History Told by the Winners

This morning there was no running water when woke up, but by the time we finished breakfast it was working again and we had time for a quick shower before joining the tour. This was a pre-arranged tour, and there were good and bad things about it. On the plus side, we came away with a descent overview of this part for Cappadocia, On the negative side, we spent too little time exploring rock cut churches and monasteries and too much time giving local businesses a chance to sell us their pottery, wine, etc.

Looking liturgically east toward the altar (visible in the back) in one of the Goreme churches
Here a picture of the interior of a typical rock-cut church. This site was in use by Christian monastics up until the 1920's and features a number of different class rooms, refectories, living spaces, and chapels. Note the templon barrier (Byzantine version of a rood screen and a forerunner of the iconostasis now common in Orthodox churches. The altar is visible just beyond. It's square and about two feet per side. I stood at it and tried to imagine celebrating the Eucharist.

Frescos in apse
Here is an example of the elaborate fresco work contained in some of the churches. Note that even though there is no structural reason to do so, these churches conform to the layout of above-ground Byzantine churches with domes and vaults. Unfortunately, many of the Frescos have had the faces scratched off. Initially the tour guide (weak in both English and history) tried to tell us that they had simply fallen off. When someone on the tour asked how the damage could look so deliberate, the tour guide offered several theories that my art-historian wife thought were compelete B.S. One was that local children had defaced the images (unlikely given the both the height and the difficulty of the work). Another was that the Christians wanted to take pieces of the frescos with them "for good luck." The idea that these monks would have deliberately destroyed such beautiful works to take a handful of lucky plaster dust is pretty absurd. And even if they did, why scratch out only the faces? A much simpler explanation is that the destruction was the result of Islamic Iconoclasm. The same thing was at work when they painted over the mosaics in Hagia Sophia. This whole recasting of history to excuse the deliberate destruction of culture and the fact that our tour guide kept referring to the "prophet Jesus" was a good reminder that much of what we are seeing is being viewed through an Ottoman lens. In fact, it's only recently that Turkey has made much effort at preserving and showing it's Byzantine heritage.

An example of damaged frescos
Modern Turkey is very nationalistic. Lots of flags and patriotism. In fact, it's still technically illegal under "article 301" to say anything deemed to be "insulting to turkishness" which basically means being critical of either the current powers-that-be or even those of history. Freedom of speech is not a basic human right, here. What's interesting is that a lot of the 301 prosecutions may have been about thwarting E.U. Membership after all:

In its short life the article has been heavily criticized, both in Turkey and outside.[22] A criticism heard in Turkey, and also voiced by some outside, is that it has turned into a tool of the nationalist "old guard", who, so is claimed, use it to press charges against people of international renown, not to stifle dissenting opinions but with the aim of thwarting the admission process to the EU. (source)

This brings up an interesting observation--we have yet to encounter even the slightest hint of anti-Americanism on this trip. True, we've mostly been in touristy areas and when asked where we are from answer honestly "Canada," but even when the subject of America has come up with our Turkish hosts they have never said anything critical. No one has been anything but nice to us.

Tomorrow more rock-cut stuff including an underground city.

-t