Some say it’s more of a culture shock to return home from a foreign country than to actually experience that country. After returning to the States from a 10-day trip to Turkey last October, I understand that sentiment completely. The feeling first hit me as I stood in the boarding line of my connecting American Airlines flight home to Los Angeles. The plane had been delayed on the runway of Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, waiting for a few international flights, like mine, to come in. I had already reached my groggy point when a cheery flight attendant greeting passengers at the door asked if we had just come from Rome. “Turkey,” I answered, since I was the one standing closest to him. “Oh,” he said, looking a bit puzzled but nonetheless enthusiastic. “Budapest?” Before I could correct him with “No, sir, Budapest is actually in Hungary,” he had moved on to the next passenger. From that moment, I knew my experience in Turkey was valuable not only because I had walked through ancient mosques in Istanbul and prayed in the Virgin Mary’s House on the west coast, but for the simple reason that my world had grown bigger. Months earlier, I had written a feature story for the Palisadian-Post about Space Camp Turkey, founded by Palisades residents Kaya and Mary Tuncer in Izmir, Kaya’s hometown on Turkey’s west coast. The Tuncers had then invited me as their guest to see the Space Camp and its home in the Aegean Free Zone (AFZ), an industrial park run by Kaya’s development and operating company, ESBAS. They arranged for Melda G?ner, a Turkish ESBAS employee in Space Camp Turkey’s marketing and PR department, to meet me at the airport in Istanbul. Instant friends, we toured the city under vicious time constraints: two days to see the sultans’ luxurious residence at Topkapi Palace, make careful purchases at the Grand Bazaar and visit the ancient Ayasofya (Hagia Sophia) Museum, a former church-turned-mosque. Istanbul appealed to both my love for intimate European-style caf?s and crowded outdoor markets cluttered with colorful tapestries, vegetables and spices. Having traveled to Cambodia almost a year earlier, I felt reunited with the wild disorder of tiny cars sideswiping pedestrians and the sweet chanting of monks at prayer time. But unlike Cambodia, Turkey literally borders two worlds-Europe and Asia, Christian and Muslim. It neighbors Iraq, in the southeast corner, and Greece and Bulgaria, to the northwest. When I flew to Turkey in early October, the Turkish government was debating a U.S. request (which they ultimately approved) to send Turkish troops to Iraq in order to restore stability in the aftermath of the Iraq war. A month after I returned to the U.S., two synagogues in Istanbul were struck by suicide bombers. Just a couple of days later, the British Embassy in Istanbul was hit. I thought of the red and orange fireworks from a local festival that had exploded in the sky the night Melda and I strolled through the lively Beyoglu area, not far from the embassy. We had stopped in the street to admire them. Back home, the news of the bombings shocked me. I was driving on Sunset, listening to a report on the radio, when a cop pulled me over. My first speeding ticket. It was difficult for me to get back on track that week. I felt incredibly sorry for Turkey, a country that has worked so hard in recent years to improve its economic and political stability. What message would these bombings send to the Turkish people and what would the international community’s impression of Turkey be in the aftermath? While in the Aegean Free Zone, I had discussed Turkey’s political improvements with Dr. Lutz G?rgens, Economic Counselor in the German Embassy in Ankara, Turkey’s capital. G?rgens was visiting the Zone for a German Business Development Day conference, organized by ESBAS. He told me: “This government has been in office for almost a year, has a huge majority and another four years to govern-that is a long period [of stability] in a country that has suffered from continued political crisis and change of direction every other year.” G?rgens also said he believed this stable political framework to be a key factor in Turkey’s economic recovery. At the same conference, a Turkish newspaper reporter had interviewed me about whether I thought Americans would help improve Turkey’s economy. Her mini recorder on the table between us, she sat with one leg folded over the other, plugging away at a cigarette while I rambled on about the possibility of educating Americans about Turkey. All I could really assure her was that her country had impressed me in its effort to bridge cultures and bring people of different nationalities, religions and cultural backgrounds together. Before visiting Turkey, I had never set foot in a place where Muslims and Christians prayed side by side. Yet only miles from the Aegean Free Zone, near the ancient city of Ephesus, such a place exists-a tiny shrine and adjacent room where it is believed the Virgin Mary lived and, some say, died. My Turkish tour guide told me that many Muslims love and honor the Virgin Mary and travel to this sacred place to light a candle for her spirit. I got a different glimpse of Turkey’s spirit of diversity when Melda and I stumbled upon the contemporary art exhibits from the 8th International Istanbul Biennial exhibition. Set up in the traditional spaces of the Ayasofya Museum and Yerebatan Cistern in Istanbul, the exhibition hosted approximately 80 artists from 40 countries. I was surprised to see video projection and neon lights against ancient stone walls, and an enormous digital clock with “time reversed,” as the piece was called. The exhibits explored current issues of justice in a creative, abstract way. Both inside and out of the Free Zone, Turks appeared to be openly proud of their rich history. After all, Istanbul was once Constantinople (formerly Byzantium), one of the most powerful imperial world capitals and seat of the Holy Roman Empire. At its head was Constantine I, the first Roman ruler to adopt Christianity, in the 4th century A.D. When the Ottomans captured Constantinople in 1453, they transformed the Ayasofya and other Byzantine churches to mosques and developed a major Muslim empire that lasted until the early 20th century. Yet Turks are most proud of Atat?rk, “Father of the Turks,” the founder and first president of the Republic of Turkey. Under his presidency (1923-38), Atat?rk modernized Turkey, promoting nationalism, secularism and a European way of life. Now that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is in charge of the ruling Justice and Development Party, some still worry that his background in the Islamist movement will disrupt the secular state of affairs. However, the Turks and their forward-looking leaders do not live in the past. Most of the Turkish people I met expressed faith and confidence in their country’s improving political and economic stability. During my final days in Izmir, I joined 42 international students from the United Arab Emirates who were visiting Space Camp Turkey. The Turkish and American counselors working at Space Camp taught us about space and leadership by conducting group activities and helping the students try simulators patterned after astronaut training used by NASA. These eighth graders already knew more about international friendship than I did. Now, having been back for four months, I’m convinced we need more people like Mary and Kaya Tuncer, who have devoted their lives to global friendship. In 2001, they started a Palisades-based nonprofit organization called Global Friendship Through Space Education in order to provide scholarships for children of diverse backgrounds to attend Space Camp. They currently travel back and forth from the States to Turkey several times a year. If more of us could have Space Camp experiences, explore other countries or create opportunities for international dialogue here at home, we would be equipped with the knowledge and strength to build a more peaceful world. And then maybe home wouldn’t feel like such a foreign country.
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