But after repeated complaints by residents that tables and chairs were blocking the streets, the city of Istanbul has mandated restaurants to remove their outdoor tables.

This is not going over well with restaurant owners who had to lay-off staff to pay their high rental fees.

Anchor Marco Werman talks to Constanze Letsch who lives in Beyoğlu and wrote about the issue in the British daily “The Guardian.”

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Marco Werman: I’m Marco Werman, this is The World.  Nothing says summer like a dinner al fresco, but this late summer, al fresco is not an option for restaurant patrons in Beyoglu.  That’s a district in Istanbul, Turkey.  Many popular establishments in the area had outdoor seating, but residents complained that tables and chairs were blocking the streets, so officials in Istanbul have ordered the restaurants to keep their business indoors. Constanze Letsch lives in Beyoglu and wrote about this in the British newspaper, The Guardian.  She says she’s heard that area residents may not have been the only ones complaining about blocked streets.

Constanze Letsch: Certain rumor are running around, of course.  Some people say it’s because Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was on his way in the area with a small truckade[? 0:43] got stuck between chairs and tables and couldn’t pass.  This is when he had ordered the tables and chairs off the street and returned. The municipality of Beyoglu, who officially ordered this to happen said they had over 1,000 complaints over the first seven months of this year from residents, or people who work here or walk through Beyoglu, that can’t pass, there are too many tables and chairs in the street.

Werman: All right, so practically speaking what are the restaurants being asked to do now?

Letsch: Well, at the moment no one is allowed, officially allowed, to put up any tables or chairs onto the streets.  So they are complaining saying well, we’re losing a lot of money, you have to lay people off.  There’s one solution being offered now by the municipality, which is a 70 cm. balcony that can be added…

Werman: Right, I’ve seen, I’ve seen pictures of that.  It looks kind of unsatisfactory I’d imagine if I were a restaurant owner.  It’s more like a Juliet balcony and really not much space for many tables.

Letsch: That’s one problem, it’s very narrow, so you can only fit one table for two people basically.  And it’s also very expensive to put this measure in place.

Werman: So, Constanze, how is this going to be resolved because the restaurant owners are losing money as you say, they’ve even laid off people, and the rents are very high in Beyoglu.  So how long can these restaurants stay alive?

Letsch: At the moment I don’t know.  There is no solution that’s right in front of people, like lots of bar and restaurant goers are unhappy because they can’t go there anymore and sit outside.  And residents or people who work in Beyoglu say well, this is actually good because now we can pass through the streets without being obstructed by chairs and tables like we used to be.

Werman: So what does it look like right now in Beyoglu with this ban on outdoor seating?  Is it completely quiet?

Letsch: No, well, Beyoglu is really always very busy, but the streets where there used to be tables and chairs outside are empty, and yet some of them, like the side streets are pretty bad.

Werman: Apparently there are some restaurant owners who are kind of taking things into their own hands.  We spoke with one who has actually hired a watch man to look out for police, is that true?

Letsch: Yeah, that’s true, I mean I won’t name any names, but it’s a small place and he does have one, sometimes two tables outside, which is not allowed at the moment.  He pays a guy a monthly fee to look out for the police so he can warn him when the police are near and he can take the tables inside.

Werman: It’s survival instinct.

Letsch: It is a little bit, yes.

Werman: Constanze Letsch with The Guardian newspaper in Istanbul, thanks very much for your time.

Letsch: Thank you.

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Today, the city, which was the capital of this empire, has a culinary reputation and roasted lamb sandwich is one local specialty. It comes with grilled hot peppers and tomatoes and a generous pinch of fresh oregano, which makes it nice and spicy.

The Ottoman Empire is the answer to the Geo Quiz and Istanbul is where The World’s Matthew Brunwasser took a walking tour of Turkey’s favorite foods.

It’s 9 a.m. outside the spice bazaar in the Old City of Istanbul. Istanbuleast guide Angelis Nannos is waiting for his tourists Adrian Van Allen and Julie Cheng from Oakland, Calif.

Nannos is a Greek who fell in love with Istanbul six years ago and has lived here off and on ever since. Nannos tells us we’re going to experience Turkish food where it lives, not by sitting in a restaurant. The six-hour tour will include roughly three-hours of walking and three hours of eating.

“Let’s make our breakfast together, like buying stuff,” Nannos said.

The open market has huge bins with dozens of types of olives and cheeses, spicy red pepper pastes, pickles, nuts and meats. One of the most important elements of Istanbul street food is the omnipresent simit. It’s like a sesame bagel, but baked and not boiled.

“It’s something that you grab before you go to your job, or it’s a snack,” Nannos said. “It’s something very Turkish and you buy them most of the time from people with pushcarts around the city.”

Nannos is skilled at retooling the tour for squeamish or adventurous eaters. He points out one special Turkish cheese you probably won’t find in your local supermarket: tulum.

“Tulum, lets see, it gets aged in the skin of a goat,” Nannos said. “It takes this very strong taste, it’s a kind of a Conan the Barbarian kind of a cheese.”

Van Allen says part of the reason she came to Istanbul is her love of Turkish food, which reflects its history as an enormous multi-cultural empire.

