TRKNWS-L Arts and Culture

[TRKNWS-L]

* PAINTER OF KINGS: RAHMI PEHLIVANLI
* LIGHT AND COLOUR: STAINED GLASS
* THE HOUSES OF MUGLA
* FOSSILS IN MUGLA
* WORLD'S OLDEST TEMPLE DISCOVERED IN SANLIURFA
* QUEEN OF THE SEAS: SEA CLOUD
* NASUH MAHRUKI ON TOP OF THE WORLD
* TURKEY, A WINTER SHELTER FOR MIGRATORY BIRDS
* COTAL IN TURKEY

PAINTER OF KINGS: RAHMI PEHLIVANLI

Rahmi Pehlivanli was born in Keskin, Ankara, in 1926.
An original and important figure in Turkish art, he
started painting at an early age. He painted
portraits of many famous world leaders and opened five
one-man exhibitions in Turkey and more than 60 in
other cities around the world. In 1952, the Turkish
Defence Ministry bought his painting of "Nene Hatun",
the national heroine of the 1877-1878 Turkish-Russian
war for display at the Military Museum in Istanbul.
Pehlivanli was awarded a medallion by Pope Paul IV
for his painting "Adultery" which is at the Dal
Vaticano Museum in Florence. An album of his paintings
was published in Italy in 1967. He won the first
prize in a Cote D'Azure, France, international art
exhibition with his portrait "Kel Mistik" in 1969.
On the 50th anniversary of the Turkish Republic in
1973, his exhibition of the 16 foreign presidents who
visited Turkey between 1926-1938 was installed in
Ataturk's Mausoleum for permanent display.
Pehlivanli was awarded by Italy's Universal Roman
Academy with the "Accademic Benemerito" diploma in
1981. The Academy also granted him permanent
membership and the status of honorary lecturer. His
"30th Jubilee" exhibition opened in Ankara the same
year. His works are displayed in 17 museums in various
countries throughout Europe, Africa and the Middle
East.
The art of Rahmi Pehlivanli
Rahmi Pehlivanli is an exceptional figure in
contemporary Turkish painting. He was especially
famous for his portraits, through which he gained his
reputation as "The Painter of Kings".
His realistic paintings reflect the humanistic
aspects of fellow citizens from various levels from
the highest or lowly peasant with a humble smile.
Pehlivanli never had an academic education. He started
painting in his early childhood. He never stopped
painting, even during the years he was obliged to
engage in business and trade upon pressure from his
parents. He used to draw portraits of his customers in
his store and even sketches on wrapping papers.
Suddenly he quit the business world, and started to
travel all over the world. From then on, he
concentrated only on painting and earned his living
from his vocation.
He worked with the famous Turkish historian Enver
Ziya KARAL on the restoration of the house where
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk was born, in Thessalonica,
Greece, of which he also painted a picture which today
is in Cankaya Palace. One of his aims was to
immortalize on canvas certain aspects of Ataturk's
Turkey for future generations.
Thus he prepared a collection of 300 paintings
-"Colourful Turkey"; a series of views taken from all
around the country.
Once he described his concept of art as follows:
"Being private, or peculiar, or adopting an individual
technique is not enough. In order to attain depth in
painting, you must know the interaction between all
artistic values.
Structural form and sub-techniques may seem
important, but what is really crucial is observation
and what is more, the correct understanding while you
put it on canvas."
Colourful Turkey
Pehlivanli started his series "Colourful Turkey" in
1982. He puts forward the reasons for this huge
collection as: "I wanted to examine the tremendous
transformation Turkey has been experiencing since 1983
with regard to history, geography, tradition and
culture. I also wanted to promote abroad our country
and values. Artistic beauty does not spontaneously
materialize.
Education alone is not sufficient to become an
artist. First of all, the artist must be able to draw
creative spirit from nature. We can call it either
talent or the expression of artistic instincts. Only
these artists can paint an individual creation; it is
the point where mannerism begins. The artistic
accumulation of the ages must be synthesised. Artistic
originality and individualism means linking a work of
art with the viewer, to be able to convey initial
intentions during seeing, perceiving and reflecting.
That was how I started painting "Colourful Turkey." I
aim to reflect the traditions and customs of people
from various parts of Turkey." Pehlivanli chose the
most distinctive feature of each city or province for
this collection - e.g. the game of Jereed from
Erzurum, the Coruh river near Artvin, apricot blossoms
in Malatya, Pistachio fields around Gaziantep, The tea
fields of Rize, and the almonds of Giresun, etc.
Preparatory work involved a carpentry shop, and a
photo archive was set up. A bus was hired for travel
throughout the country. The work was unfortunately
left incomplete due to the unexpected death of
Pehlivanli in 1992, thus a few provinces are not
represented in the series.
The collection, telling a lot about the country and
people was planned to be exhibited in Turkey and at
certain art centres abroad.
Preparations for a Rahmi Pehlivanli Foundation and
Museum are continuing.
Portraits by Pehlivanli:

