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10 SUNDAY’S ZAMAN

CULTURE&ARTS

MEHMET KAMAN

S U N D AY, M AY 1 8 , 2 0 0 8

CULTURAL AGENDA PERFORMING ARTS

PHOTO

The 16th Ýstanbul International Theater Festival runs until June 4, presenting over 70 performances from Turkey and abroad. For the full program, visit www.iksv.org.

The Garajistanbul performing arts platform will present the modern dance show "harS" by Aydýn Teker next week. The 50-minute piece will be performed on May 22 and 23 at 8:30 p.m. The May 24 show will start at 3:30 p.m.

The Ankara Opera House will host the one-act ballets "SYNC" and "Carmina Burana" next week in two shows on the nights of May 22 and 24.

The Ýzmir State Opera will present the two-act ballet "Le Corsaire" next week in two performances on May 22 and 24 at the Ýzmir Opera House.

Okan Demiriþ' three-act opera "Yusuf and Züleyha" will be staged on the night of May 21 at the Mersin Culture Center. Ýstanbul's Akbank Art Center in Beyoðlu is hosting Guitar Days through May 31, featuring concerts and free workshops by famous guitarists Jorge Cardoso, Anabel Montesinos, Carlo Domeniconi and Marco Tamayo. Tel.: (212) 252-3500

EXHIBITIONS Today is International Museum Day and the Ýstanbul Museum of Modern Art and the Pera Museum today are offering free admission to all visitors to mark the occasion. Ýstanbul Modern will remain open until 11 a.m. today. The Sakýp Sabancý Museum will offer free admission on May 21 to mark Turkish Museum Week, which gets under way annually on International Museum Day. Artist Eser Afacan's first-ever solo painting exhibition in Turkey is on show until May 26 at Ýstanbul's Tophane-i Amire culture center. Ýstanbul's Rahmi M. Koç Museum in the district of Hasköy is hosting the interactive exhibition "Brain: The Mysterious Journey" until June 30.

Tel.: (212) 369-6601 An exhibition titled "We Came as Workers, We Stayed as Citizens" runs until May 20 at Ankara's Zafer Çarþýsý Fine Arts Gallery in Kýzýlay, marking the 40th anniversary of Turkish migration to Australia.

A collection of prints, paintings, sculptures and ceramics by 20th century Spanish artist Joan Miro is running through Aug. 31 at Ýstanbul's Pera Museum. Another collection, entitled "CollageDécollage," featuring the work of contemporary artists Burhan Doðançay and Jacques Villeglé, will be on display until July 13. Tel.: (212) 334-9900 An exhibition titled "Sýrlý Gemiler" (Glazed Ships), showcasing the latest designs of famous ceramic tile artist Sýtký Olçar, will be on display through June 17 at Ýstanbul's Çýraðan Palace Kempinski Art Gallery. Tel.: (212) 259-0373 "A Moneybox Story," an exhibition aiming to highlight the development of the cultural icon of moneyboxes in Turkey, runs through Sept. 15 at the Ýþ Bank Museum in the Bahçekapý district of Ýstanbul. Tel.: (212) 511-1331 The exhibition "Design Cities," which chronicles the history and development of modern design, runs at the Ýstanbul Museum of Modern Art until Aug. 10. Tel.: (212) 334-7300 A collection of artifacts that were once sent to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina every year as gifts by Ottoman sultans in "Surre-i Humayun" processions will be on display at Ýstanbul's Topkapý Palace Museum until May 25.

Artifacts from the Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal empires, on loan from the Louvre's Islamic Arts Collection, are on display in the exhibition "Three Capitals of Islamic Art" until June 1 at Ýstanbul's Sakýp Sabancý Museum. Tel.: (212) 277-2200

‘Some of My Ancestors are Ottomans and Turks’ MARION JAMES ÝSTANBUL

In the late 1970s, one of the most gripping television series in the US and UK was "Roots: The Saga of an American Family." Now this was not, as you might expect, from the title a "Dallas"-style wealthy white family's historical saga. If it had been, it would have been similar to a "Little House on the Prairie" tale of the pioneer settlers taming the land.

This was, however, the story of a black African slave, Kunta Kinte, who was captured in 1767 and taken across the oceans to America. Alex Haley had traced his family line back to Kunta Kinte, and other ancestors who had a memorable place in the book and TV series were his grandfather, Chicken George, and his great-grandmother, Kizzy.

Kunta Kinte had been raised as a Muslim in the Gambia. He lived free. Following his capture and transportation to America he was renamed Toby, purchased by a plantation owner and then subsequently sold to the plantation owner's brother, a doctor. Each successive generation of Kunta Kinte's family lives a life further and further removed from that free life in Africa.

But the yearning inside the soul of successful young black American Haley was a desire to understand his roots. To understand what made him different from his fellow Americans who were not black. To understand how he came to be the person he was. To understand the genetic influences he experienced.

This quest resulted in a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and a television series that won nine Emmy awards. One of the things that made "Roots" so compelling was that many viewers shared his heritage of descent from African slaves. In the UK, many of my classmates had families who had come to the UK from the Caribbean and they told me their parents and grandparents identified with the story being told.

Others of my classmates were of Chinese, Pakistani, Indian or Turkish extraction. They too were inspired to ask questions of their par-

ents about how the family came to be in London.

It is a dilemma I see many expat families share. They are proud of their roots and wish for their children to maintain a sense of this so that they do not lose ties with grandparents and other family members "back home," but at the same time they see their children's desire to blend in and embrace the best of the host culture.

One of the best ways is to celebrate as a family the holidays of the home culture and thereby keep the traditions alive. Some English friends of mine who have lived in Turkey so long that all their four children were born here had a visitor from England who was amazed to learn the children had never celebrated Guy Fawkes Night -- the fireworks celebration on Nov. 5 when we celebrate the foiling of the plot of Guy Fawkes and his companions to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605. Around England, bonfires are lit and there are major firework displays. The whole family, plus guest, celebrated Guy Fawkes Night that year on a plot of waste ground in town. The local police stopped by, concerned about a possible breach of the peace caused by the lighting of a bonfire, but they soon relaxed and enjoyed the potatoes roasted in the fire when they learned it was just an English custom.

If you raise your children abroad, then you face many issues often dealt with by Today's Zaman columnists Charlotte McPherson and Kathy Hamilton. Their full inboxes show how important this issue is to Today's Zaman readers. In order to ensure their children become fluent in their own mother tongue and learn the history and geography of their "home country," parents have to double their efforts.

Often, expat families find their own support groups. Some Korean parents in Ýstanbul run a

Saturday morning group where they teach their children Korean language and history.

There are many Turkish volunteer organizations around the world doing the same important work. For example, the Turkish American Cultural Alliance in Chicago is very active, with events ranging from folk dancing to Turkish classes. A number of high streets in London have a "halkevi" where Turks can share their culture with others.

Before coming to Turkey, I did an evening class in Turkish at my local night school. The majority of my fellow students were secondgeneration Turks: young people like me who were born and brought up in England, speaking English as their mother tongue. But unlike me, in order to be able to speak with their grandparents or aunts and uncles they had to learn what was for them a foreign language.

I was also surprised that with just three weeks of experience backpacking around Turkey under my belt, I seemed to know more about the country of their heritage than they did. There clearly is a need for great books about Turkey for children, to inspire young Turkish children living abroad to understand and appreciate their heritage.

Judy Light Ayyýldýz, a distinguished creative writing expert and herself a mother and grandmother of Turkish-heritage children growing up in the US, comes to the rescue with "Some of My Ancestors are Ottomans and Turks."

In this delightful tale, Jim reaches his eighth birthday and his grandfather, who emigrated from Turkey to America many years ago, starts to recount the story of the family history and Turkish heritage. We eavesdrop on a tender grandfather-grandson conversation as "Büyükbaba" tells an exciting tale full of empires and cities, nomads crossing the steppes of Central

Asia, soldiers and sultans and a new republic.

Based on personal family history, the story resonates with the heartbeat of love for a country across the ocean and love between grandfather and grandson. "The boy looked into his grandfather's eyes and smiled his quiet, closedmouth smile. Whenever he saw his grandson smile this way, Büyükbaba would be reminded of his own Turkish mother. She had had those same eyes and smile. Büyükbaba scooted closer to Jim and pulled pillows up behind the two of them so that they could sit back."

Judy met and fell in love with a Turkish medic, Vedii. A general surgeon, he ran a private practice in surgery and endoscopy in Virginia for 35 years.

He used his skilled hands in his working life wielding a scalpel to bring healing to many and in retirement painting with watercolors to bring the story of his Turkish heritage to life. Bright, bold pictures adorn every double-page spread of "Some of My Ancestors are Ottomans and Turks."

