris, also profiting now from the GAP scheme. Population in this area goes back to 3000 years BC where generally Semitic languages were spoken, in the second millineum we find additionally mentioned Sumerian, Hurrian, Hattic and Indo-European  languages such as Hittite, Indo-Aryan and Mittani.

They all came through here, up to the crusaders and finally the Ottomans. Harran is famous for its traditional beehive adobe houses. We entered through the ruined city walls and we saw excavations still going on. The adobe houses remind me of the ones I have seen in the Lebanon desert areas still in use for storage; the architecture is most simple, made of mud without any wood; it is very cool inside, and some of the conic houses are still inhabited, but most of them are for the tourists to see, complete with daily life atmosphere in kitchen, bedrooms and living quarters, the floors covered with carpets.  The area was poor and became deserted because the river next to it had dried out but now it is prospering again. The people living here now are mainly ethnic Arabs although there are some Assyrian villages around Harran. Lots of legends are connected with Harran, thus it is told that one of Abraham’s ancestors by the name of Cainan had built the city and some of his later relatives are from here. However, Abraham is supposed to come from the Şanliurfa/Urfa region, because we are going to see his birth grotto in the city of Urfa.

Many religious beliefs have stayed on; it was home to the Assyrian Christians but ancient gods were still worshipped …you never know, one of them might be helpful.

We sat under a woven goat wool tent on small chairs and benches covered with colourful carpets, with us the Muhtar of the place, and we hand endless tea, strong and good. Children were selling their hand made objects made of chickpeas.

Our hotel for the 4^th night was in Urfa, the Harran Hotel, in the centre of the city. Much emphasis was put on the choice of the location because at night it is much nicer to walk the streets through the inner city to get a bit of atmosphere while we were looking for a typical restaurant.

It was a Sunday and above that a religious fest and people of Urfa had come to the Halil-Ur-Rahman Mosque to pray in the Mosque, to ask for a favour in the grotto where Abraham, the prophet is supposed to be born, to walk in the park and around the holy fish lake which is known for a legend in connection with Abraham. Here it is as I found it:  

…Nemrut is a ruler who spreads terror and fear all around. One night he asks for an interpretation of his dream. He learns one of the children born that year will kill him and commands that all the children born be killed. Sara, mother of the Prophet Abraham, gives birth to her child in a cave, leaves him there and goes home. A gazelle nurses the baby. After awhile, soldiers find Abraham in the cave. Nemrut, who never had a child, decides to take care of Abraham. When he grew up he witnessed Nemrut forcing his people to worship statues, and when everyone leaves for a ceremony, Abraham enters the area of statues in the palace and cuts all the statues down with an axe, finally leaving the axe in the hands of the largest statue. He is thrown into prison but during his trial, Abraham protests his innocence, saying ‘You see the axe is in the hands of the big statue; probably he is the one who did it?’ Furious, Nemrut shouts, ‘How can a piece of stone take an axe and do this?? Abraham replies; ‘If he is a real God, why can’t  he do it?? Infuriated, Nemrut commands Abraham to be thrown into the fire. Although Zeliha, daughter of Nemrut, begs for mercy, she can’t convince her dad. Wood is piled up in the area of Halil-ul Rahman Lake and the fire is set. The place where the Prophet Abraham fell into the flames becomes a lake and a rose garden and the pieces of wood become fishes…..

It is a touching legend and thus many women go and pray to him. There are restaurants around the fish area with many fishes, probably carps, in it. The place is holy and nothing must harm them. Families sit in the grass and hold a picnic and we go to one of the restaurants overlooking the whole scene and have a nice Urfa dinner.

Urfa/Sanliurfa has a long history as far as 4000 years BC and a long list of names; it was once believed that it was the biblical UR but that is thought to have been in today’s Southern Iraq. Just as Harran it lies on the upper bow of the fertile crescent where agriculture began and many hordes of the people I described in Part I came through here for its reputation of riches and fertility. In Hellenistic times it became the city of Edessa and during Byzantine rule it was named Justinopolis, but became Urfa after the Byzantine era. It is hardly believable, what these places in the fertile crescent have gone through.

Urfa is a very romantic place and after our dinner we went strolling through the Bazaar back to our hotel. Bazaar people, they know nothing else but the bazaar, it is the centre of their life, a society in itself…. Urfa is well known for its cuisine, a little hot for my taste, but we tried many dishes, as the German traveller is a very curious species, altogether Urfa is worth more than one day. However, the aim of our journey was to get an overview of East Turkey and the historical sites which have contributed to the reputation of being the first centre of culture, a hotpot of cultures, a birth place of sciences, trade and arts, including the first steps of human society from hunting and collecting tribes to settling and agriculture. It happened all in the area we went through. Also here the book ‘The Bible as History’ is my recommendation to get a good overview how things started. Cradle of civilisation, a bottleneck where everything happened in a very dense process, the run of history from the very beginning.

And just this we witnessed the following day, our fifth day when we visited Göbekli Tepe, 15 km to the northeast of Sanliurfa.

Our well read and informed guide and friend Fatih had been preparing himself for the journey for months and had sought contact to Klaus Schmidt, the archaeologist, who was working there and leading the excavations since 1994. So he could give us fresh information out of first hand and when we heard the whole story we could hardly believe our eyes and ears. What an unbelievable site and  we ten people from the 21 century touching stones others touched some 12 000 years ago. There had been knowledge of a possible Neolithic site in the 1960s by a survey done by the Istanbul and Chicago Universities which was confirmed by some literature he found written by an American researcher Peter Benedict, so he started excavating in 1994 in collaboration with the Sanliurfa Museum. What is Göbekli Tepe = Potbelly Hill? It is believed to be a sanctuary for hunting and gathering tribes who came here to worship their nature gods. Klaus Schmidt had some experience in the area as he was working on another Neolithic site nearby. There is still more around that era still not excavated. We learnt that the tell includes two phases of ritual use dating back to the 10^th-8^th millennium BC, the first phase (pre-pottery A)being circles of massive T-shaped pillars, about 6 m high and of 20 tons – they suspect 20 circles with more than 200 pillars of that size still not explored, and of a second phase (pre-pottery B) with smaller pillars and rectangular rooms with floors of polished lime. Many of the pillars are decorated with simple reliefs. Klaus Schmidt found several layers, circles on top of each other, the lower one filled with stone debris. What was the reason? It is my guess that is was due to new generations, new tribes, new deities, the old temple demolished and a new one built on top of it.

In the 8^th millennium the sanctuary lost its importance since it was covered by debris again. On the slopes around they found proof of later human settlements through finds of tools, for example, and represents the threshold to agriculture. The stone for these enormous pillars came from close-by quarries.  There is a rich list of literature to be found, and it is really worthwhile doing some research. Nothing definite can be said yet according to Klaus Schmidt as there is only 5% excavated. Future will tell more for new archaeologists to come.

First came the temple, then the city. Excavations are given up presently.  A place with an endless view in all four directions. Thus is remains as we go on towards Mardin but before we enter the old city of Mardin we visit the very important orthodox Syrian monastery Dayro d-Mor Hananyo or Dayr al-Zafaran in Arabic.

End of part II – In part III I’ll take you to Mardin and the district around Mardin and Midyat with its many churches and monasteries among them Dayro d-Mor Hananyo or Dayr al-Zafaran and Mor Gabriel; to Hasankeyf  with its cliff caves, a fascinating nature experience, soon to be lost.