“It’s an interesting synthesis of all the different areas around it,” tourist Adrian Van Allen said. “It’s no one thing; it’s actually a combination of lots of different things. It has the Middle East food, along with some of the Mediterranean. In one plate you can have something that looks like lamb ravioli and humus right next to it.

Nannos takes us to find something to eat.

We have breakfast at a simple table in the entryway of an ancient building filled with workshops. Then we stop off for a pide, otherwise known as Turkish pizza, originally from the Caucasus Mountains or the Black Sea region.

Back on the street, Nannos says he wants to show us something. He leads us down an alley and shows us kokorec.

It looks like a long greasy football on a stick, spitting grease on the coals. It’s fat and sweetbreads wrapped up like a mummy, but instead of bandages, it’s wrapped up with lamb intestines.

The kokorec maker cuts off a section, adds tomatoes, peppers and oregano, and chops it up for a sandwich.

When Turkey began negotiations for joining the European Union in 2005, one of Turk’s major fears was that EU food laws might ban kokorec.

“They didn’t make demonstration for the political things, but they went out on the streets for kokorec,” Nannos said. “They made this pop song with so smart dressed people, singing for kokorec if you can believe it. Kokorec its looks like something bizarre, it’s something very Turkish, and before to leave you should try kokorec. I’m not sure if you’d like it or not.”

“It tastes kind of like chopped sausage, but with a bit more of the offal taste,” tourist Julie Cheng said.
“Awful taste??” asked Nannos.
“No, O-F-F-A-L,” Cheng said.

Cheng might be a more adventurous eater than most American tourists in Istanbul.

“There’s a little bit of a bacony taste to it too,” Cheng said. “Do you ever put lemon on this?”

The tour takes us to a candy shop which makes its own hard candies, an old-fashioned soda fountain-type place for boza, a fermented millet drink, and of course, a doner kebab stand. After five hours of walking and eating, we make our first stop in a restaurant.

“We are so lucky that we still in 2011 we can still find in Istanbul all this diversity of food that it comes from the Ottoman times,” Nannos said.

The specialty of the place is boneless smoked lamb, slow roasted on a chain above hot coals. But by the end of the tour, it’s tough for the tour goers to eat any more.

“Most of the time I see half closed eyes and a huge belly, telling me no more, no more and thanks very much, but please don’t feed me any more, I mean, now I just need a bed to take a nap, and that makes us happy,” Nannos said.

Istanbul is an increasingly trendy destination for tourists from around the world. And while it’s cool to be a foodie these days as well, the Turks have been serious about their food since long before today’s foodie trend began.

Turkish pop music video by Mirkelam about the Turkish delicacy Kokorec

In fact it is a lot emptier than usual tonight but not because of the holiday. Shortly before Ramadan, witnesses say, municipal police brutally grabbed tables and chairs off the street while customers were still eating and drinking at them. The controversy is only the latest in Turkey’s perennial conflict between its Islamic faith and its secular government. Akyol says the restaurant owners accuse the city of forcing Islamic morality on the public.

“Some people say ‘well, they weren’t paying the rents and people couldnt walk on the streets, because there were too many chairs and there was a pragmatic reason to do that,’” Akyol says. “Others say ‘Oh, this is an Islamic minded municipality, so they’re trying to minimize the space where you can drink alcohol.’”

Akyol is a writer and columnist from an urban, educated secular background. He considers himself a believer in keeping with Turkey’s moderate Islamic tradition.

“I dont see that much of a Sharia-minded conspiracy,” Akyol says. “I think it’s more pragmatic.” After finding a quiet corner to sit in, Akyol makes the argument for his book “Islam without extemes: a muslim case for liberty.”

“When 9/11 happened, many people in west looked at the Arab world and Muslim world, and said oh, there are hardly any democracies, so Islam might must be producing non-democratic regimes,” Akyol says. “There’s a catch in this argument. Many of the dicators in Islamic world are secular, not Islamic. like the dictators in Tunis, the regime was banning the headscarf on the street, it was very secular-minded.”

A lot of the Muslim extremists developed their tactics because of political oppression from secular dictators, Akyol says. To blame Islam for the Middle East’s political problems is like blaming Christianity for the attack by Norwegian gunman Anders Behring Breivik, who killed innocent civilians to achieve his political goal.

“Of course this doesn’t make Christianity responsible at all,” Akyol says. “But I think it should be seen, he acted in the name of the western identity. He was a terrorist who in his own way was protecting the west from Islam. With Al-Qaeda you have a similiar picture, you have people who think they are protecting the Muslim identity against the west.”

The sad irony of that act in Norway, Akyol says, is that there’s currently a worldwide movement toward Islamic liberalism. And it’s being led by Turkey, since the Islamic AK party won power 8 years ago playing by the rules of the democratic game.

Akyol says: “Turkey emerged as a very successful Muslim nation, succesful in terms of economy, diplomacy, prestige in the world. Also, it emerged as this country in which Islam and democracy really go together.”

Turkey is now an example of a successful country by any standards, he says. It’s a rising regional power with one of the world’s fastest growing economies.
“And that’s why Turkey is becoming more interesting for the average Muslim in Tunis, in Cairo, in Bosnia, everywhere,” Akyol says.