President Celal BAYAR-Turkey
President Fazil KUCUK-Cyprus
President Abubakar TAFAWA-Nigeria
President Kenneth KAUNDA-Zambia
President Ismail el AZARI-Sudan
Prince Moulay ABDULLAH-Morocco
Prime Minister Sir Alec Douglas HOME-Britain
Prince Bertil-Sweden
President Famon de VALERA-Ireland
President Cevdet SUNAY-Turkey
President Enver SEDAT-Egypt
President Turgut OZAL-Turkey
Prime Minister Saip SELAM-Lebanon
President Habib BURGUIBA-Tunisia
President Joma KENYATTA-Kenya
Emperor Haile SELASSIE-Ethiopia
President George OLIVER-Malta
Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh
Grand Duke Jean ADELHAID-Luxembourg
Prince George-DENMARK
President Americo THOMAZ-Portugal
President John F.KENNEDY-USA
President Kenan EVREN-Turkey

LIGHT AND COLOUR: STAINED GLASS

The art of stained glass, which in Europe was first
used in churches and cathedrals during the Middle
Ages, is thought to have originated with the
Byzantines. As Peter and Lindar Murray say in "A
Dictionary of Arts and Artists". this brings to mind
the unique refractions of daylight in Istanbul.
The Dutch museologist and critic, Rudy Fox, declares
that "the light of Istanbul begins in Vienna",
indicating the degree of importance which the West
attached to this effect.
By filtering the light, the pieces of coloured glass
used in the compositions become significant factors in
reinforcinga spatial impact. In a sense they reduce
the natural light illuminating the building to its
fundamental elements, equivalent to the seven colours
of the spectrum. Since the Middle Ages stained glass
in both the Christian and Islamic worlds has
transformed windows into works of art. Creating a
stained glass window demands not only artistic but a
high level of technical skill. One technique used in
stained glass windows consisted of pieces of variously
coloured glass joined together like a mosaic with
strips of lead or copper. In Ottoman Turkish buildings
stucco was used instead of metal to create
geometrically patterned stained glass windows known as
"revzan" or "muzeyyen pencere".
Excavations and restoration work at the Zeyrek
Mosque, former Byzantine Church of Pantocrator,
carried out by the American Institute of Byzantine
Studies in Istanbul in the 1960s revealed fragments of
Byzantine stained glass. This first example of its
kind probably dates from the 10th or 11th centuries
following the iconoclastic period. This fascinating
window which is now in Istan-bul's Archaeological
Museum is virtually unknown to art historians around
the world. It has been made not by the mosaic
technique, but by painting on glass in enamel colours
which were then fired, so fusing them permanently to
the glass. This method of making stained glass
compositions is widely used today. Whether the under-
glass painting technique of Anatolian folk art and
elsewhere derives from this technique has not as yet
been established, but is a question worth researching.
It should not be forgotten that the under-glass and
over- glass techniques produce various light effects.
If stained glass did indeed originate with the
Byzantines as evidence suggests, this must be
attibuted to the mystic dimension of religious faith
during Byzantine times, which was disposed to explore
the relationship between colour and light. The
splendour of the stained glass window compositions in
mediaeval Europe, particularly those in Chartres
Cathedral, illustrates how this approach took on a
disparate form under the influence of a more dogmatic
style of Christianity. In 19th century Turkey, stained
glass windows used in the state apartments or mabeyn
at Yildiz Palace illustrate the eclectic decorative
compositions using western techniques introduced by
Ottoman Christian artists. The use of stained glass in
the form of plain squares set in a frame was also
common in the houses of the wealthy. Apartment
buildings in Istanbul were sometimes decorated with
stained glass, these compositions evolving a style of
their own which seems to reflect typical Ottoman taste
of the time.The three large stained glass compositions
representing the seasons executed by Mazhar Resmor for
Markiz Cafe in Beyoglu are the most striking example
of early 20th century Turkish stained glass.
They are reminiscent of the fashion for large murals
in cinemas and other public buildings between the
world wars. Several well known Turkish painters have
tried their hand at designing stained glass windows
for private and public buildings. Neset Gunal's work
in the dalle de verre technique for the Istanbul
Chamber of Commerce is a notable example. Contemporary
western artists, including Leger, Chagall and Matisse,
have often made use of both historical and modern
techniques to create stained glass compositions.
The Turkish artist Zeki Faik Izer's canvases are
clearly influenced by stained glass windows which he
had seen in Europe, while artists like Cihat Burak who
have experimented with a wide range of techniques have
often designed windows themselves. Burak's unfired
over-glass works could be described as a tribute to
Byzantine art. Courses in stained glass have been
taught at the College of Applied Fine Arts since the
1950s and were introduced at the State Academy of Fine
Arts in the early 1970s.
Sukriye Isik, whose stained glass compositions have
been exhibited on several occasions, carried out
restoration of the stained glass windows at Haydarpasa
Station after they were damaged when an oil tanker
exploded, and has also undertaken stained glass window
commissions for the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate.
(SKYLIFE)