A "Daughters of Atatürk" award recipient, Judy lectures on Turkish women and their culture, has written poetry and short stories abut Turkey in international anthologies, and is the author of a novel based on the life of her mother-in-law. Together with Vedii, she has raised her three children to fully cherish their TurkishAmerican nature; Vedii Kent, Kevin Kemal and Karen Perihan are actively involved in the arts world and the American-Turkish community.

Judy is a sharp commentator and a vivacious speaker. This tale reflects both of these aspects of her character and it has been applauded by Turkish experts in Turkey and the States. One said: "I don't know what color Judy's eyes are, but they see to see into the soul like an x-ray can see broken bones. For a long time I have been searching for a book like this about Turkish history and culture. It's everything I have imagined a book like this should be."

"Some of My Ancestors are Ottomans and Turks" by Judy Light Ayyýldýz, Published by Yeni Yaþam, ISBN: 975-8318-98-5, $10 in paperback

YOUR ENGLISH BOOKSTORE !

Visit our boutique store: including family area for parents, children and youth.

Dumlupýnar Sok No 17, Kadýköy, Ýstanbul Call us on 0216 550 4961 for directions.

Open Mon-Sat (except Tues): 10:30-18:30 We can ship books to your door.

Email requests to serakitapevi@superonline.com

‘HOW TO MANAGE PEOPLE'

by Michael Armstrong Published by Kogan Page 8.99 pounds in paperback Business

A practical new book from the bestselling author Michael Armstrong, this is a distillation of all his knowledge and experience. It provides advice to managers and team leaders on how to manage people in their teams in order to get the best results. Part of the Sunday Times Creating Success series.

‘CONCISE HISTORICAL ATLAS OF CENTRAL ASIA'

‘SHOOT TO WIN'

‘AMIS AND SON'

by Dan Freedman Published by Scholastic 4.99 pounds in paperback Children aged 8-12

by Neil Powell Published by Macmillan 20.00 pounds in hardback Literature

by Rafis Abazov Published by Palgrave 14.99 pounds in paperback History & current affairs

From the Silk Road to the Great Game, Central Asia has long been a region of great strategic, political, and economic importance.

The region is of increasing influence due to oil, Islam, democracy, and terrorism. This atlas graphically illuminates the region's history tracing back to the eight-seventh century B.C.

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The second thrilling installment of Jamie Johnson's football career. Jamie can't believe his luck, he's playing for his school in the semi-finals and scouts from his favorite club, Hawkstone United, are coming to watch the game. But Jamie's hopes of a professional career still have a long way to go.

In this critical acclaimed first joint biography of Kingsley and Martin Amis, Neil Powell looks at the careers of these two divisive and hugely talented writers, how they developed as writers and, in turn, how they affected literature and each other, and how success altered their relationship.

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12 SUNDAY’S ZAMAN

TARIK ÖZTÜRK

Event of the week

Neo-nationalist Kanaltürk sold to Koza in surprise move Koza Davetiye, a subsidiary of Ýpek Matbaacýlýk, which owns national daily Bugün, purchased 99.99 percent of Yaþam Televizyon Yayýn Hizmetleri, the majority owner of national broadcaster Kanaltürk. Koza Davetiye announced the news to the Ýstanbul Stock Exchange (ÝMKB) last Monday. Although the station was believed to be experiencing financial problems, the sale came as a surprise as Tuncay Özkan, the former owner of Kanaltürk, is a leading figure in neo-nationalist circles, while the new owner is known for its prodemocratic profile. Kanaltürk has an estimated YTL 5 million in debt. Koza Davetiye also owns the Kanaltürk radio station and the kanalturk.com Web site. Ýpek Matbaacýlýk Chairman Akýn Ýpek made his entry into the media business by purchasing Bugün in 2005. He said the company’s goal to establish a media group had been achieved by acquiring a national broadcaster and radio station following the Bugün acquisition. Ýpek emphasized that the station’s broadcasting principles would be based on objectivity and appointed Fatih Karaca, a former president of the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK), as station CEO. Karaca will also be the group president of Ýpek’s media companies.

May 11 Turkey’s military said it launched overnight air and artillery attacks against PKK bases in northern Iraq after a PKK strike on a military base. Targets proven to belong to the PKK terrorist organization in northern Iraq were put under heavy and effective fire by our air force planes with the support of artillery, a statement issued by the military said.

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa won the Turkish Grand Prix from pole position for the third year in a row. The Brazilian finished 3.7 seconds ahead of the 23-year-old McLaren driver, who had to make an extra third pit stop because of concern that his front right tire could not take the punishment. Ferrari’s world champion Kimi Raikkonen finished a close third and saw his overall lead trimmed to seven points from nine. It was Massa’s seventh win in Formula One, and his second success in five races this season revived his title hopes.

A senior Kurdish Iraqi official, Nechirvan Barzani, the prime minister of the autonomous Kurdish regional government in northern Iraq, said his government has struck no secret deal with Turkey concerning the PKK presence on northern Iraqi soil. “During his latest visit to Ankara, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani discussed the PKK issue with the Turkish side.

No secret deal has been made with Turkey concerning the PKK,” the Peyamner Web site quoted Barzani as saying in remarks delivered to London-based daily Asharq al-Awsat.

May 12 The head of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), Ekmeleddin Ýhsanoðlu, repeated a strong call for easing the isolation of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC) during a visit to the northern part of the divided island.

“As the OIC, we reject unjust embargoes,” Ýhsanoðlu was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency. “Punishment of a people in this way doesn’t fit with any set of values,” he said, while noting that the OIC is determined to continue with intensified efforts to ease the international isolation of the Turkish Cypriot people. Ýhsanoðlu’s remarks came during a meeting with KKTC Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Turgay Avcý.

Turkish fighter jets bombed PKK bases in northern Iraq in the third consecutive night of air strikes, Iraqi Kurdish officials said. Warplanes targeted suspected PKK hideouts near the towns of Neroye and Rekan in the Dahuk province of northern Iraq, near the Turkish border, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) said in a statement posted to its official Web site.

Koza Davetiye, a subsidiary of Ýpek Matbaacýlýk, which owns national daily Bugün, purchased 99.99 percent of Yaþam Televizyon Yayýn Hizmetleri, the majority owner of national broadcaster Kanaltürk. Koza Davetiye announced the news to

ALMANAC

PHOTO

May 10 Turkish military sources said at least 20 outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorists and two Turkish soldiers were killed after the PKK attacked a military base in southeast Turkey late on Friday.

Galatasaray beat Gençlerbirliði Oftaþ 2-0 to clinch its 17th Turkish league title. Galatasaray finished the season with 79 points, six more than Champions League quarterfinalist Fenerbahçe. Both teams qualify for next season’s Champions League.

The Higher Education Board (YÖK) has plans to introduce a change that would increase the student quota at Turkey’s universities, its director said. Work is under way to increase the student admission capacity of universities by at least 25 percent, YÖK President Yusuf Ziya Özcan said in an interview with the Anatolia news agency. He stated that he hopes the necessary work will be completed by May 15.

Turkey successfully completed an International Monetary Fund (IMF) stand-by program for the first time on May 10. Turkey had previously signed 19 IMF stand-by agreements, with all the initiatives being cancelled before the programs expired. The program that was completed was an extension of the previous agreement.

S U N D AY, M AY 1 8 , 2 0 0 8

the Ýstanbul Stock Exchange (ÝMKB) on this day.

May 13 The third edition of the Turkish Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists (TUSKON) Foreign Trade Bridge between Turkey and Africa opened in Ýstanbul.

Queen Elizabeth II arrived in Turkey for an official fourday visit, accompanied by her husband, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh. The 82-year-old monarch and her 86year-old husband accepted an invitation from President Abdullah Gül.

Foreign Minister Ali Babacan had talks with an Estonian parliamentary delegation and a leading member of the French Parliament. The Estonian delegation was led by Sven Mikser, head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Estonian Parliament. The delegation later met with Turkish Deputy Parliament Speaker Nevzat Pakdil.

The government budget showed a deficit of YTL 1.07 billion in April while the Ministry of Finance announced that the budget deficit for the January-April period was YTL 5.4 billion.

Budgetary spending in the same period amounted to YTL 70.2 billion while revenue was YTL 64.7 billion. The primary surplus -budget surplus before interest payments -- was YTL 12.47 billion.

May 14 David Miliband, Britain’s secretary of state for foreign and commonwealth affairs, reaffirmed London’s support for Turkey’s bid to join the European Union after his meeting with Foreign Minister Babacan in Ankara. While reaffirming London’s support of Turkey’s bid to join the European Union, Miliband expressed once again his government’s concern over an ongoing closure case against Turkey’s ruling party. “We adhere to the very strong principle that governments are chosen by the people and not by lawyers,” Miliband said in response to a question, while also underlining that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) was re-elected last year.

