Turkey: A Political Flight Plan and a Disappointing Discovery in Istanbul

Escaping India
Thank Krishna I made my 5:55AM flight to Istanbul and left the Mumbai madhouse far behind. As my Turkish Airlines flight headed out over the Arabian Sea, I was looking forward to visiting my old friend, Istanbul. This was to be the only stop on this trip to a place outside the US where I had previously travelled. I had been to Istanbul twice in 2003 while working in Turkey as the environmental manager for the northeastern Turkey segment of the BTC Oil Pipeline Construction Project. The pipeline now brings crude oil from Azerbaijan on the Caspian Sea to the Turkish port of Ceyhan on the Mediterranean.

The Turkish flag

I first visited Istanbul on my own in 2003 and a few months later with my partner, Judy, who flew from Denver to visit me in Turkey. At that time, I had been studying Turkish which really helped me get around in the city without a guide. The palaces, mosques, markets, and museums were fascinating especially because I had developed an interest in Turkish history and had read two biographies of Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the modern Turkish Republic after World War I. The prices were reasonable for a large city and the food was excellent – lots of vegetarian options with nicely spiced lentils, eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, and other veggies. Thus, there was much to look forward to in my upcoming short stay.

Hey, That’s not Iran!

However, before arriving in Istanbul, I had to endure a nearly 7 hour flight. Fortunately, it was a mostly clear day and I had a window seat on the right side of the plane affording me an aerial view of some places I will probably never visit. The TV screen on the cabin bulkhead showed that we would pass over southern Iran. I knew that this part of Iran was a series of mountain ranges and deserts and was looking forward to getting a first-hand look at this forbidden land. However, a couple hours into the flight I immediately realized that the route map was wrong. As we reached land, I could see the coastline continuing to the northwest. Had we been approaching Iran, the coastline would have abruptly headed off to the east toward Pakistan. This was not Iran. It was the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula and we were over Oman. Yup, off on the horizon, I could see the northern tip of Oman pointing out toward the Strait of Hormuz. Soon we were approaching the coast again and passed over a large, modern city which I assumed was Abu Dhabi.

Direct route from Mumbai to Istanbul is shown by the dashed line.

Our actual route is shown by the solid line. Why the difference? Read on and find out…

Now we were over water again, not the Arabian Sea this time but the Persian Gulf. I couldn’t see any land (i.e. Iran) out my porthole to the northeast and it was obvious what the pilot was doing. He was deliberately taking a slightly longer route to avoid Iranian airspace. Thus, geopolitics had intervened in our flight. Turkey probably doesn’t have very good relations with the ayatollahs in Iran. Although I was disappointed in not seeing Iran from the air, I was reassured that some crazed Iranian Air Force pilot wouldn’t have a chance to bring down a defenseless Airbus 330 from a neighboring country that practices the “wrong”version of Islam.

Iraq: An economic powerhouse that could have been

Once we hit land again, I could see a couple of large rivers winding across a flat plain. Ah, the Tigris and Euphrates – we were heading straight up through Iraq. I’m sorry that I don’t have any good photos to share. I could see clearly where we were going (passing near Baghdad, Kirkuk, and Mosul) but the air was very hazy and the landscape rather non-descript from 38,000 feet. I shot a few photos but they don’t show much. I did get the impression of a country that has, in no way, lived up to its potential. Here was the eastern portion of the Fertile Crescent, one of the “cradles of civilization”. You would have thought that the Tigris and Euphrates would have been providing irrigation for thousands of acres of crops. However, according to a 2003 report by the Congressional Research Service (http://www.nationalaglawcenter.org/assets/crs/RS21516.pdf), Iraq was importing 80 to 100% of many basic staples by 2002 including wheat, rice, sugar, vegetable oil, and protein sources. I did see thousands of small farm plots, the bulk of them concentrated along the major rivers. I wondered how they could effectively produce an income given their relatively small sizes and serious salinity problems which must affect productivity after several millennia of irrigation in the hot desert climate.

I also saw numerous oil fields where gas was being flared. All that natural gas being wasted and needlessly contributing to climate change. You would have thought that Iraq’s oil reserves (second in the world only behind Saudi Arabia) would have nourished a booming economy. Of course, we all know how that sad tale has played itself out in the past few decades.

From my viewpoint at 38,000 feet, it was obvious that Iraq is a very large country. Its area is slightly larger than California and its population is about 33 million. Excuse me for going political but did Bush, his advisors, and his generals really think they could effectively occupy a country this large with a couple hundred thousand troops who had no understanding of its people?

Turkey, at last

When we reached northern Iraq and passed into Turkish airspace according to the monitor, another interesting event occurred. Suddenly the plane banked left to get us back on course toward Istanbul. Again geopolitics dictated our route. The direct way from southern Iraq to Istanbul was through northern Syria. However, the pilot had deliberately avoided Syrian airspace: A damned good idea given the current tense relations between Bashar al-Assad’s government in Damascus and Turkey!

It was still a long way to Istanbul from southeastern Turkey. We passed over barren mountains and intervening cultivated valleys. A scattering of forested land in the mountains gave evidence that the barrenness of the landscape is not natural. Rather it is the result of a long history of deforestation over the 10,000 or more years that humans have occupied what is now Turkey. You want to talk about erosion – there were thousands of hectares of tortured land visible below me.

Once in Istanbul, a couple of modern trolleys cars whisked me to within one block of my hotel located just a few blocks west of the Hagia Sophia and Blue mosques. After a delicious lunch (ah, mercamek chorba –lentil soup), I had a few hours for a pleasant stroll around the city avoiding the carpet sellers and touts by smiling, saying “Merhaba” (hello in Turkish), but not responding to any of their questions. I then headed back to my hotel to work on my blog.

Maybe I imagined it, but it seemed like there were more women in Istanbul wearing head scarves or even burkas than I remember from 10 years ago. Burkas are the full body cloaks as shown in this photo taken when neither this woman nor her husband noticed me and my camera. Head scarves don’t bother me much but I disdainfully refer to women in burkas as “bag-ladies”. No, I wouldn’t last long in Iran or Saudi Arabia! Let me remind you again that these opinions are my own and do not reflect the positions of any organizations with which I am associated!

I was working on my story about the East Bali Poverty Project but when I tried to upload the photos to my blog, nothing worked. I figured I had a very slow wifi connection and tried moving my little laptop to different parts of the hotel but to no avail. I had accessed my blog through my gmail account. Then I had an idea: I tried going directly to my blog through the internet. I was met with a message indicating that the site was unavailable for security reasons. I then realized the truth (confirmed by an internet search for "Turkey censorship blogs"): the Turkish government censors all gmail blogs. Sure – my blog is unavailable in China due to censorship. That’s no surprise given the Chinese government’s paranoia. After all, I might be trying to ferment another Tiananmen Square uprising under the guise of erosion control. But Turkey? The Turkish government has been pushing for membership in the European Union ever since I worked there ten years ago and for several years prior. They think they can censor blogs and get into the EU? This is a country with a façade of openness but really it’s stuck in its authoritarian past. I could understand them censoring anything advocating Islamic terrorism in Turkey, but censoring all blogs is a direct assault on free speech and very non-European.

The following day, I took a tour of the opulent Dolmabache Palace as I had no erosion control contacts in the city. I got some nice photos of the palace from the outside (no photos allowed in the interior, damnit) and other photos of the city. Here is a sampling of my photos, but I’m sorry you won’t find them very enjoyable. My message to the Turkish government is, “You censor my blog, I censor your country!”