THE HOUSES OF MUGLA

by Ayda AREL

"Mugla might be a provincial town, but its people are
urbane, considerate and befriend the stranger." So
Evliya Celebi defined Mugla in the early 17th century.
Settled by the Turks in the 14th century, Mugla
remained a quiet market town until the 16th century
when the Turkish conquest of Rhodes from the Knights
of Malta put Mugla on the trade route between the
island and Istanbul. During this period of new
prosperity local tradesmen donated large sums of money
to pious endowments for mosques, schools and
charitable institutions established by dervish seyhs
and clerics in the town. This sense of social concern
was no doubt a manifestation of the urbanity noted by
Evliya Celebi, which also combined with local wealth
to give rise to elegant civil architecture in Mugla.
In Evliya Celebi's time Mugla was a sancak
(subprovince) capital, and in the 18th century the
local worthies consisted of land owning gentry and
high-ranking government officials. The labour shortage
which arose around this time was resolved by settling
Greeks from the Aegean islands, and they were followed
in the mid-19th century by a wave of Greek merchants.
It was the latter affluent class of merchants who
built the first European-style stone houses in Mugla,
and local Turks of means followed suit, building stone
houses in the district of Konakalti. In the
traditional architecture of Mugla, however, there is
no distinction between Turkish and Greek homes,
everyone living in houses of a more or less similar
type.
In very early times the town was confined within the
castle walls but later spilled beyond to the southern
slopes of Mount Asardagi. The residential areas were
concentrated between the tanneries and workshops of
local craftsmen around the Basmaci river and the
Saburhane river where the Greek community congregated.
Each neighbourhood grew up around a nucleus of a
mosque, hamam (public baths), medrese (college) and
other public institutions.
The earlier houses had roofs of dried mud and were
set in gardens of an acre or more, but over the years
as property was divided between heirs, houses became
more closely packed. At the same time the flat earth
roofs made way in the 19th and early 20th centuries
for pitched tile roofs. Mugla's old houses stand
behind high white-washed walls which line the winding
lanes and provide shade for passersby. The walls
adjoin the side walls of the houses and provide access
into the courtyards and gardens through large arched
double gates. In one of the wooden gates a smaller
door known as a "kuzuluk" is inset to allow easy
access for those coming and going on foot. There is no
front door leading from the street directly into the
house. The stone facades which overlook the street are
generally windowless with projecting chimney breasts
and high chimney stacks of diverse and fascinating
forms. These walls are surmounted by stone coping 10-
20 cm in width. The facades overlooking the garden,
are half-timbered with fired or unfired brick fill and
wooden eaves.