The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) submitted a motion for a parliamentary inquiry into Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan, claiming he intervened in the privatization of the ATV-Sabah media group and indirectly helped the Çalýk Group win the tender for the group.

Turkish special envoy to Iraq Murat Özçelik, who has been on a visit to Baghdad since Monday, had separate meetings with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari and Iraqi Vice President Hashem Hashemi, discussing ways of improving bilateral cooperation between Turkey and Iraq. The meeting

with Zebari was made public on Wednesday evening by the PUKmedia Web site, affiliated with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani’s PUK party.

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Photo of the week PHOTO

Queen’s visit a royal treat for all Queen Elizabeth II paid an official four-day visit to Turkey that started last Tuesday, accompanied by her husband, Prince Philip, the duke of Edinburgh. The 82-year-old monarch and her 86-year-old husband came at the invitation of President Abdullah Gül. The queen was visiting Turkey for only the second time, with her first visit taking place in 1971. Queen Elizabeth on Tuesday praised Turkey at a state banquet held in honor of her visit at the Çankaya Presidential Palace. “Turkey is uniquely positioned as a bridge between East and West at a crucial time for the European Union and the world in general,” stated the queen. In a gesture of respect President Abdullah Gül wore a tuxedo and a silver-colored bowtie to the 300-guest banquet on Tuesday evening. Also on Tuesday, the queen visited the mausoleum of the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, and laid a wreath at the tomb, a tradition expected of all visiting dignitaries. On the second day of her trip, Queen Elizabeth visited the northwestern city of Bursa and toured the “silk cocoon market,” a caravanserai built in 1491 at the 15th century Green Mosque, where she listened to a recitation from the Quran. On Thursday she toured Ýstanbul, where she and Prince Philip made a stop at the historic Kabataþ High School for Boys in the afternoon shortly after the couple’s arrival. The queen later enjoyed a view of the Bosporus from the terrace of the high school, a late 19th century building located on the European banks of the strait. The queen also took a boat tour of the Bosporus and visited the Ýstanbul Modern museum. The queen left Turkey on Friday afternoon following a reception in honor of her birthday in Ankara.

May 15 An explosion in a factory outside the capital Ankara killed at least two people and injured seven others. One of the injured was severely hurt in the blast in the boiler room of a dairy products factory in the town of Çubuk, near Ankara. The local prosecutor has launched an investigation into the explosion.

The European Parliament’s Socialist group announced that it welcomed an amendment to a Turkish law often criticized as an obstacle to freedom of speech. In a written statement, the group said it “regards Turkey as a candidate country for accession, with rights and obligations, and is urging the European Union to honor its Turkish commitments.” Group vice presidents Jan Marinus Wiersmas and Hannes Swoboda were quoted as saying, “Turkey should be treated like any candidate country so that, at the end of the process, it is judged on its own merits.” The statement also praised a change to Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK), which criminalizes “insulting Turkishness.”

The latest Household Labor Survey, released by the Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat), showed that the unemployment rate in the February 2008 period -- measured via a three-month rolling average for January, February and March -- increased by 0.2 points over the same period last year to 11.6 percent; the number of unemployed increased by 55,000, reaching 2.64 million.

The Monetary Policy Committee (PPK) of the Turkish Central Bank increased benchmark interest rates by 0.50 percent. The PPK announced the rate hike decision after its meeting.

Turkey’s voters should determine the country’s political future and they spoke twice last year, Matt Bryza, US deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, said concerning an ongoing closure case against Turkey’s ruling AK Party. Bryza was one of the participants at a seminar held in Washington by the Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen’s Association (TÜSÝAD) on the 10th anniversary of the opening of its office there. “Who the hell knows?

I don’t know,” Bryza said when asked about the possible impact of the closure of the ruling AK Party on the energy equation and US-Turkey relations.

An employment package that eases the burden on employers under requirements to promote registered employment was passed in Parliament. Under the new law, the Turkish government will subsidize the insurance premiums of newly hired women and young employees for five years and those of handicapped employees permanently.

May 16 A rapporteur at Turkey’s top court completed his report on a case challenging a constitutional amendment to allow university students to wear the Muslim headscarf. The rapporteur handed his non-binding report to the Constitutional Court’s Chairman Haþim Kýlýç, a necessary step before the case can proceed.

A Turkish soldier was killed and another was injured in a land mine explosion near the border with Iraq in Hakkari province.

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TRAVEL

SUNDAY’S ZAMAN 13

S U N D AY, M AY 1 8 , 2 0 0 8

PHOTO

CEMÝL TÜRKEN; CÝHAN

The Temple of Zeus

hisar

Although the Temple of Zeus is Aizanoi's most striking structure because so much of it survives intact, there are plenty of other remains scattered throughout the village of Çavdarhisar, which makes it well worth lingering to explore

PAT YALE ÇAVDARHÝSAR

Çavdar THE C HARM S OF

WHERE TO STAY: Ispartalýlar Konaðý, Kütahya Tel.: (274) 216 1975 Otel Dülgeroðlu, Uþak Tel.: (276) 227 3773 HOW TO GET THERE: There are regular buses from Ýstanbul to Kütahya, and hourly buses from Kütahya otogar to Çavdarhisar village. Alternatively you could take a fast train from Haydarpaþa station in Ýstanbul, and then proceed by bus to Kütahya/Çavdarhisar.

When it comes to ancient ruins, Turkey certainly has more than its fair share. Some are almost too famous for their own good -- think Ephesus or Aspendos in high season. Others, however, languish in obscurity, visited only by diehard archeology freaks and travelers with time on their hands. The most visited ruins are almost invariably within easy reach of the coast -- think Ephesus and Aspendos again -- or fit easily into journeys from one popular base to another. So Aphrodisias and Hierapolis manage to pull in more visitors than might be expected from their inland locations by virtue of the fact that they fit easily into itineraries heading across country from Ephesus to Antalya.

So where does that leave a site like Aizanoi? Tucked away in the countryside in the western Anatolian village of Çavdarhisar, Aizanoi is wonderfully evocative and deserves to be up there on anyone's list of must-see sites, not just for the quality and quantity of its remains but for their peaceful rural setting too. Unfortunately, the nearest towns turn out to be Kütahya and Uþak, both of them also-rans on the tourism front.

It could hardly be easier to get to Aizanoi since buses from Kütahya to Gediz pass straight through Çavdarhisar, 57 kilometers to the southwest. Start your explorations by getting off the bus when you see the staggering remains of the Temple of Zeus, a dense cluster of picturesque columns with Ionic capitals bestriding a bluff at the far end of the village. Excavations on the site suggest that this is where the original prehistoric settlement of the area took place during the early Bronze Age. Then in the second century, during the reign of the Emperor Hadrian (r. 117-38), the Romans decided to erect this vast temple, paying for it, apparently, by a levy on users of the surrounding land. A huge relief depicting a female head has tumbled to the ground and sits picturesquely at one end of the site. Its presence has persuaded some authorities that the temple must have been at least partly dedicated to Cybele, the Mother Goddess.

Aizanoi appears to have been a planned town, rather than one that grew up naturally over time. Although the Temple of Zeus is its most striking structure because so much of it survives intact, there are plenty of other remains scattered throughout the village, which makes it well worth lingering to explore. Closest to the temple are the ruins of a stadium rather like the one at Aphrodisias. It appears to have been built in stages over much of the second century, with the financial backing in particular of one Apuleius Eurykles, a city delegate to the governing Panhellenion council, set up by Hadrian to supervise local affairs. These days the rows of seats that would once have encircled the stadium are mostly overgrown. At the far end of the stadium, however, you can scramble over the fallen stones to get into the remains of a theater built right beside it. Here the tiered seats have survived in much better shape although what would have been the stage is now little more than a jumble of fallen masonry. No matter -it's a wild and romantic setting which you are likely to share only with the wheatears.

The temple, stadium and theater are the most obvious relics of ancient Aizanoi, but if you walk back towards the center of the village you will see signs to several

more impressive reminders of the past. You will, for example, be able to inspect the remains of two bridges over the Koca Çay (the ancient river Penkalas) which date right back to the second century. One of them even bears images of Apuleius Eurykles, evidently not a man who believed in downplaying his role in local life.

In its heyday Aizanoi boasted several public bath complexes. The scant remains of one complex can be seen to the left of the path leading to the stadium, but back in the village there are more substantial remains of a second bath-house which include a fine mosaic floor depicting a satyr and a maenad. To protect it from the weather and any light-fingered visitors the mosaic is kept behind lock and key. Track down the site custodian, however, and he will be happy to show you round and maybe even pour water over the mosaic to bring out its vibrant colors. So much more of this particular bath-house has probably survived because in the fifth century the building was converted to serve as the seat of a local bishopric, clear testimony to the importance this backwater of a place once held.

Aizanoi city center appears to have included a sizeable agora (marketplace) as well as an open square that was surrounded by porticos where locals could stroll in the shade.