But Turkey is also inspiring for religious reasons, he says. Islamic parties from Egypt and Tunisia are studying the governing AKP to understand how an Islamic party governs a secular state. “And I think in Turkey there’s a silent Islamic reformation going on,” Akyol says. Akyol doesn’t expect a Muslim Martin Luther to post a thesis on the door of a mosque, but rather a growing bottom up demand for Muslim liberalism from society.

Experts aren’t convinced that there is a worldwide Islamic reformation. And if there was, whether it would come from Turkey. Gareth Jenkins is an analyst and author of the book Political Islam in Turkey: Running West, Heading East? He says it’s unlikely that Turkish religious initiatives would find much traction outside the country.

“Turkey traditionally has not created any great Islamic theologians,” Jenkins says. “I think, the real change in terms of Islamic theology will come from Arab world or from Southern Asia.”

But even without theological influence, Jenkins says that Turkey can enjoy respect across the Muslim world by being both pious and modern. Jenkins says: “If Turkey is to serve a role for the Islam world it won’t be in terms of re-interpreting Islam as a religion. It will be more in terms of how they live Islam in the modern world, and I think that’s quite an important difference.”

Back in Asmalimescit, Akyol says Turkey’s growing middle class will be leading the changes. Ten years after 9/11, a globalized Turkish and world economy may help increase the spread of moderate Islam.

“I think, in a decade from now, we will have an even more modernized Turkish society, and a middle class which is very modern and religious as the same time,” Akyol says. “We are seeing the signs of that now. We are in Ramadan and there are advertisements of mini golf before the fast-breaking on Ramadan nights. So that’s the middle class culture thats coming up in Turkey.”

The Muslim yuppy might well serve God by fasting during the day at Ramadan and then enjoy a jazz performance at night. “So now that person is a person you can convince easier when you make the case for Islamic liberalism,” Akyol says. “I think, this trend will continue as Turkey continues its economic success and its integration with the world in general.”

At the same time, the tensions between Islam and secuarlism in Turkey don’t appear to be going away anytime soon. Among the bar-owners in Asmalimescit, rumor has it the tables will be back in the streets after Ramadan.

It’s not too far, you can hop on a short flight from Jordan, Iraq, or Saudi Arabia. It’s a whole lot cooler than most of those places, especially during the holy month of Ramadan, which begins in August. Most Turks are Muslims and there are many historical Islamic sites and monuments to visit, yet this country is also gateway to the west.

Can you name Turkey’s three largest cities then?

Number 3 is Izmir, number 2 Ankara, and Turkey’s largest city with a population of more than 10 million is Istanbul.

It’s probably Turkey’s most fascinating city, too. This summer, it’s almost impossible to find a hotel room there. A tour guide in Istanbul, Ziya Gokmen, says Turkey is more popular than ever these days, especially with Arab tourists.

“If we come to power with more than 367 seats, it’ll mean that the public has given this duty to us,” he said. “We’ll make our preparations and show our work to the parliament. Come join us, let us work together.”

The AKP’s popular mandate has increased by leaps and bounds since it was first elected in 2002. But it is unclear what the government plans to do with its increasing powers. Istanbul-based analyst Andrew Finkel said the dilemma of Erdogan and the AKP is much like that faced by Frodo Baggins in the Lord of the Rings. Staring down into the fires of Mount Doom, Baggins hesitated to throw away the ring of power.

“So they’ve got all this power to themselves. Now they know, just like Frodo knew in the Lord of the Rings, that when you have all this power on your finger, the thing you should do is throw the ring into the fire. But of course, once you have this ring on your finger, it’s really nice to have all this power,” Finkel said.

Erdogan and the AKP are credited with increasing democracy by eliminating political interference from the military and state bureaucracy. But the Prime Minister is famously intolerant of criticism and tends toward autocracy.

At a AKP women’s breakfast campaign event in the wealthy seaside neighborhood of Moda, first-time candidate Meltem Gurler said she is clear about her priority if she gets elected.

“The new constitution,” she said. “Because it is the major issue of the new parliament. The first civilian constitution of Turkey.”

Gurler said fears of an AKP-imposed constitution are nonsense. She said Turks will be asked what kind of constitution they want.

“I think we should listen to the other parties as well, because we need a consensus here, we really need a consensus. It is not so fair to do it by ourselves,” she said.

The music coming from an AKP campaign truck is loud, but it may be reaching deaf ears in Besiktas, a leftist working-class neighborhood in Istanbul and opposition stronghold. The name of the song translates roughly as “AK Party, no matter what.”

Sitting on a park bench, Fethi Satilmis said rewriting the constitution is a big job. It needs to protect the rights of Kurds and everyone in Turkey. He said the AKP is not up for the job.

But Can Paker from Istanbul think-thank Tesev, disagrees. He said Turkish politicians will listen to the people, sooner or later.

“I don’t look at the leaders or the leaders of the parties; I look at the society, because the parties and leaders of parties will eventually do what the majority wants, because it’s their business to stay in power,” he said.

Paker said Turkey has changed a lot since the military coup in 1980. The majority of its citizens can no longer accept a constitution which protects the state from the people instead of the other way around. That’s due largely to the dramatic growth of the middle class. The AK Party is currently polling 45 to 50 percent of the votes. But the final distribution of seats depends on the performance of smaller parties in this weekend’s contest.