As in most traditional Turkish houses, the rooms open
onto a central gallery known as a sofa, and in the
days of extended families each room was
multifunctional, serving the occupants for sleeping,
sitting and eating. Each room has a fireplace, fitted
cupboards (in which mattresses and bed linen as well
as clothing can be kept during the daytime), a closet
for washing and bathing in, shelves and niches for
books or ornaments, and low upholstered sedir (divans)
around the walls for sitting.
The decorative woodwork is in the distinctive style
typical of the region. The sofa serves both as a
hallway and as a communal living space. These central
spaces open straight onto the garden through a wooden
colonnade, although in many cases the present
occupants have glassed in the open end of the sofa. In
some houses the sofa is divided in two, to form a more
intimate inner room connected to the outer area, known
as an eyvan. In others, the sofa extends into the
garden under a projecting roof supported by large
wooden brackets. These outside projections are
furnished with divans around the sides and serve as
summer houses.
During summer the family inhabits the upper storey,
whose airy rooms are spacious with high ceilings,
moving downstairs in winter to the smaller, lower
ceilinged rooms which are more easily heated. One of
the upper floor rooms is usually larger than the rest,
more intricately decorated and situated in a prominent
position. This room, a typical feature of most Ottoman
houses, is known as the basoda (main room) and used to
serve as a reception room where the master of the
house could entertain his visitors.
The plan of Mugla houses varies according to the
number of rooms, the larger houses sometimes being L-
shaped, or less frequently U-shaped. But in general
all centre around the sofa which gives access to the
rooms and staircase. While symmetry is not a
consideration as a general rule, grand houses and
those of relatively later date do tend to a
symmetrical design around a vertical or horizontal
axis under the influence of later trends in Istanbul
architecture.
The sofas of Mugla houses have a relatively large
area, partly due to the warm climate which makes it
pleasanter to spend time in a room open to the outside
for much of the year, and also to the agriculturally-
based economy in which neighbours gather together to
help one another with intensive tasks such as making
pekmez (molasses) from grape syrup and similar
preparations for winter. The proximity to woodland and
resulting abundance of timber meant that woodwork and
carving were prominent local crafts in Mugla as in
other towns in the province such as Ula.
The stone houses introduced by Greek newcomers have a
very different architecture.
Their front doors open directly onto the street, and
the bay windows in their facades are quite distinct
from the jettied upper storeys typical of Anatolian
Turkish dwellings.
This stone architecture has a character all its own,
some of these houses being extremely attractive.
(SKYLIFE)