There may also have been another small temple in this area, although today only the reconstructed remains of a portico and some marble paving stones survive to hint at what must have been. Far more interesting is an unusual circular building nearby which also dates back to the second century and seems to have housed a food market. Sometimes the ancient past can seem unimaginably remote to us, but here, as in the Terraced Houses at Ephesus, the minutiae of daily life have been preserved so well that we almost feel as if we can reach out and touch it. Roman numerals inscribed on the walls turn out to represent a list of prices for everything that was on sale as decreed, by the Emperor Diocletian in 301. The Romans were apparently just as worried about inflation and racketeering as we are today, and it comforted them to be told, for example, that the price of a strong slave was fixed at two donkeys or a straight 30,000 dinars.

By now most visitors will be flagging. Those with the energy left may want to explore Aizanoi's ancient cemeteries that dot the outskirts of the village. The grandeur of some of the tombs that once stood here can be assessed on a visit to the Archeological Museum in Kütahya where a sarcophagus adorned with images of single-breasted Amazon warriors fighting with their Greek foes forms the centerpiece. It takes several hours to explore everything there is to see in Çavdarhisar, especially if you linger over a glass or two of tea with the locals. But this is a sleepy little village with nothing to detain you in the way of places to stay or eat. You can either return to Kütahya for the night or press on to Uþak to stay at the 19th century Otel Dülgeroðlu, designed, rather surprisingly, by a French architect. Alternatively, in Kütahya itself you can pass the night in Ottoman style at the newly opened Ispartalýlar Konaðý.

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14 SUNDAY’S ZAMAN

S U N D AY, M AY 1 8 , 2 0 0 8

OPINION

REUTERS

Rubýn fýghts the ‘dark sýde’ ýn hýs ‘wonderland’: bad advýce on Turkey for the US admýnýstratýon ÞABAN KARDAÞ*

PHOTO

The involvement of the United States in Turkish domestic politics has been an elusive issue. The debate revolves around several questions. What domestic actors should the United States support? What are the positions of the Turkish actors on the role of the West in general and the United States in particular? It is possible to see pundits of various interests groups seeking to influence American policy toward Turkey as they see fit. They paint a picture of Turkey to their liking, depicting their Turkish allies as the good guys fighting the forces of evil.

These questions became salient in the context of the closure case against the Justice and Development Party (AK Party). The party is on trial for its alleged harboring of antidemocratic and anti-secular sentiments and an undeclared agenda of Islamizing the country. The prosecutor's indictment, moreover, charges the party with betraying the country's interests by cooperating with outside forces at the expense of national interests. The AK Party, however, contends this account and emphasizes its commitment to the constitutional order, democracy, secularism and the country's ties with the international community, not to mention its rejection of any semblance of Islamism.

Rubin's world These two stark pictures of Turkey also instruct the outside perceptions of the positions and identities of the parties in Turkish domestic politics. Of particular relevance is how to ascertain the true pro-democracy forces, hence the allies of the West in Turkey. Michael Rubin presents a very grim picture of Turkey. In an essay for National Review Online, Rubin compares Turkey to Iran prior to the Islamic revolution. Having underlined the threat posed by Islamic parties in general and the AK Party in particular, he advises the Bush administration not to "abandon its ideological compatriots for the ephemeral promises of parties that use religion to subvert democracy and seek mob rather than constitutional rule." For Rubin, "Turkey is nearing the cliff" and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice should "not push it over the edge" by expressing support for the AK Party. In his contribution to a debate hosted by The American, Rubin responds to the question whether it is the ruling AK Party itself or the lawsuit brought against the AK Party that poses the greatest threat to Turkey's secular and democratic institutions. Rubin views the legal case as an affirmation of democracy and constitutional rule. He finds Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan's party in grave violation of the wall of separation between religion and politics, disregard for rule of law, suppression of dissent and a policy of placing his own followers in influential bureaucratic positions. Having noted that "both AKP supporters and Western officials unfamiliar with the AKP's record paint the Court's actions as undemocratic," Rubin assumes a self-declared mission to reveal "the dark side," hence his advice to the Bush administration to reassess its true counterparts in Turkey.

Rubin in 'Wonderland'?

This picture of Turkey, however, differs from the one most analysts and Western politicians believe, as Rubin himself admits. Rubin depicts the actors that are perceived as the prodemocracy forces and most likely allies of the West in Turkey by most international and Turkish observers as the dark side seeking to take country down a dark road. For instance, Mustafa Akyol, another participant of the same The American debate, believes that the closure case amounts to a threat to Turkish democracy. For Akyol, the tension is between the reformed Islamists representing democratic forces in favor of Turkey's cooperation with the West and increasingly inwardlooking secularist groups supporting anti-Americanism.

Akyol is not alone in this analysis, and many liberal and democratic voices in Turkey share similar views.

This reading of Turkey's balance of forces, diametrically opposed to that of Rubin, is shared by outsiders, too. Given that the whole EU machinery has served as the watchdog over Turkish democracy for years, who is better positioned to comment on the AK Party's

Turkish President Abdullah Gül (L) with US secretary of State Condoleezza Rice democratic credentials than the European Union? EU representatives have thrown their weight behind the AK Party. Olli Rehn, European commissioner for enlargement, maintained that "Turkey's tension is between extreme secularists and Muslim democrats." Rehn elsewhere also underlined his belief that there is no smoking gun indicating any hidden agenda pursued by the AK Party.

Joost Lagendijk, co-chairman of the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee, attacked Turkey's secularist social democratic opposition, the Republican People's Party (CHP), for its failure to act as a true socialist and democrat party. Similarly, in a recent Washington Post report, Claire Berlinski captures how the underlying power struggle is concealed by appeals to ideological threats to the constitutional order. Having noted how "the secularists here are if anything more hostile to the West than the AKP" she concludes, "Don't make the mistake of thinking that 'secular' here means 'liberal, democratic and friendly to the West.' That, it decidedly does not."

A world gone wild?

Is everybody but Rubin under an illusion? Are the secular "ideological compatriots" of the West true allies of the United States? Just a reality check on the "plot" and evil forces that Rubin paints makes us cautious of his assessment of the forces of the dark side. Differences of interpretation between Rubin and others aside, the factual information he cites is false at worst and unsubstantiated at best. A few examples are in order.

First, whereas no sane person would believe that the AK Party sees democracy as a "one time deal," Rubin maintains that for Erdoðan democracy is "One man, one vote, once." Second, the hit man who "gunned down a justice" was not a follower of Erdoðan, as Rubin claims, but an operative of ultranationalist circles, which are, by the way, anti-American. Only recently, a photo of the perpetrator, Alparslan Aslan, with Veli Küçük, a leading figure of the neo-nationalist gang seeking to destabilize the country, was published in Turkish media. Third, nor did the AK Party undertake the kind of purge of the judiciary Rubin claims it did. Fourth, for Rubin the military's declaration of support for the Constitution in a written statement is not a coup. It might be permissible under normal conditions, but

what he ignores is that if it is meant to influence a pending court case, it might very well amount to a coup.

Fifth, Rubin also criticizes Erdoðan's "harassment" of Nihat Genç, Serdar Akýnan and Tuncay Özkan, leading neonationalist figures. Let alone substantiating his claim, he does not stop to ask if the constant accusations of those figures may fall under "hate crime." What is more worrisome, however, he completely misses the point that these figures foster a paranoid nationalism which is by all means anti-American. Indeed, one of the reasons these people are so much against the AK Party is their belief that the AK Party betrayed the country's interests by submitting to the US yoke. If one is looking for traces of antiAmericanism or "Islamofascism" in Turkey, it will be enough to read one of Akýnan's columns in Akþam -- for instance Feb. 27, 2008. Interestingly such arguments escape Rubin's radar despite his self-declared mission to reveal hotbeds of antiAmericanism and Islamofascism.

Rubin misrepresents the position of Turkish actors; commits grave factual mistakes about self-declared ultranationalists and anti-Americans, and then warns the Bush administration against anti-American forces and "false information," by pretending to represent the higher ground of an expert of Turkish politics. Can all this be true?

Rubin against the 'dark side'?

There is ground to question the basic thrust of Rubin's argument. One is left wondering: Who are the evil forces, if there are any? And where is Rubin placed in this game, anyway? Let's draw some analogy from the "Star Wars" trilogies, which may help explain those strange bedfellows. In the original trilogy, Luke Skywalker trains to become a Jedi fighter and joins the struggle against the evil, totalitarian empire. The return of the Jedi and the heroic struggle of the rebels eventually bring down the empire. If this is the setting of Turkish politics, and Rubin is with the Force, we would welcome him as either the Master Yoda or the Young Skywalker who fight for freedom.