Turkey hasn’t always been so squeamish about smut. The name of a 1975 Erotik Comedy, ‘muz sever misin” is Turkish for “do you like banana?” It follows the adventures of a happy go lucky doorman who inherits money from his uncle and becomes the life of the party.

The days of mainstream Turkish erotic films are long gone. In fact, Turkey’s increasing discomfort with sexual content affects ever-growing aspects of life here.

The song Pulse to Freedom by the Turkish rapper Pit10 (pronounced “piton”) is about the AKP government’s crackdown on smut in cyberspace. The song feeds on public contempt for increasing government bans. In April, the government sent a letter to Turkish internet providers listing 138 words to be banned from domain names.

Some words could be seen as porn-related like sex, teen, or blond. But many are just plain weird. Forbidden is forbidden. And Turks are still trying to figure out why the names Haydar and Adrianne are on the list. Law professor Yaman Akdeniz says the policy creates huge problems for many Turkish citizens, even those who registered domains related to the Prime Minister’s big new project: the Istanbul canal.

Akdeniz says: “When you write Canal Istanbul, there is the word anal in it. So technically, you should not be using that word in a domain name.” While the letter said there “could” be criminal penalties, government officials have since backed down following public outcry, saying the letter was only “advisory.”

Even on Istanbul’s famously sordid backstreets – gentrification and morality are cleaning the place up. Here in front of Hisar Cinema, the last adult movie theater in central Istanbul, business is almost dead. The internet has certainly played a role in killing adult theaters, but patron Arif Dagdelen says city officials have too.

Like many secular Turks, Dagdelen feels the newly public Islamic morality brought by the AK Party is hypocritical… and aggressive. “Honor is not in the headscarf, it’s in people’s heads,” says Dagdelen. “Today’s environment encourages people to be more closed-minded. in my opinion Turkey is going backward. ”

Many of the patrons on Ayhan Ishik street might agree. Its filled with rock bars and outdoor cafes advertising cheap beer. Mohammad Semsek, a waiter at the Nero Cafe, says the city is testing out an islamic agenda, by trying to prevent public snuggling.

“I was here when the municipal police came and said we don’t want you to have double chairs anymore,” Semsek says. “When I asked ‘why?’ they said ‘we don’t know.’ I thought it was strange to make people do something without knowing the reason. I asked whether it was to keep couples apart, and the guy said, ‘you might have a good point.’”

Whether or not there is any truth in Semsek’s story is hard to say. But the press paid it a lot of attention and it was widely talked about. Everyone perceives this as a ban to prevent couples from sitting together. This perception exists and it means the AKP wants to separate the sexes – like in the Arab counties.

Prudishness has always existed in Turkey to some extent. Even under secular governments, the bureaucracy cracked down on smut. Publisher Irfan Sanci is currently facing his 9th criminal obscenity case. Most of the charges before the governing AKP came to power. He says intolerance of smut is greater today than ever, even more than centuries ago when Turkey was ruled by a Sultan.

“Back in the Ottoman times, tolerance was much higher,” he says. “Nowadays, if I were to translate Ottoman books into modern Turkish language, they would stone me on the street.”

The former Ottoman capital Istanbul remains both a showcase of Turkey’s worldliness and a target for those trying to cleanse the country of immorality. Secular Turks have long accused the Islamists of trying to turn Turkey into an Iran-like theorcracy. but while the government might want its citizens to be more pious, those fears remain just coffee house chatter.

By Matthew Brunwasser

(Photo: Matthew Brunwasser)

The protestors were demanding that the Turkish government take its hands off the Internet.

The demonstrators considered the proposed new filters as just the latest step to tighten the government’s control over the Internet. Turkish officials say the filters are not about censorship. They are meant to protect children and families from harmful content on the Internet. But protestor Melike Ozbek says the authorities can’t be trusted.

“The thing is that people do not know,” said Ozbek. “That’s the problem with the government; they are lying all the time, to their own voters, to their own people. They are lying all the time. It’s a lie that they are not censoring. This is to show people they are being fooled, to be able to create some sort of spark in their head, to check what’s going on so that maybe then they will understand.”

Not all of the protestors were Internet savvy youngsters. Gul Albay, 56, said this was her first protest in more than 30 years. She only uses the Internet for work but feels the filters proposal is scary.

“This is really very very bad, it’s really a big damage for freedom because the Internet is so big and so deep,” Albay said.

Choosing a Filter

The new regulations are set to come into force on August 22. Users will have to choose one of four filters. One is called the family filter and another is for children. The domestic filter blocks all foreign sites. And the standard package will be the default. Yaman Akdeniz, a law professor at Bilgi University, worries that Turkish authorities will use these filters to step up control of the Internet.

“They are not telling us whether there will be monitoring of everyone’s habits and usage, since everyone will have a user name and password under this system,” said Azdeniz.

The head of the telecommunications regulatory agency, Tayfun Acarer appeared on television and denied that any filters would be mandatory. He said that the measures are meant only to enforce Turkish law.

“Turkey is more transparent than many other countries regarding this issue,” Acarer said. “I want to emphasize this. When you go to a banned site in a European country, you see only a flag or a stop sign. But if a web site is blocked in Turkey, it is always clearly stated when, why and by which institution the page was banned.

Eksi Sozluk

Turkey has closed thousands of websites. One was Eksi Sozluk, or Sour Dictionary, one of Turkey’s first, biggest and freest online communities.