FOSSILS IN MUGLA

by Fugen Unal SEN

Nine million-year-old elephant and rhinoceros fossils
have been found in the Ozluce village of Mugla. Now,
excavations are continuing to find dinosaur fossils in
the same place. The region called "Turolian Park" will
be opened up to visitors rather like the noted
"Jurassic Park".
According to archeologists, a great part of Anatolia
was under the sea nine million years ago. Huge animals
from the ages of pre-history later lived in the Mugla
and Taurus Mountain regions when they were forced out
of the sea.
Let's go back 5-10 million years when the climate was
gradually becoming arid and there were movements of
the earth's crust and sudden environmental changes.
What about Mugla? When we walk among the giant trees,
we will be able to meet rhinoceroses or giraffes,
elephants and horses. We could also come across
animals now extinct such as horned animals, pig-like
crea tures, carnivores and proboscidian mammals. Today
we can still find bones, teeth and skulls which are
million years old squeezed into the rocks.
In order to create this park, we need some
imagination and a joint project drawn up by the Mugla
Governor's Office, the Mugla Culture and Museum
Directorate. The proposed project envisages turning
Ozluce Village with its rich fossil beds into an open
air museum. The project foresees that the 45,000
square-metre excavation area will be protected under a
glass shell. Some fossils will be left in their
original position and visitors will walk around in the
world as it was a million years ago.
It is two years since the excavations started in the
three rich fossil beds on the north slope of Kaklica
Hill, which is nearly one kilometre to the northeast
of Ozluce Village.
The excavations are being carried out by Prof.Berna
Alpagut and her team from Ankara University. Last
year, the jaw bone of a rhinoceros at least 14 million
years old was found. During paleo-archeological
excavations this year, elephant fossils belonging to
the Turolian Period of 9 million years ago were found.
According to Atif Kara, Director of Mugla Museum, the
most important features of this year's excavations are
the fossil remains that have been unearthed almost in
their entirely.
The attention of all arc-heologists in Turkey has
been drawn to the excavations in Ozluce Village. Even
the smallest fossil excavated in this region sheds
light on our world's past, which is nearly 4.5 billion
years old. "Turolian" is a period which dates back 9.5
million years and encompasses living creatures which
lived in a large area stretching from the Far East to
Spain and later died out. Its name comes from the
Teruel bed in Spain where fossils from this period
were first found. Five million years ago, Anatolia was
under water. As time went by, the climate changed and
the water receded producing a regional terrestrial
climate. That's why we, today, can still find sea
shells on the peaks of the Taurus Mountains.
Archeologists and paleo- anthropologists who have
participated in this year's excavations got very
excited when they found the huge 130 centimetre-skull
of an elephant. Both the skull and greater part of the
spine of the elephant were excavated. These fossil
remains are even now being cleaned in the Mugla
Museum. Later, they will be exhibited in the "Turolian
Park" with other fossils excavated in Ozluce.
This Turolian Park will be just like the "Jurassic
Park" in the famous film of Steven Spilberg. In the
proposed Turolian Park, there will also be pictures,
illustrations and panels which will explain the
natural atmosphere of million years ago. Some of the
fossils found during this year's excavations include:
"Five horse fossils, 19 rhinoceros fossils, 17
elephant fossils, seven spines, two backbones, three
hipbones, one elephant skull, five finger bones, nine
jaw bones, 17 long bones and 29 bones which cannot be
identified".
The age of the fossils found in the archeological
excavations has been determined by a method called
"Carbon 14 dating". In this method, the rate of
radiocarbon deterioration is determined. In living
creatures, the rate of radiocarbon deterioration is
quite low, but increases to higher rates in fossil
remains. Knowing the stable deterioration rate of
Carbon 14 means that artifacts and remains can easily
be dated.
This method was first used by American physicist
Williard F.Libby in 1946.

WORLD'S OLDEST TEMPLE DISCOVERED IN SANLIURFA

The world's oldest temple has been discovered in the
Sanliurfa region as a result of archeological
excavations. An eight-member team headed by Dr. Klaus
Schmit of the Heidelberg University have unearthed a
temple and a village dating back to the heolithic
period. The team carried out excavations for nearly
one month around Orencik village in Sanliurfa.
Dr. Schmit noted that after preliminary excavations
and research, a part of a temple was discovered. The
people living in the Harran Plain used to go to the
temple every spring and wash themselves before
participating in religious ceremonies. Dr. Schmit
stressed that the settlement discovered was the
richest of similar villages noted in world
archeological literature. A sculpture lion, seven
steles, three statues of people, and flooring
consisting of four layers of mosaic were discovered.
Dr. Schmit said that the discoveries dating from the
10th century B.C. were very important finds, and added
that excavations would continue for at least 20 years
more. The cost of this year's excavations is DM
20,000.