An alternative story is presented in the prequel trilogy, though: Darth Sidious, on his way to establishing the authority of the dark side of the Force and emerging as the emperor, skillfully manipulates the republic, and most

Either Rubin's remarks are reflective of ignorance and naïveté at best -- Rubin the apprentice -- or a deliberate attempt to misinform and manipulate at worst -- Rubin the master. If it is the former, he either lives in a wonderland which does not correspond to the Turkey most reasonable people know of, or he is being taken for a ride by his Turkish informers. The best one could hope is that someone informs the young Rubin about the dangerous path he is taking. If it is the latter, those neo-nationalists who contemplate rallying behind Rubin better be careful lest they are reduced to his clone army.

Clones are destroyed, too, when their date of expiry arrives and a new apprentice emerges.

Science fiction aside, the point I am trying to make here is that in any case, Rubin's claim that he is the one familiar with real Turkey needs to be approached carefully. His credibility to serve as the guru for Washington is questionable. If the current, or for that matter the forthcoming administrations, see Turkey as an important ally and are committed to the survival of Turkey's democracy, they will have to choose carefully their domestic allies in Turkish politics. If American administrations are going to be consulted by self-declared experts such as these and their ideological dogmatism and distorted analyses, the best one could say is "may the Force be with them," lest they fall victim to the spiel of the dark side. * Þaban Kardaþ is an instructor at the University of Utah, the chairman of the Middle East and Central Asia Conference Committee and a research assistant at Sakarya University.

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Rubin: master or apprentice?

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importantly young Anakin Skywalker, whom he lures to become his next apprentice. Darth Sidious, presenting himself as the upholder of peace and stability, uses his secret separatist army of clones to create turmoil, which serves as the pretext for the suspension of republic. Again, if Rubin is one of the noble members of the Jedi, such as Obi-Wan Kenobi, seeking to uncover the plot and prevent the young Anakin from being lured by Sidious, his quest to save democracy is more than welcome. What if Rubin is one of the characters on the dark side, though? The question then might very well be whether he is the master or the apprentice.

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COLUMNS

SUNDAY’S ZAMAN 15

SUNDAY, MAY 18, 2008

Cynýcs and realýsts The bitter truth is that nothing is more harmful to Turkey than Turkey itself. This has been a fact, proven over and over since 1908, a crucial year that saw for the first time the confrontation of the country's elite, either ruling or keen to rule, with Western values for real.

We all know how it went, soon after 1908. The unprecedented, enormous air of freedom with the introduction of the Constitution was, after a turbulent debate and fruitless political maneuvering, followed by a violent takeover of the ruthless and cunning Ýttihat ve Terakki Party (Union and Progress Party), led by Talat, Enver and Cemal. Silencing all debate, either by scaring to death opponents, those striving for democracy, or by simply deporting or killing them, they drove the country to war.

We all know the consequences. Naturally you could and should emphasize that ever since then Turkey's story has been a powerful one. One should be generous in highlighting the achievements, successes. But unless you see the reality behind the appearance, you are unable to decode what lies hidden in the story.

One hundred years have passed since that historic threshold (we will "celebrate" the anniversary of the declaration of the first Constitution this July), but can we speak about real progress? I mean "real" progress? Of course not.

If you studied this particular history, in a nutshell, we are still where we were, in terms of identity crisis, administrational dilemmas, individual versus authority, religion versus the state, the mili-

ANDREW FINKEL

YAVUZ BAYDAR y.baydar@todayszaman.com

tary's role in civilian politics. The actors are shockingly anachronistic and identical to those of a century ago. With the same old fears, they do not have to wish they were here, they are here. With their existence, this otherwise great country is not helped in the least in deciding which way to turn. Nowhere else have the domestic agendas of these various actors clashed so badly.

This should explain why Turkey is the country whose transition after the fall of the Berlin Wall has been the longest, a country still resisting change, refusing to adapt to new global conditions. The sad part is that nobody knows the outcome; the prospect of something going as terribly wrong as it did in 1912-13 -- between the Young Turk Revolution and World War I -- is spine-chilling. The potential is there.

I am often seen as an incurable pessimist, but let me say that as long as your point of departure in analyzing Turkey is the worst possibility -- as demonstrated so tragically by history -- you are healthier in your judgments, much more realistic.

I am somewhat relieved by the fact that the British delegation, visit-

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ing Turkey with HM Queen Elizabeth II, shares the gloom. Indeed not only they, but everyone must be concerned, since none of the actors seem to know where the pending closure cases against the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Democratic Society Party (DTP) will lead Turkey, what the consequences of the 11 top judges' verdict will be. The sad part of the developments is the impact of some cynical players.

The first is some segments of the mainstream Turkish media, led by Hürriyet and followed by Milliyet. Copying the utterly marginalized, isolationist daily Cumhuriyet, they seem to have jumped on the bandwagon of alienating those in the EU decision-making circles, who are still deeply engaged in keeping Turkey on track for full membership.

As if there was no closure case against any party, and as if "all was normal under the sun," a large number of columnists in these papers, for reasons to be understood later -- who are known to speak no other language than Turkish, thus not having many clues about the world -- fiercely attack selected "friends of Turkey" simply because they criticize the closure cases and warn of the consequences.

One of them, in a tragic display of primitive behavior, was vilifying the "ombudsman" institution of the EU as a "horse trader." It may sound funny, but many Turkish readers take such clownish views seriously, since they are published by what claims to be a mainstream newspaper. Take it for granted that these attacks will continue with the aim of "killing the EU perspective" for good.

Then you have the Republican People's Party (CHP). The latest

GUATEMALA, REUTERS

a.finkel@todayszaman.com

ÝHSAN YILMAZ ihsan.yilmaz@todayszaman.com

Beyond post-Islamýsm

The queen and I "Ha!" I joked. "No one really expects the guests to come in formal dinner jackets to a reception starting at 5:30 in the afternoon…" But the polite silence that greeted me on the other end of the phone suggested that to turn up at a reception aboard the HMS Illustrious in the presence of Her Majesty the Queen with anything less than a black tie and a chest full of medals would be equivalent to wearing velour track bottoms and a "my friend went to Ýstanbul and all I got was this lousy" T-shirt.

Even then I could have sent my best dark suit to the dry cleaners, but something stayed my hand. I grew up in England and along with milky tea have imbibed a respect for a well-ordered society in which every hobbit has their place. One of my early schoolboy memories is a friend bragging that his parents had been invited to one of the garden parties that the queen holds in summer to reward people from every walk of life for being good members of the community. My own invitation to a similar occasion in Ýstanbul appeared to bestow a similar sort of merit, and I was delighted that news of my royal summons, when carefully leaked to selected friends, provoked a gratifying measure of sweet envy. My childhood friend later confessed that his mother had actually bought the invitation to the garden party from a ticket tout, and I remember being suitably shocked. I must have resolved then that if the queen ever thought it appropriate for me to wear a bowtie, well, (as it says on the label) "dieu et mon droit." The bowtie wasn't the trouble. I actually possess a dinner jacket, bought some time ago and very little worn. Eventually, I plucked up the courage to see if it could still conform to my expanding physique.

The result was the worst possible. It was not a comfortable fit, but not so bad that I would have to jettison the idea altogether. If I left the jacket unbuttoned there was still room to breathe, and the trousers did fasten. But suppose in an emergency I had to bend down to tie my shoe? With the great resourcefulness we former war correspondents still possess I headed for the tailor, who inhabits a walk-down hole-in-the-wall down the road. I explained my dilemma and awaited the diagnosis while he unpicked the waistband in search of an extra centimeter or two of cloth to relieve the strain. He stitched and pressed as we chatted about the neighborhood and about the 30-year-old picture of him in football outfit, age 17, on the wall. He explained that he still plays the game. His hair was grayer than mine, but he has managed to stay the same weight. We agreed it was unjust that he hadn't got the invitation instead of me. He charged me three lira and I told him to keep the change from five.

This still left the problem of a shirt. There was no way I could fit into the one I had and besides, it had a wing collar, which I have come to regard as naff. My real objection is that it was not equipped for shirt studs, and I had inherited a particularly fine set from my wife's aunt's second husband, which I had never found occasion to wear. I don't actually have a tailor in London, but I had once made the acquaintance of the head of the men's department in Fortnum and Masons -- a Turk, of course, who grew up not far from my Ýstanbul neighborhood -- and we have remained firm friends some 15 years. He has subsequently changed jobs (and wives) and during a visit to Oxford Street I was alarmed to hear the reason he was not at work was that he had just recovered from a triple bypass. So I wrote him a note wishing him well, bought a shirt and was pleased his boss thought to give me a substantial discount on the price.

