I travelled in Turkey in October and November 2001, just weeks at the 9/11 attacks. I found Turkey to be one of the world’s most culturally rich and at the same time dynamic countries. I do not want to go into the politics here, but it was a very tense time in the Kurdish provinces of eastern Turkey. Military checkpoints in Kurdish areas of eastern Turkey were common, and on several occasions I had to undergo pat downs while the bus was unloaded and checked by security forces, including special forces. I encourage everyone to visit Turkey and learn more about it. I would love to return to Turkey, home to layers of human civilization that shaped the world we know today.
The shot from Van is from the old city, deciminated in 1915 during the coordinated attacks on Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, during what is widely recognized as genocide (from 1915 through after World War 1). The Monastery of Sumela, one of the most magnificent places I have even been, located in the mountains southeast of Trabzon, was also badly defaced during the period of upheaval after World War I, when hundreds of thousands of Greeks and Turks were dislocated from their respective countries in what is widely considered to be ethnic cleansing.
Keywords: Turkey, Islamic Republic of Turkey, Turkey Photographs, Turkey Pictures, Van, Old Van, Istanbul, Turkey Tourism, Adana, Ephesus, Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, Sumela, Attaturk, Trabzon, Payas, SanliUrfa, Armenian Genocide, Armenian Heritage