QUEEN OF THE SEAS: SEA CLOUD

by Jennifer Rahel CONOVER

We flew directly from New York to Istanbul on Turkish
Air. With their new GPS you can watch your position as
you fly across the Atlantic and Europe. In addition
there is the excellent food and impeccable service
along with complimentary movies which make the time
pass very quickly.
Our Odyssey began when we met Annemarie at the
Ciragan Palace Hotel once a sultan's palace, located
on the European side of the Bosphorus. Restored to its
ancient splendor it is one of the world's finest
hotels offering every modern luxury., Annemarie,an
Austrian a charming well educated woman fluent in five
languages and is the host of the Discovery Channel's
"World Class Cuisine." On our last evening before
meeting 'Sea Cloud' Annemarie, with her usual panache,
hosted a gala dinner at the Palace that would have
made any Sultan proud.
Early the next morning we flew to Izmir in time to
visit the ancient Greco-Roman city of Ephesus in the
cool of the morning. It was one of the greatest
seaports of the classical period. The temple of
Artemis here was one of the Seven Wonders of the
ancient world.
Descending from the upper gate you find the baths,
the odeon where the Senate met, the agora, the
magnificent library of Celsus, and the theater which
holds some 25,000 people and is still used for
performances to this day. It was in Ephesus where St.
Paul first delivered his epistle and was later forced
to flee. It is impossible to walk down these broad
avenues and not be moved by the history and splendor
of this city.
The Meander River was the cause of Ephesus' decline.
Because it looped back and forth, silting up as it
went it finally built up such a marshy delta despite
all efforts to excavate it. It continued to fill in
and eventually Ephesus was no longer a seaport.
This winding river gave us our English verb
"meander". We spent the following day at sea under
full sail. With the engines cut "Sea Cloud' showed her
mettle as we slid quietly and effortlessly through
Homer's 'wine dark sea' giving us time to enjoy the
spectacular beauty of Turkey's irregular coastline
with its countless bays that offer protected
anchorages. The scenery is so startlingly beautiful
and the water such a clear sapphire that it's easy to
see how the ancients believed that the gods dwelt
here. We pulled in at the old port of Antalya,
protected by the pine covered Taurus Mountains, early
next morning. It is said that Cleopatra and Mark
Anthony swam here before the battle of Actium. Armed
with bottles of ice water we spent the morning
wandering down the beautiful colonnaded main avenue
among the ruins at Perge. Remnants of tiered fountains
can be seen stretching down the center of this broad
avenue where once fresh water flowed all the way to
the sea. With its splendid Hellenistic gates it was a
breathtaking sight . We then went to nearby Aspendos,
site of the best preserved ancient theater in
existence. All of these ancient theaters have
incredible acoustics. A whisper center stage can be
heard in the highest seats. Aspendos, like some of the
other theaters we toured is still used for
performances today. Later there was still plenty of
time to visit the fabulous archaeological museum, shop
and 'meander' slowly through the crooked streets in
the old town. We awoke next morning to hear the anchor
chain let out and to see dawn's rosy fingers lighting
up the bay at Phaselis. We had a lovely time swimming
and investigating the ruins amid pine shaded ruins and
three perfect bays.
Although we had the morning to ourselves by lunchtime
quite a few gulets, the beamy Turkish ketches had
pulled in to share our anchorage and circle us, taking
full advantage of their photo opportunity. 'Sea Cloud'
is a very special ship. Built in Kiel Germany in 1931
for Marjorie Merriweather Post, she is a four master
twenty-nine sail square-rig barque 356 feet long.
Carrying 32,000 square feet of sail, her main mast is
198 feet high. Once the largest privately owned yacht
in the world, she has been lovingly converted into a
small cruise ship taking a maximum of fify-five
passengers.
Post furnished her with loving care; intricately
paneled walls, ornate working fireplaces, marble
baths, Regency and Sheraton antiques and priceless
objets d'art. She was quite literally a floating
palace. When Marjorie Post married the international
lawyer and statesman, Joseph E. Davies in December
1935 'Sea Cloud' began the 'diplomatic chapter' of her
life.
In 1936 Davies was appointed ambassador to Moscow by
President Franklin D.Roosevelt. I have known 'Sea
Cloud' since I was a small child as I am the
granddaughter of the late Ambassador Davies and I know
that Aunt Marjorie would be very pleased to see that
'Sea Cloud' is still bringing pleasure to so many! And
see Turkey for yourself. No matter what charter you
take by all means, go!i It is the experience of a
lifetime!
(SKYLIFE)