The day of the reception I took my wingtips to Selahattin, the shoeshine, and told him to give them an extra gloss. I submitted my face to Refik, the local barber, who lathered and scraped and powdered and then sprayed me with an aftershave that could have passed for car freshener. Mesut, a local driver, took me to the dockside, suitably amused by the sight of me in all my finery. I ascended the gangplank as if it were Mt. Everest, except that it was the apogee not of my own endurance but of a group effort. In the end, it didn't really matter that I never got to shake the queen's hand.

It wasn't about me any more than it was just about her.

news is that the CHP will take the route of PR, "explaining itself" to the EU, by opening up offices in various EU capitals. How the explanations will be formulated, one cannot but wait to see. The CHP stopped supporting Turkey's EU reforms soon after 2002, turning harshly against the EU, and basically reacted against every step that would help Turkey move closer to full membership -- blocking many of them. The cynical game behind this move by CHP leader Deniz Baykal may possibly be explained by the growing fear that his party will be a punching bag at the Socialist International summit in Athens this June.

Whether the EU and the Socialist International "swallow" this has yet to be seen. Perhaps the main cynical player in the EU, French President Nicholas Sarkozy, can only make use of this.

If we leave aside the cynical part, we are faced with a matter of urgency, as I attempted to underline in my last article. If Turkey is to be kept on track in terms of the EU, if "losing Turkey for good" will not be allowed to be an option, it is now high time the "inward-turning" US administration is confronted with the sine qua non importance of democracy in terms of Turkey's shaky path.

The question then is whether the British government -- apparently deeply engaged and worried about the increasingly tumultuous journey of Turkey -- should help "synchronize" the US with the EU. All the postponed problems must be solved within full democracy. Believing that half measures will do it is not only an illusion, it is a channel into a lethal adventure.

Partýng gýft(s) from Bush to Israel FÝKRET ERTAN f.ertan@todayszaman.com

“Ballistic missile proliferation poses an increasing threat to Allies' forces, territory and populations. Missile defense forms part of a broader response to counter this threat. We therefore recognize the substantial contribution to the protection of Allies from long range ballistic missiles to be provided by the planned deployment of European-based US missile defense assets. We are exploring ways to link this capability with current NATO missile defense efforts as a way to ensure that it would be an integral part of any future NATO wide missile defense architecture.''

The excerpt above is from the 37th paragraph of the NATO Bucharest Summit Declaration issued last month, which ended the 10-year debate over whether there was a ballistic missile threat and paved the way for a full NATO endorsement of the deployment of US Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) in Europe, consisting of an interceptor base in Poland and a special radar system in the Czech Republic.

With this endorsement, the deployment of the European component of BMDS is all but final, while the other components have been making significant headway, particularly through the deployment of a certain type of radar in other places, such as in Japan.

The radar in question is known as X-Band radar, and it was reported that the radar would be a significant topic of discussion between US President George W. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert during the former's visit to Israel this week. In fact, prior to this, nearly 70 members of the US Congress, including the top Democrat and Republican on the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, sent a letter to Bush recently urging him to offer Israel the radar, fully integrated with the US system.

In connection with this, Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said in an e-mail that "while the US and Israel cooperate closely on defense matters, there will not be any announcements during the visit." Indeed, no formal announcement was made with regard to the X-Band radar and related issues, but they were discussed all the same, as Israeli Army Radio reported last Friday that Israel had asked the US to allow it to connect to an advanced satellite warning system that would enable it to identify missile launches from anywhere in the world in real time.

According to the report, the issue was discussed in meetings between Olmert and Bush. A final decision was set to be made when Olmert visited Washington in two weeks, the report added.

The system Bush and Olmert discussed is known as forwardbased X-band radar. Transportable by air, it uses high-powered pulsed beams for the extremely high-resolution tracking of objects in space, such as a missile that could carry a conventional as well as chemical, biological or nuclear warhead. Built by US defense giant Raytheon Co., the system has been described by experts as capable of tracking an object the size of a baseball from about 4,700 kilometers away.

The radar would let Israel's operational Arrow missile defense systems engage a long-range Iranian Shahab-3 ballistic missile about halfway through what would be its 11-minute flight to Israel from Iran, or six times sooner than Israel's ''Green Pine'' radar is capable of doing. According to one expert, with the X-band system at work and connected to the US system, a missile intercept theoretically would take place over Iran or a neighboring state and not over Israel, which would of course give Israel a significant strategic advantage over potential Iranian missiles. Given the carefully planned and prepared groundwork by Israel and its friends in the US, Israel is almost certain to have the X-Band radar. As one Israeli defense official implied, it will be among the "parting gifts" from Bush to Israel, and others may also come up in time, including an amnesty for Jonathan Pollard, currently serving a life sentence in a US prison for spying for Israel. We shall wait and see the other "parting gifts.

Several presentations at a conference in Washington, D.C., entitled "Political Islam and Democracy: What do Islamists and Islamic Movements Want?," held on May 14 and organized by the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy, showed repeatedly that political Islam is now in transition toward post-Islamism in almost every Muslim country, albeit in different manifestations depending on the context.

Post-Islamism is an attempt to fuse religiosity with rights, faith and freedoms, Islam and civil liberties and focuses on rights instead of duties, plurality instead of singular authority, historicity rather than fixed and rigid interpretation of scriptures and the future rather than the past. Post-Islamists eagerly join a cosmopolitan humanity, link up with global civil activism and endeavor to work for global cooperation and solidarity.

The evolution of Turkish Islamism into post-Islamism cannot be analyzed without looking at the first generation Islamists, the New Ottomans, who emulated Western concepts such as constitutionalism, universal suffrage and rule of law. Second-generation Turkish Islamists represent both continuity and change from the first generation. Islamism was a reactionary movement, yet the Turkish Islamists' reaction was very soft. Democracy, loyalty to the state, nation-state mentality, bureaucracy, etc. are not anathema to the republican period's Turkish Islamists. But still, the republican Islamist generation had also borrowed, if artificially, from the Middle Eastern Islamists, whose experiences were not lived in Turkey. The Independence War victory and the fact that the country was never colonized prevented Turkish Islamists from becoming radicalized. Even their anti-Western rhetoric toward the West was superficial to a great extent and they easily gave it up. Many Turkish Islamists had Sufi connections and respected the tradition.

This is one of the reasons Turkish Islamism has easily evolved into post-Islamism, having also being influenced by the Gülen movement directly or indirectly via emerging middle classes and the nascent new elite.

A comparative discourse analysis between Fethullah Gülen's and the Islamists' ideas on Islam, state, nation and law relations shows that Turkish Islamists' journey toward post-Islamism is also a convergence toward Gülen's ideas that he has been advocating for the last three decades, even though his cosmopolitan Islam is still different than and beyond post-Islamism. Gülen has stayed away from the ideologization and instrumentalization of religion in politics. He advocates a mutual autonomy of state and Islam. While Islamists had conceived Islam as identity, ideology and politics and focused on religion instead of religiosity, Gülen had been harshly critical of Islamists, simultaneously formulating an inclusive faith that embraces a democratic polity. While Islamists did not respect the authority of the ulama, Gülen, backed also by his intellectual power, helped the ulama profile regain its prestige among cosmopolitan, urban, middleclass, white-collar workers, a base Islamists were trying to address. While Islamists focused on political acts, a socially active Gülen reiterates that the hereafter is much more important, and his life revolves around worship.

Gülen's interpretation of Islam could be said to be stateless cosmopolitan Islam and thus it is still different than post-Islamism, as he puts that Islam does not need a state to survive; in this age civil society can independently maintain Islam even where Muslims are not in the majority. Presumably, Gülen's discourse on Islam, public sphere, state, politics and law relations will be much more dominant in tomorrow's Turkey, with politicians' exodus from non-voter-friendly Islamist rhetoric being one of the factors. And as the conference presentations and discussions showed, the Turkish experience will continue to be closely watched in the Muslim world, where Islamists think they were betrayed by the US when Islamists started winning democratic elections, a sentiment millions of Turks would share in the face of the lack of US support of Turkish democracy against military and judicial coup attempts.

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16 SUNDAY’S ZAMAN

SUNDAY, MAY 18, 2008

LEISURE

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Gregorian Calendar: 18 May 2008 C.E. Hijri Calendar: 13 Jumada al-Awwal 1429 A.H. Hebrew Calendar: 13 Iyyar 5768 calendar@todayszaman.com

E2 08:00 Cheers 09:00 Two and a Half Men 09:30 The King of Queens 10:00 Rachael Ray Show 12:00 The Martha Stewart Show 14:00 Ellen DeGeneres Show 16:00 The O.C. 18:00 Late Night with Conan O'Brien 19:00 American Idol 20:00 The Daily Show with Jon Stewart 20:30 The King of Queens 21:00 Big Shots 22:00 Dexter 23:00 The Tudors 24:00 Nip/Tuck 01:00 American Idol 03:00 Dexter 04:00 South Park

movýe guýde Today is Trinity Sunday in the Western Christian liturgical calendar. Trinity Sunday is the first Sunday after Pentecost. This feast celebrates the Christian doctrine of the Trinity: the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Trinity Sunday is celebrated by the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran and Methodist churches. In the Eastern churches, Pentecost itself is considered the feast of the Trinity.