The founder of Eksi Sozluk, Sedat Kapanoglu, says the authorities shut down the site because one user said he liked marijuana.

“They closed the whole website because of one single entry under single topic,” said Kapanoglu. “The ban took two months. We didn’t know about the ban actually because we thought it was a technical problem.”

Kapanoglu said his website has two software developers and five lawyers. He’s bracing for the financial impact of the filters.

“Eksi Sozluk contains adult content, so I don’t think we will make it to family packet or children’s packet,” Kapanoglu said. “I don’t think that will happen. It will impact our revenue as well.”

A non-profit press freedom group has filed a lawsuit. It’s seeking an injunction against the filters, based on administrative and constitutional violations. A court decision is expected by the end of June.

• Bianet, a Turkish press freedom NGO, in Istanbul.
• The OpenNet Initiative reports on Internet censorship and surveillance around the world.

The father of political Islam in Turkey has died. Former Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan was 84. During his career, Erbakan fought to bring Islamic political parties to power in Turkey. The leaders of Turkey’s current Islamic governing party all learned politics at his knee.

Necmettin Erbakan was a mechanical engineer by training. But as a political figure, he challenged Turkey’s secular state for more than 40 years. Judging by the size of the crowds at his funeral in Istanbul on Tuesday, he made a deep impression.

Ali Erdem, a civil servant who came out for the funeral, said that Erbakan was really a man of the people.

“He did great things for Turkey’s Muslims. He has also helped Muslims all over the world who are oppressed and tired of being pushed around. He gave them a voice,” Erdem said.

Part of what Erbakan did was combine Turkish nationalism, anti-western sentiments and Islam. And he kept to that message, said Dr. Sakir Guce, who was also at the funeral.

“What made him different was that he said the same thing three days before he died, that he did when he started 40 years ago. He always stayed true to himself,” Guce said.

When Mustafa Kemal “Ataturk” abolished the Ottoman sultanate in 1923 and created a modern republic, Islamic groups languished in the margins. Erbakan was the first to win power for an Islamic party — through the ballot box.

Sebnem Gumuscu Orhan, a political scientist at Sabanci University, said that Turkey’s governing AK party wouldn’t be in power today had it not been for Erbakan.

“I wouldn’t say the political agenda is inspired by him but they learned a lot about politics from him,” Orhan said.

In 1996, Erbakan became the first devout Muslim to serve as prime minister in modern turkey. The following year, Turkey’s secular military forced him from power, and his Islamic party was subsequently banned.

But Turkey is a very different place today. While the governing Islamist party is led by former Erbakan disciples, their politics are very different. They are pro-European Union and pro-US and they’re enthusiastic about free markets.

And now Turkey is being talked about as a democratic model for political Islam in other countries in the Middle East.

A potrait of Mosque of St. Sophia, Constantinople, Turkey between 1890 and 1900(Photo courtesy: Library of Congress)

When construction began on an underwater tunnel below the Bosporus strait dividing the European and Asian halves of Istanbul, workers uncovered the ancient port of Constantinople.

It was no real surprise, perhaps — Istanbul is an archaeological treasure trove, with historic sites from the Hippodrome of Byzantine times to the Ottoman era Blue Mosque and Topkapi Palace.

All these architectural riches have earned Turkey’s largest city a World Heritage Site designation from the United Nations. But Monday, the city is in danger of being struck off that list.

Turkey has until Tuesday, February 1, to submit plans to upgrade the protection of its cultural heritage.

And the new tunnel is part of the problem.

Archaeologist Zeynep Ahunbay, an advisor to the UN’s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) said the prospect of traffic from the tunnel flooding the historic region is unthinkable.

“Seventy five thousand cars will pass from this tunnel,” Ahunbay said. “That’s the daily traffic. And you can imagine how much pollution and noise it will cause.”

Its not just pollution that has UNESCO concerned about the city’s architectural and archaeological heritage, the agency says scores of Ottoman villas have been destroyed, and that the fifteen hundred year-old walls of the former Constantinople are being left to crumble.

Not just top tourist spots

And it’s not just Istanbul’s top tourist spots that are being neglected. The story is the same with many of the region’s lesser known treasures.

In the western suburb of Kucukcekmece, for instance, plastic bottles, broken bricks, cigarette packets, and other rubbish litter a swath of land that was once the partially excavated ruins of the ancient city of Rhegium. Retired General and archaeology enthusiast Haldun Solmazturk grew up exploring the streets, Agora, chapel, and palace of old Rhegium.

“But then for some reason it was abandoned,” Solmazturk said. “And gradually it turned into a kind of rubbish dump.”

Who’d imagine that a Roman summer palace and a city the size of two football fields could lie beneath a dump? Locals tend to deflect blame from themselves.

“Yes, it’s a shame,” one passer-by said, “but it’s not my fault. It’s a crime by those people who are at higher levels.”

Gen. Solmazturk said he’s spent years battling with local and national authorities. He said he wrote to mayor, the minister of culture, and the Governor of Istanbul.

The only outcome so far, he said, is that they have stopped dumping more rubbish.

Solmazturk recently brokered a deal with Istanbul University to survey the area. His dream is to see Rhegium once again excavated. But there are local residents who prefer the past to remain buried.