NASUH MAHRUKI ON TOP OF THE WORLD

Nasuh Mahruki, the first Turkish alpinist to climb
the highest mountain in the world Everest, does not
come down. As part of the "Seven Peaks Project", the
young mountain climber has scaled two of the most
difficult summits; Aconcagua Mountain (6959 metres) in
South America and Vinson Peak (4897 metres) in
Antartica. By climbing these two mountains, Nasuh
Mahruki has completed the 1995 part of the "Seven
Peaks Project" which includes the highest mountains in
the seven continents of the world: Mt.Everest in Asia
(8848 m), Mt.McKinley in North America (6194 m),
Mt.Aconcagua in South America (6959 m), Mt.Kilimanjaro
in Africa (5898 m), Elbrus Peak in Europe (5142 m) and
Vinson Peak in Antarctica (4897 m).

TURKEY, A WINTER SHELTER FOR MIGRATORY BIRDS

Turkey, with the richest wet-lands in Europe and the
Middle East, plays an important role for migratory
birds during the winter. About 70 bird species spend
the winter in the marshlands of Turkey, and another 40
species stop there for rest or feeding on the way to
their destinations.
In Turkey, there are 81 wet-lands of national and
international importance, Environment Ministry
officials note. Two of the four most important western
hemisphere migration routes pass through Anatolia on
the way to their winter homes, and unite over
Anatolia. This makes Turkey a special - even unique-
country with respect to bird migration.
Every autumn, approximately 250,000 storks, 200,000
birds of prey and millions of geese, ducks, songbirds
and others migrate from the west and east of the Black
Sea.
There are 426 kinds of birds living in Turkey, and
most of them can be seen over the whole year in the
marshy and other regions of the country.
Experts make a distinction between the two main
groups of wet-land in Turkey: those in the Anatolian
plateau and those located near the coasts. Each group
plays a different part for the migratory birds. Under
severe winter conditions, when the watery regions in
the Anatolian plateau freeze, millions of birds
migrate to the coastal marshlands.
Most of the birds spend the winter in the marshlands
close to the deltas of the Kizilirmak, Meric, Gediz,
B.Menderes, K. Menderes, Goksu, Seyhan and Ceyhan
rivers, that provide abundant food and have a mild
climate. During the winter, large flocks of ducks,
geese, flamingoes and other birds can be seen in the
Seyhan and Ceyhan deltas. Environment Ministry
officials say that Turkey has become a key country for
many vanishing species such as pelicans and
flamingoes, and for this reason the protection of the
vital marshlands in Turkey, so essential to bird
migration, is an issue of great importance.

COTAL IN TURKEY

The Confederation of Latin American Touristic
Organizations (COTAL) opened a branch in Turkey on 29
November. Twenty-five countries are members of the
Confederation which has 20 branches throughout the
world.
Inaugurating the Turkish branch during the World
Travel Agencies Union (UFTAA) meeting, it was noted
that the organization aims at globalization in tourism
with the help of its members.
According to the Tourism Ministry, organizations
dealing in tourism such as hotels, travel agencies,
airlines, official and semi-official establishments
and the media can apply for membership in COTAL.
The Head of the Turkish Tourism Ministry Travel
Agencies Department Sule Eryildiz attended the opening
ceremony of COTAL.
COTAL's Turkish repre-sentative, Dr.Ahmet Abaci
stated that they aim to increase the number of Latin
American tourists coming to Turkey.
The organization, which hopes to broaden the market,
opens branches in touristic regions and cooperates
with the national travel agencies unions.
COTAL, set up in 1957, also publishes a bi-monthly
magazine which it distributes to its members.
Officials of the organization have decided to devote a
five-page spread to Turkey in the next issue of COTAL.

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