Today is All Saints' Day in the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic churches. While the Western churches celebrate All Saints' Day (All Hallows) on a fixed date, Nov. 1, the Eastern Churches follow an earlier tradition kept by the whole Church of keeping the feast on the first Sunday after Pentecost and as such marks the close of the Easter season.

Today is International Museum Day. This day

‘Deception’

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highlights the place of museums in the world today and the part they play as a means of cultural exchange, enrichment of cultures and development of mutual understanding, cooperation and peace among all people.

International Museum Day has been celebrated around the world since 1977. Each year, a theme is decided on by the Advisory Committee. The theme for this year is "Museums as agents of social change and development."

Today is the Day of Revival, Unity and Poetry of Makhtumkuli in Turkmenistan. Today, Turkmenistan marks the adoption of the Turkmen Constitution on this day in 1986, which declared Turkmenistan a legal, secular and democratic state. This day was marked as the Day of Revival and Unity until May 18, 1999. Starting in 2000, the holiday was combined with Makhtumkuli's Poetry Day by decree of President Saparmurat Niyazov,

which was marked on May 18, thus emerging under its present name. Makhtumkuli Pyragy is a staple of Turkmen literature of the 18th century that poeticized the best human qualities and voiced the dream of Turkmens about independence.

Today is the anniversary of the Battle of Las Piedras in Uruguay. On this day in 1828 the final conflict between Uruguay and Brazil ended with Uruguay's victory. This victory opened the way to Uruguayan independence.

Today is Flag and University Day in Haiti. This day commemorates May 18, 1803, when leaders of slave troops fighting for freedom in Haiti tore the white stripe out of the French flag to signify their separation.

They created a new flag from the remaining blue and red strips, fought on and declared independence the following New Year's Day. By Kerim Balcý

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Berlýn Nazý bunker becomes museum for contemporary art

I'M NOT THERE

When Adolf Hitler ordered his favorite architect Albert Speer to plan a public bunker for downtown Berlin, he probably never imagined the same building would one day house a collection of contemporary art. But history has its own unpredictable ways and starting next month, art lovers will be able to see pieces by hot artists like Olafur Eliasson and Rirkrit Tiravanija in the remodeled bunker that once sheltered up to 3,000 people during air raids at the end of World War II. Collector Christian Boros, who runs an advertising company in the western city of Wuppertal, bought the property in 2003. For several years, he had been looking for an adequate space for his 500-piece collection and the bunker seemed a perfect match for his private museum. "Berlin is a city that constantly reshuffles and recreates itself," Boros, 43, told reporters during a recent tour of the five-storey-high bunker in Berlin's Mitte neighborhood. "So what would be a better place for my collection than this bunker."

Built in 1942, the edifice has undergone several metamorphoses during the last few decades. When the Red Army occupied Berlin in 1945, the Soviets turned the building into a prison for Nazi war criminals. During Communist times, the gray, concrete structure was used as storage for exotic fruits because its 3-meter-thick walls provided cool temperatures year round. "East Germany used it to store the bananas that Cuban leader Fidel Castro sent them," said Boros -- which also explains why Berliners dubbed the 16-meter-tall building "banana bunker." After East Germany collapsed in 1989, the party crowd used the bunker as a notorious techno club.

In order to turn the bunker into an exhibition space, Boros asked a team of architects to reduce the number of

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O... ÇOCUKLARI ÝSTANBUL: Beyoðlu CineMajestic: 11:30 13:00 14:00 15:30 16:30 18:00 19:00 20:15 21:30 Kadýköy Nautilus: 11:30 14:00 16:30 19:00 21:30 Fri/Sat: 24:00 ANKARA: Ata On Tower: 11:00 13:15 15:45 18:15 19:30 20:45 22:00 Fri/Sat: 23:00 24:00 ÝZMÝR: Konak Pier: 10:30 13:15 16:00 18:45 21:30

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A former World War II bunker in Berlin will serve as an exhibition space for Christian Boros’ collection of contemporary art. rooms from 120 to 80, with galleries now measuring between 2.30 meters and 13 meters in height. He declined to say how much he paid for the bunker and its reconstruction. "We made sure to preserve the marks of the times," explained Boros, and indeed, bullet holes on the outside bear witness of the house-to-house fighting at the end of the war, while bright graffiti inside are reminders of the 1990s party scene. The only new addition was a 1,000square-meter glass-wall penthouse on the roof, with a garden and a wraparound balcony, for Boros and his family.

Starting in June, Boros will open his collection to the public on Saturdays. For a 10-euro ($15) fee visitors can

sign up online for guided tours. While Boros is planning to show different works from his collection every year, he decided to first exhibit highlights by Danish artist Eliasson and other big names in the contemporary scene.

One major Eliasson installation is a ventilator swinging like a pendulum from the ceiling. There are also several Eliasson light and color installations spread out over five floors on the maze-like, 3,000-square-meter exhibition space. "All works engage with room and light," said Boros, adding that he will be presenting 90 works, mostly sculptures, by 57 artists, among them Anselm Reyle, Elizabeth Peyton and Tobias Rehberger. Berlin AP

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HOW TO PLAY? : The objective of the game is to fill all the blank squares in a game with the correct numbers. There are three very simple constraints to follow. In a 9 by 9 square Sudoku game: Every row of 9 numbers must include all digits 1 through 9 in any order Every column of 9 numbers must include all digits 1 through 9 in any order Every 3 by 3 subsection of the 9 by 9 square must include all digits 1 through 9

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SUNDAY’S ZAMAN 17

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AP

WOR L D

The danger of fighting on OPINION

By Robert S. Strauss* SUNDAY’S ZAMAN

President Bush, center, and Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik, right, listen to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as he delivered his remarks before the Knesset in Jerusalem on Thursday.

Bush’s comments in Israel fuel anger in Mideast and back home MICHAEL ABRAMOWITZ JERUSALEM

On an emotional visit to mark Israel’s 60th anniversary, President Bush on Thursday compared people seeking talks with Iran and radical groups to the Nazis’ appeasers, provoking a political storm at home and accusations that he was politicizing the celebration. Bush’s address to the Israeli parliament also stirred intense debate between Israelis and Palestinians. His strong words of empathy for Israel brought lawmakers in the tiny chamber to their feet.

Palestinians expressed disappointment afterward that Bush did not use the occasion to press the Israelis forcefully to make compromises toward the creation of a Palestinian state. While Bush has frequently promoted that goal, the only reference in the speech came when he looked forward to the 120th anniversary of Israel and the prospect of a changed Middle East. “The Palestinian people will have the homeland they have long dreamed of and deserved -- a democratic state that is governed by law, and respects

human rights, and rejects terror,” Bush said.

Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian negotiator, called the speech a missed opportunity. Bush should have used the forum to address the urgency of ending the conflict, he said: “We shouldn’t have to wait 60 more years for a Palestinian state.” Bush’s comments about appeasement reverberated across the US campaign trail, offering a new platform for Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., to sharpen their lines of attack.

In the speech, Bush warned that the United States must not negotiate with Iran or radical groups such as Hamas. “Some seem to believe we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along,” Bush told the Israeli lawmakers. “We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: `Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.’ We have an obligation to call this what it is - the false comfort of appeasement, which has been

repeatedly discredited by history.”

Democrats angrily called the comment a veiled shot at Obama, who has advocated dialogue with Iran and Syria, but not Hamas. “We have a protocol ... around here that we don’t criticize the president when he is on foreign soil,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. “One would think that that would apply to the president, that he would not criticize Americans when he is on foreign soil. I think what the president did in that regard is beneath the dignity of the office of president and unworthy of our representation at that observance in Israel.”

Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, used an expletive to describe Bush’s comment. He went on to say: “For this president to leave the country and unleash a political attack on Senator Obama and the Democrats cannot go unanswered. We’re not going to tolerate this swiftboating,” he said, referring to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign in 2004 to impugn the war record of Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, the Democratic nominee.

Democratic leaders demanded that McCain repu-

Russia’s Medvedev vows cash for nuclear deterrent OLEG SCHEDROV TEIKOVO,RUSSIA

President Dmitry Medvedev has pledged to ensure that Russia’s nuclear deterrent remained properly funded to ward off threats to national security.

Medvedev made his first domestic trip since taking power last week as Kremlin leader to a top-secret missile base, a visit that underscored the strategic role of nuclear arms in Russia’s assertive foreign policy.

