Istanbul: When the Flags come out
Istanbul: When the Flags come out
It is the date of 29th October 2009 and something special happens in a patriotic way unlike I have ever since my youth back in the UK celebrating the jubilee which is a long distant memory from my childhood. Here in Istanbul and the rest of Turkey it is a day of celebration, a celebration in the memory and anniversary of Turkeys 86th year of becoming a Republic. In turn moving forward from the years of the Ottoman rule which in ended in 1922, Mustafa Kermal Ataturk and his party then took Turkey forward in 1923.
Thursday 29/10/09 began slowly my usual routines of watching the morning TV , Figen goes off to have her hair done ,amusingly Fistik the cat does her normal let’s sit on the keyboard and delete everything. Echoing around the district of Tarabya are the normal everyday sounds with an added difference today, loudspeakers PA systems play out loud various songs remembering Ataturk. The TV channels all showing a logo of the flag and Ataturk, news channels broadcasting a dedicated ceremony of patriotic appreciation, a passionate and impressive flyby air display is shown, there really is a real sense of patriotic vision today.
From our lounge with a view of overlooking Tarabya I can see hundreds of flags draped over balconies and my curiosity is definitely growing deeper by the minute, I really want to understand and experience the day of jubilation. Going up through the district into Levent I see large flags draped from skyscrapers, it has to be said the Turkish idea is a philosophy of the bigger the better when it comes to telling you something, there is nothing to be discreet about. There is none of this politically correct nonsense, there is no need it is a day of celebration.
So my wife returns from the salon and I can’t believe it she reads my mind even when she is at the hairdressers, she brings me home a book in English all about Ataturk by Andrew Mango , I just can’t wait to get stuck into it. Around 5:30pm we set off to Ortakoy for the evening to watch a Laser & firework display across the Bosphorus Bridge, has usual our timing is useless spent 30 minutes waiting for a bus but end up taking a Dolmus to Besiktas and planned to walk from there to Ortakoy. Well we never learn Besiktas is jammed solid and it did not help having two guys sitting next to us who spent the day fishing at the Bosphorus because they just stunk of raw fish but then what else do you expect from fishermen and a bus ride that cost 2 lira.
Getting off at Besiktas at around 6:50pm we headed for Bosphorus giving up on the idea of going to Ortakoy because the traffic was just madness; however 200,000 people had the same idea. An unbelievable amount of people gathering there for the event, what an event it turned out to be. From the Bridge and the numerous locations along the Bosphorus large lasers beamed and lit the sky up like a scene from a war movie searching for enemy aircraft in the sky ,the colours of light dazzling from the bridge and then suddenly boom. For the next fifteen minutes I watched in amazement the best and largest ever firework display I had seen in my life. Words can’t describe the scene before my eyes only pictures tell that story but I assure you it was worth putting up with the smelly fishermen and traffic jams for nearly two hours.
Finally I and Figen made the walk along to Ortakoy the streets overcrowded with people, the traffic at a standstill but for once it was pleasant with people hanging out of the cars waving the flag and screaming with joy. Overhead every 10 yards an array flags tailed across the street, buildings draping enormous flags it really is a scene that you have to experience. Me and my wife dodging in and out people’s paths desperately not trying to get caught up in the mayhem, both of us have only one on our mind and that is (Kumpir) Jacket Potatoes. When we got to Ortakoy it was mayhem all the restaurants full , the hot food stands had long queues ,in fact most of them had ran out of potatoes ,it was like a scene when 75,000 people leave a football match but instead all going in the same direction everyone was just coming or going.
Strange I was standing against a wall trying to avoid the passing crowds whilst Figen queued for some food, the guy next to me doing the same turns to me and asks “sen polis?”. Well since being here I usually get prompted if I am German,French,American,English and so on but a policeman well fortunately I am not one but if I was perhaps I would go for the Clint Eastwood style of “make my day you punk” approach. Looking back on the evening it was memorable and once again it was another admirable event in the city of Istanbul.
