Wandering Istanbul: The Hittites of Ankara

After staying at the Chambers of the Boheme near Taksım (a hostel I highly recommend) for almost a week, I woke up early Saturday and suddenly decided that I wanted to go to Ankara. It only took several hours to check out and find a bus going to Ankara. The bus ride took about 7 hours, but the Metro bus is very comfortable and every chair has a multimedia screen. I arrived at Ankara at 11:00 p.m. and was settled at my hostel by midnight.
 
As a native of Ankara told me in Istanbul, Ankara is not a particularly beautiful city to look at, but it is a very clean place. For the most part, the streets are much wider here, and with the exception of the old part of the city, it is mostly planned. Yet, I found myself enjoying the city. Although I was new to the city, because there were fewer tourists and generally less congestion than Istanbul, my stay in Ankara was relaxing.

That said, Ankara might be a little boring if you are not a local or interested in history and politics. There are many nice cafes for students here, but there are not a lot of sights to see. Nevertheless, I kept myself busy with either reading or visiting the landmarks of political and historical significance. In the four days I was in Ankara, I visited Ankara castle, Atatürk’s mausoleum (Anıtkabir) and the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (the national legislature).

The castle was pretty neat, and I got a great view of the city from there. I had a ton of fun using a newly purchased tripod. After I began to feel a little too cold, I began my decent, stopping by the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations along the way. The museum is pretty much a smaller version of the archeology museum in Istanbul, and there was even less to see than usual because over half the museum is being renovated. Nevertheless, the most interesting exhibits of the Hittites and earlier paleolithic civilizations remained open to the public.

If you have no or little knowledge of Hittite civilization, they were among the first people to inhabit Anatolia (the Asian area of present-day Turkey). For a long time, the Hittites were unified under a king and rivalled ancient Egypt for control over Palestine. Notably, the oldest peace treaty known to exist was signed by both powers. I go to the trouble of introducing the Hittites to you, reader, is because they are linked to political memory in Turkey; a topic I find endlessly fascinating. Although the Hittites are not Turkish, the establishment of an ancient civilization in Anatolia suggests that the whole of Anatolia forms a natural homeland for the people who inhabit it. Also, notice that the museum is titled “Anatolian Civilizations”, rather than “Civilizations in Anatolia”.

These conjectures might seem rather contrived, if not only trivial. However, my observations at Atatürk’s mausoleum not only confirm them, but also give them relevance. Anıtkabir, which, besides containing Atatürk’s body, also has a museum beneath about the Turkish Revolution and the War of Independence. I encountered familiar felines as I approached the tomb through the “Lion’s gate”. They appeared almost identical to the lion statues at both the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations and the Istanbul

Archaeology Museum. The statues of Turkish men and women were also molded in a distinctly Hittite fashion as well. Their appearances were certainly not inspired by Islamic art, as Muslims then (and often still) viewed the depiction of the human form in art as a form of idolatry. Most strikingly, two reliefs at the base of the mausoleum itself resemble those that I saw at the museums.

Compare

I think that the monument is stylized in a rather Hittite manner for two reasons: (1) a tomb in the Islamic style would not be appropriate to a man who advocated militant secularization and (2) it dedicates the monument to Anatolia, the homeland of the Turkish people.

To explain my second point: After gazing at Atatürk’s coffin, I walked through the museum about independence and revolution underneath. The panoramas, depicting Turkish heroism in incredible detail, evoked emotions even from within me. Although battles were also fought against the French and Armenians, the museum focused exclusively upon the major war against the Greeks. The concept of the Anatolian was strong here too. In fact, although the monument and museum were dedicated to the memory of Atatürk, it was as much of a narrative of the Turkish defense of their Anatolian homeland against invaders. Thus, the concept of a unified Anatolian homeland is central to an important phase for defining Turkish identity.

The dedication of people to the land is not exclusive to the people of Turkey. At present, most countries are either nation-states or hold pretense to being one. Yet, there are many minorities in Turkey whose ancestors have lived on the land for as long as any Turk’s. Yet, for the government and many people, to be born in Anatolia makes one Turkish and thus, with the exception of certain Christian minorities, the government often denies the existence of minorities that refuse to be called Turks.

I think that this is largely due to the large presence of Kurdish people who form a majority in the southeast of the country. Their existence and their denial of “Turkishness” make many people to feel uneasy, because it is widely believed that the integrity of Anatolia, the Turkish homeland, is threatened by their presence. Indeed, the issues of Kurdish identity, separatism and terrorism are most serious for the state because they question the viability of the Turkish Anatolian homeland.

However, being in Turkey has made me realize that a lot of these questions and issues about identity are more passively expressed, much less violently. For instance, a girl I had lunch with at Boğaziçi University eventually told me that she is of Armenian heritage. Granted, I am no local, but I would not have guessed she was anything but Turkish, as she spoke it fluently with her Turkish friend sitting with us. Curiously, she lightly remarked a couple of time that she was practically Turkish. A Korean American would say the very same thing about being American. Yet, could not either case be examples of a reflex to assimilate, as to conform to society at large? Perhaps not, and if it were the case, it is not necessarily a bad thing. Though, there is a question that might help to discriminate between possibilities: Do the effects of such actions work to repress the right to culture?

As a privileged hippie in my Turkish politics class once uttered, “Can’t they all just be proud to be born in Turkey?” Well, reader, it may be difficult to understand because we have not had the experience of being born in Turkey. In addition, it would seem as though Turkishness and Anatolian birth are so inextricably linked in public memory, that there is little support for a more inclusive identity. This issue is so complex, I will not yet diagnose any particular solution, but I desire to investigate possible ways to reconcile the memory with present-day identities and grievances.