Building on top of archaeological sites

Around Istanbul, tens of thousands of small houses have been built illegally, many of them on archaeological sites. The shanties were built by migrants from the provinces.

Over the years, the residents have become a political constituency. And they don’t want to move.

One who’s been living on an ancient ruin for more than forty years says she would not be happy to see archaeologists start digging again.

“This is a very nice neighbourhood here,” she said. “We know this is not a legal settlement so we’re afraid of being kicked out.”

Sismek Deniz is an official responsible for preservation in Istanbul, and the person who takes the flack for the dismal state of its antiquities.

At a nearby Byzantine-period ruin, Solmazturk explores a set of stairs that once led to a chapel. The stone walls are daubed with red paint advertising a local ice cube store.

“People once came here to worship,” Solmazturk said. “Today, they come to dump their rubbish.”

The UNESCO threat

Deniz said the rubble will soon be removed. And he puts a positive spin on UNESCO’s threat to put the city on its “endangered” list. He said it’s a useful bargaining chip with the National Government in Ankara.

“We use UNESCO criteria for legitimating our demands for budgets,” Deniz said. “Their visits, their criticism, always had favorable effects on preservation of Istanbul and archaeological sites.”

But for how much longer will UNESCO keep nudging Turkey along with threats? It would be a humiliating blow for the government if Istanbul’s tourist spots are moved to the “World Heritage in Danger” list. Dr. Ahunbay hopes that the Bosporus tunnel will finally be the catalyst for real change.

“Heritage in danger is the warning stage,” Ahunbay said. “This tunnel is like the last drop. There has to be some care from the government and the municipality to stop these unacceptable projects.”

• Turkey’s World Heritage sites
• List of World Heritage sites
• A danger list in danger

The BBC's Disabilities Correspondent Peter White

We’re off to Byzantium for today’s Geo Quiz. Legend has it the city of Byzantium was founded by ancient Greeks who sailed across the Aegean Sea. Someone must have given the sailors directions:

“Enter the narrow strait called the Dardanelles, go all the way across the Sea of Marmara, and then hang a right at the Bosphorous”.

You can’t miss it.

“The Bosphorous runs through the city, imagine a sea running through a city, with one continent on one side of it, and another continent on the other side of it,” says the BBC’s Peter White who recently made his way to the city once known as Byzantium, later Constantinople and now Istanbul, the answer to our Quiz. Istanbul is the latest stop in Peter’s radio documentary called ‘Blind Man Roams The Globe’
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Ali Sami Yen Stadium is the home of soccer club Galatasaray SK (photo: Galatasaray Spor Kulübü)

Peter recently also enjoyed a baseball game at the Oakland Coliseum

Fiscal constraint and prudent management of funds have been key to the remarkable growth of Istanbul. Here’s how successful the Turkish city has been in the past couple of years. The Brookings Institution analyzed the economies of 150 of the world’s major metropolitan areas. It then rank-ordered them in terms of how each had recovered from the economic downturn of 2008. Istanbul held down the top spot.

By Matthew Brunwasser

Istanbul is getting a lot of attention around the world these days for its broadening cultural life, growing international confidence and not least: brisk economic growth. To understand why, Hasan Ersal, a former Turkish central banker, suggests visiting the stylish and glossy high-end shopping mall Kanyon.

The fountains, walkways and walls are all part of a high concept design. The place really looks like a river canyon. It’s nothing like the historic kapali carsi, or covered market, famous to Istanbul’s visitors. Less than 20 years ago, Turkey had a closed, state-controlled economy, based on low-end manufacturing and trade. Since it opened itself, Ersal says Turkey has dived straight in to the global economy and quickly transformed into a consumer society.

Ersal said, “Turkey was able to shift its labor force from low productivity sectors to high productivity sectors and you can see it in istanbul very easily. This mall was not here a few years ago, it was unthinkable to have such a modern place in Istanbul 10 years ago.”

Istanbul’s popuation has almost doubled in the past 20 years to some 13 million. While this former capital of three empires has been a center of international trade for centuries, the great majority of Istanbul’s residents are now first or second generation migrants from all over Turkey.

“Migrants are dyanamic people,” says Ersal. “Courageous enough to leave where they used to live, so that brings a dynamism to the city.”

Istanbul is the commercial capital of a very young population. Half of Turks are under 28 years old, compared to a median age of 44 for somewhere like, say, Germany. Ersal says that youth also fuels economic growth.

One of the authors of the Brookings study is economist Alan Berube. He says Turkey has fared better in part because it has diversified its export markets, not trading with the west alone but “increasingly with other middle eastern countries, and far east, china and India, etc.,” Berube says.

“Those places were much less affected over all; demand was stronger and rebounded more strongly and by extension led to demand for the things Turkey is producing.”

Things like textiles and cars. Turkey is also stronger now because of its own economic meltdown in 2000-2001.The country tightened its financial regulations and Turkish companies have been more cautious over the past decade than their western peers. So Istanbul, like other financial centers accustomed to rough times, remained stable.
“Basically, these are treated as a safe place for capital during a crisis,” Berube says.

