GROUP JOURNAL FOR

Kern Hildebrand,

All day in and around Erzurum

At 7:00 a.m. it was 68 degrees with a breeze outside and 80 degrees inside the hotel room. At 9:00 a.m. Asli was off to the airport to fly home to fill in for Meli’s office manager who quit on short notice.

When the Seljukians came to this part of the country the Byzantine Empire was well established. There was a legal system that had been established by Constantine. However, most other state practices copied the Roman ways. So the land continued to be called Roman. The defeat of the Byzantine emperor to the south was so severe that within ten years of 1071 Turks coming from Central Asia dominated the whole area. The presence of the Seljukians did not last long as a political authority before the land divided into small Emirates and small sheikdoms. Erzurum became the center of one of those sheikdoms. It almost acted as a political capital though there was never an empire centered in Erzurum. It was an important place because of its strategic geographic location. Coming from Trabzon the routes going east went via Erzurum. Erzurum has various waterways (river valleys) heading in different directions, which gave natural travel routes. Erzurum sits in a wide flat bowl. The city’s importance continued under the Ottoman Empire with the nickname of “Paris of the East.” Russia also realized the importance of Erzurum and every time there was a crisis between Russia and the Ottomans (which was at least twice a century for 600 years) Erzurum would be the target of the Russian invaders. The Ottomans would disperse the Russian advances, which lead to the area also having military importance in addition to its trade significance. There are a number of dramatic stories about the military invasions. In the case of one Russian invasion 90,000 Turkish soldiers died approximately 40 kilometers to the east of the city because they were not equipped for the cold temperatures of the area. As the old people tell the story, in winter if you did not have a glove you could not hand or take coins because they would stick to your fingers. A gloveless technique was to drop the coin into a bowl of vinegar from which the other person could pick it up without sticking.

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MELITOUR EASTERN TURKEY TOUR

Kern Hildebrand,

All day in and around Erzurum