At the bottom of the Brookings Institute list, is Dublin. Richard Curran, the deputy editor of the Sunday business post in Dublin said: “We went through the credit boom like many other countries, but we went through it in such an aggressive manner that when things went wrong, a number of things went not uniquely wrong, but more wrong or in a more pronounced way.”

Irish exports are still doing OK, Curran says – high end products like software and pharmaceuticals. But the burst property and construction bubble has kept the domestic Dublin economy in a pit. Curran says Irelands fall could have been avoided.
“In a way it was more straight-forward, obvious, and more idiotic than some of the banking crisis in other countries,” Curran said. “It wasn’t even based on fancy financial instruments, this was just complete excess, out of control lending that our regulators failed to stop and the government didn’t do anything about.”

Istanbul’s prospects for 2011 contrast starkly with those facing Dublin. Ireland is taking a 110 billion dollar bailout from the EU and IMF and a severe austerity budget. Its banking system continues to unravel. Irish people don’t expect any improvements in the next 12 months. But at least, Curran says, they don’t expect things to get worse.Download MP3

Imagine you’re in London and trying to get home to some other continent for the holidays. Suddenly there’s an unprecedented dump of snow, below zero temperatures (and we’re talking Fahrenheit!),  and  Heathrow grinds to a halt.  Well, that’s what’s happened to thousands of passengers now stranded at the airport, in hotels, on some friend’s floor.

In this episode of Talking Travel, Lonely Planet’s London editor Tom Hall talks about why Heathrow and other European airports can’t seem to get their  snow management together — compared to other northern European airports. And David Allan from the BBC Travel Website loves the snow. All year long he fantasizes about winter.. He previews a full week of stories on BBC Travel about all winter, all the time. And he tells us about his favorite Christmas memory away from home. Hint: it was in a European country where they recreated the “I am Sixteen, Going on Seventeen” scene from “The Sound of Music”.

We’ll also hear about weird Christmas traditions, like the Christmas day swim in Dublin, the odd fact that in Australia, Christmas and New Years fall in the middle of the southern hemisphere’s summer (‘get out the barbie, it’s Christmas!’, and how far do you have to go to get away from Christmas? Tom and David will also give their sneak peaks into what’s likely to happen in travel in the new year. One startling fact: As of the middle of 2011, Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport will connect to more global destinations than London’s Heathrow airport. And those long haul flights from the US and Europe to places like Australia and New Zealand? Well starting in 2011, expect the stopover point to be in the Middle East, not Asia.

[photo credits: Christmas Swim Dublin/Stunned, Street under snow England/Anthony Appleyard]

• Download this episode (19:00)
• Lonely Planet website
• BBC Travel Website
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Read the Transcript
The text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

MARCO WERMAN:  Another issue for NATO is a U.S. plan for a missile defense system in Europe and Turkey.  But Turkey may complicate those plans.  The BBC’s Jonathan Head is in Istanbul.  Jonathan, what is the complication?

JONATHAN HEAD:  The complication is that Turkey is setting quite a lot of conditions for agreeing to join this missile plan and it’s pretty important that Turkey does because of its geography.  Turkey has always been a frontline state for NATO.  It was, of course, during the Cold War where it bordered the Soviet Union and a number of Soviet allies.  And, of course, it has a border with Iran as well and everyone assumes that Iran or the threat, a possible threat of Iranian missiles is one of the main motives behind creating this missile plan. Now one of the conditions Turkey has asked for and has actually got its way is it didn’t want Iran named as a specific threat to NATO, and that’s because Turkey’s making great efforts to improve relations with Iran at the moment, one of the disagreements it has with the Obama administration.  But it has got its way.  There will be no mention of any specific countries being the reason for this missile threat.  But it wants more than that.  The Prime Minister has talked about wanting control over missiles based in Turkey.  The U.S. will have that.  They want one control center for this missile, a defense system probably based in Germany.  The Turks are also asking that no intelligence that’s gathered from this system should be shared with Israel.  That could also be a thorny issue because Israel has traditionally been quite a close military partner of NATO’s and the Turks are also asking for contributions towards their own purchase of patriot missile battery.  So, there’s a whole load of Turkish demands there, and I think they’re going to slow down when negotiations on this missile defense system because Turkey’s participation is really essential.

WERMAN:  Well, controlling the missiles and backing off Iran by the West, I mean, those are pretty steep conditions.  How likely is the U.S. and NATO to agree to any of them?

HEAD:  I think they’ll find a way to fudge it.  I suspect even for Turkey, a lot of it is how they present it to the own public.  I mean, opinions have really shifted over here.  Turkey, of course, has this new foreign policy which is, you know, make friends with all your neighbors and that includes Iran, Syria and Iraq and Russia.  But the public itself, I think, has become much more hostile to America’s role int he world and much more skeptical about the NATO alliance and its value.  So, I think, if a way can be packaged to make it seem as though Turkey’s getting its way, that’ll probably close the deal.  Turkey is, effectively, trying to carve out a role for itself as an independent power in this region.  And time and again, I think we’re going to see its own interest and its perception of the way to handle things are going to conflict with those of Washington.

WERMAN:  Jonathan, I’m just wondering.  This very complicated position that Turkey is in right now, how much of it is really due to its geographic location right there, quite literally, on the bridge between the West and the Orient?

HEAD:  I think there’s been a complete reassessment of its position and I think that’s really a big part of why it’s got this new and rather more difficult to accommodate foreign policy.  If you listen to the Foreign Minister Ahmet DavutoÄŸlu.  He explains it quite clearly.  He said, “Throughout the call of the Cold War, we were the end of the line.  We were the frontline state for NATO but it meant that we were, effectively, hostile to every single one of our neighbors.”  And he said, “That isn’t appropriate anymore.  We don’t want to be constantly daggers drawn with Iran and Syria and Russia and Greece.  We want to trade with these people.”  This is a government that, first and foremost, cares about delivering economic growth and it’s doing that very well.  This is a very fast growing economy and it cares about being reelected.  And this new foreign  policy delivers what most of its people want which is better living standards and peace.  And I think it’s very realistic in that way. The problem is when it comes to dealing with a country like Iran, Turkey has a very different approach and it believes very strongly that negotiating and trying to bring Iran over is the way to deal with it.  That’s a very different perspective from the one adopted by Washington.

WERMAN:  The BBC’s Jonathan Head in Istanbul.  Thanks for the Analysis.

HEAD:  Thank you, Marco.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

Read the Transcript
This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

LISA MULLINS: I’m Lisa Mullins and this is The World. Islamic countries aren’t known for their love of pets. Many Muslims believe that the Koran forbids them to get close to domestic animals. But in Turkey, people have been happy to share their streets and terraces with dogs since Ottoman times. In fact, since 2006 dogs in Istanbul have had “resident rights” enshrined in law. Julia Rooke joined the pack to find out what life is really like for the Turkish canine.

JULIA ROOKE:  This is the neighborhood of Kustepe. It’s poor and lots of people here are unemployed. It’s ethnically diverse. Residents also tell me there are 15 street dogs living off the main square. Gokmen is a gruff looking guy in his 30s, with a heart of gold. He feeds the dogs chicken and sausages. He can’t help himself.

SPEAKING TURKISH

GOKMEN: It’s a kind of sickness. I love them. I always have dogs. After all, they are animals who cannot talk. If we feed them, they survive. If you do not, they would get sick and die.

ROOKE: There is a practical side to this.

SPEAKING TURKISH

GOKMEN: They know each and every one of us. So, once it’s dark they would not let any stranger into the neighborhood.

ROOKE: But the dog thing is more than just security. Across the Bospherous is the bustling neighborhood of Cengelcoy. It’s full of well to do Turkish business people, waterside cafes and boutiques. And it’s clear that caring for street dogs has become, well, trendy. So there’s a dog here lying on the street. A huge dog and somebody’s built it a house. There’s a dog kennel there. I just couldn’t believe my eyes. It was a prefect wooden kennel, its owner a proud rather overweight indolent white Labrador. There’s a lady who’s just come out of the flower shop who’s wearing a head scarf and she’s smiling. Did you build that kennel?

SPEAKING TURKISH

FEMALE SPEAKER: No, there’s an architect living there. She paid for it.

ROOKE:  While having a pure-bred Rottweiler or German shepherd is becoming fashionable in Turkey, the traditional antipathy many Muslims hold towards dogs, remains. Even those who love dogs won’t allow them into the house. Because some say the Koran tells them that domestic pets are “haram.” Unclean, forbidden. But Turks also argue that the Prophet Mohammed loved animals. Hence the confusion. Every year the dogs are rounded up and caged in shelters like this one. They’re vaccinated, neutered and given an electronic tag. By law the authorities aren’t allowed to put the dogs to sleep. They must be returned to the exact spot where they were found. Dr. Mushin Ozturk is Istanbul’s deputy chief vet.

SPEAKING TURKISH

MUSHIN OZTURK: Some dogs are adopted. Between 20 and 30 each month. We take the rest back to the street where we found them. That’s their territory. We have to do this by law.

ROOKE: There are an estimated 100,000 dogs in Istanbul. Maybe more. That’s several dogs for every street. And there are hundreds more left to rot outside the city. The Bolluca forest on the outskirts of Istanbul is miles of wood and barren scrub land. As we approach dozens of dogs rush towards us. Polite, friendly, but ravenous. You can hear them crunching the chicken bones we brought. I was accompanied by Cenk Kara-yaz-gan and Cargi Sert from Lets Adopt, n animal rights group which campaigns for Turkish dogs to be given a home.

CARGI SERT: We just saw a Pit Bull on the way, on the side, we have Pit Bulls. There was a German Shepherd. They’re mixed breeds, but we saved a terrier from here. Pure breed. There are Goldens.

ROOKE: Golden Retrievers.

SERT: Golden Retrievers and Labradors.

ROOKE: So how did these dogs get here?

SERT:  Some, they were domesticated pets. When they get old or they get sick or [INDISCERNIBLE], their owners do not want them and they take them to shelters and shelters just dump them here. But some say once there are puppies. They are born here and they just grow up here and they live as long as they can.

ROOKE: Only the fittest can survive.

CENT KARA-YAZ-GAN: One attacked a puppy and the mother protected the puppy.

ROOKE: But not all the dogs are protected by their mothers, friendly neighbors or the authorities. Two years ago, in a nearby forest, Lets Adopt say they uncovered a mass grave, showing that Turkey has a long way to go in protecting Man’s Best Friend. For The World, this is Julia Rooke in Istanbul.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.