“It is obvious that our task in the next few years is to ensure strategic missile forces get all the necessary funds to be ready to withstand the existing threats,” the president told soldiers and officers over lunch at the camouflaged base in a forest 250 km (155 miles) from Moscow. Medvedev, a 42-year-old former corporate lawyer, was sworn in last week, pledging to pursue the policies of his predecessor and mentor Vladimir Putin who is now his powerful prime minister. As commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Medvedev takes over from Putin the so-called “nuclear briefcase” of automated control over Russia’s formidable nuclear arsenal.

In his eight years in power, Putin sought to make Russia more assertive on the world stage after the chaos of the early post-Soviet years. He boosted military spending and sought to raise army morale. Foreshadowing Medvedev’s comments on Thursday, Putin last week promised to raise pay for members of the nuclear and air defense forces.

Russia possesses a “triad” of strategic nuclear weapons, including its ground-based missiles, submarines and

bombers that can reach US soil.

Medvedev, arriving at the base hidden in a thick pine forest, saw a dozen giant mobile launchers carrying Topol nuclear missiles that were paraded before him.

He was later invited to see a new version of the missile, the Topol-M, which Kremlin officials and Russian military alike tag “a 21st century weapon.” Several servicemen showed him how fast a Topol-M can fold up its equipment and change location.

“This is a response to all security threats to Russia, including the (US) missile defense,” Col.-Gen Nikolai Solovtsov, commander of strategic missile forces, told Medvedev.

Washington’s plans to deploy parts of its missile shield in eastern Europe to counter possible rocket launches by “rogue” states like Iran have unnerved Moscow which sees the project as a threat to Russia’s security. After the missile base Medvedev visited a military academy where young officers train for Russia’s nuclear, bacteriological and chemical forces in the Volga city of Kostroma, 100 km (62 miles) away.

The president, who has previously shown great interest in the Internet and hi-tech industry, was shown the latest training equipment, including computer simulators and chemical laboratories.

Soldiers in chemical protection suits sat in an isolated concrete chamber and handled vials of fluid while others in full battle dress pointed rifles at computerized target simulators. After visiting a barracks where cadets are housed during their five-year education, Medvedev suggested that their life could benefit from a touch of the real world.

diate Bush’s comments, but McCain joined in on Bush’s side. “Why does Senator Obama want to sit down with a state sponsor of terrorism? What does Senator Obama want to talk about with (Iranian President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad?”

McCain asked reporters while campaigning in Ohio. “Yes, there have been appeasers in the past,” McCain added. “The president is absolutely right.” Asked whether he thought Obama was one of them, he said he didn’t know.

In a statement, Obama responded to what he called “a false political attack,” saying, “George Bush knows that I have never supported engagement with terrorists, and the President’s extraordinary politicization of foreign policy and the politics of fear do nothing to secure the American people or our stalwart ally Israel.” White House press secretary Dana Perino dismissed the Democrats’ complaints, saying the Bush’s remarks were not directed at Obama. “This is not new policy that the president announced, and it should come as no surprise to anybody that the president would talk about this,” Perino said. ©The Washýngton Post

This has been a strange political year, particularly for a man who has been consumed by politics and governance for seven of his nine decades. I have read, watched, listened to and studied this campaign. I was impressed by the strength and breadth of our Democratic candidates and believed that the country would have been well served by the nomination of any of them. But over the past few, very contentious months, and especially in recent weeks, I have come to feel compelled to insert myself into the debate on behalf of the party to which I have devoted my life.

I understand the consequences of a bitter nomination fight that goes to the floor of a national convention. I became chairman of the Democratic National Committee in December 1972, just a month after our disastrous presidential defeat and five months after a brutal and divisive Democratic convention in Miami. I was elected to put the party back together. It was perhaps the most difficult task of my life. The fissures and distrust that became manifest over the 1972 campaign took years to heal. Veterans of that battle may still carry some of the scars. If I have one more contribution to make to the Democratic Party, it is perhaps to help us avoid repeating past mistakes.

I have not been engaged with any candidate, nor will I be. Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have waged brilliant campaigns organizationally, financially, programmatically and personally. Both should be exceedingly proud of what they have accomplished and how their debate has energized our great nation. America would be in good hands if either became president. But I am disturbed by the intensity of the debate, the longevity of the battle and the occasional personalization of the rhetoric. I love this country, and I love my party. I know the stakes of this election and the consequences of both success and failure.

I remember Ronald Reagan’s ultimate political question: “Are you better off now than you were?”

It’s painful to compare the United States today with what it was in 2000. On indicator after indicator, we have fallen backward. Under the last Democratic administration, we had huge budget surpluses; now we wallow in debt. Real income was growing; now it is shrinking. The price of energy was contained; now it is out of control. We were at peace; now we are in a two-front war that threatens to expand to Iran. Before, America was at the pinnacle of respect, power and influence around the world; now we are held in contempt, even by our closest historic allies. Above all, the sense of optimism that defined the American dream has been shattered.

Eight out of 10 Americans are convinced that our nation is going in the wrong direction. If ever there was a time, indeed a demand, for change, it is now.

If the Democratic Party cannot win with this hand of cards, maybe we don’t deserve to. We have to make fundamental decisions. No matter whom we supported in our nominating process, and with whatever intensity, we have to focus on how much we want to practice the policies that we preach and how much we want to change the direction of our country. The battle has lasted 15 months. Tens of millions have participated, including record numbers of new voters, and the amount of campaign contributions has been unprecedented. We all should be proud of what has been accomplished. But Democrats should also understand that prolonging our internal war seriously endangers our chance to recapture the presidency. John McCain has had an easy time over the past few months as the presumptive Republican nominee. All through the primaries, he never had to defend the disaster of the past eight years. McCain never had to play Republican defense. Simultaneously, however, the Democratic Party has been engaged in an epic war between two giants. McCain’s best two months have coincided to the Democrats’ worst two months. © Washington Post, 2008 *Robert S. Strauss was chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 1972 to 1977.

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SPORTS

City squad not up for sale, says Thaksin Manchester City's controversial owner Thaksin Shinawatra has rejected media reports claiming he had put his entire squad up for sale for underperforming last season. “There is absolutely no truth to this story or any of the allegations,” Thaksin said in a statement. Bangkok, Reuters

REUTERS

SUNDAY, MAY 18, 2008

PHOTO

ýquet confýdent poýnts wýll come

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After five Formula One races without so much as a point or a top-10 finish, Brazilian rookie Nelson Piquet did his best to sound upbeat about his prospects.

"Some drivers take a bit more time to learn, some get it straight at the beginning," said the 22-year-old Renault driver after crossing the line 15th in last weekend's Turkish Grand Prix.

"I think it depends on the situation and how comfortable the driver is with the car and the team.

"Hopefully race to race I am going to improve myself and get more comfortable with everything and we'll get there...the team are very supportive, they are trying to help me as much as I need so I have nothing to complain about.

"Obviously I want to score points, but it will come sooner or later."

Comparisons have followed Piquet since the day he graduated to the Formula One paddock as teammate to double world champion Fernando Alonso.

The most obvious one was the Renault driver's father and namesake, a triple champion who retired in 1991 after winning 23 grands prix. Then there was Lewis Hamilton, who beat Piquet junior to the GP2 title in 2006 and who was also 22 years old when he made a sensational debut with McLaren last year, alongside Spaniard Alonso.

Heikki Kovalainen, who had a difficult rookie year with Renault in 2007 before trading places with Alonso at McLaren and showing his true colors, was another benchmark as Piquet's predecessor.

Leisel Jones

Leisel Jones hopes for third time lucky in pool Armed with a new-found maturity and selfbelief, Australia's Leisel Jones is hoping it will be third time lucky when she stands up on the blocks at the Beijing Olympics.

Jones has been among the world's best breaststrokers since she won a silver medal in Sydney in 2000 as a 14-year-old but has yet to win an individual Olympic gold medal. After overcoming defeats, depression and family breakup, the newly engaged Jones has been on record-breaking form in recent weeks and is determined to strike gold at last in August.

She went in to her second Olympics in Athens four years ago as world record holder in the 100 but had to settle for bronze in the final then a silver in the 200.

She did win gold in the medley relay in Athens but was heavily criticized for her glum expression on the podium during the individual medal presentations, then came under further attack for dumping her coach Ken Wood who had trained her since she was a child. Wood had started coaching Jones almost by accident but turned her into the fastest breaststroker of all time. They met when Jones's mother was a cleaner at a Brisbane pool and used to take her young daughter to work with her.

Giant crab

‘Hopefully race to race I am going to improve myself and get more comfortable with everything and we'll get there...the team are very supportive, they are trying to help me as much as I need so I have nothing to complain about’

Learning phase

Nine podiums

When Leisel jumped in the pool one day and sank to the bottom, her mother decided it was time to start lessons and Wood agreed to help out. Wood immediately recognized her talent but to make her go faster he told her to imagine she was being chased by a giant crab.

As Jones began to advance in the pool, so did her imagination and by the time she got to Athens she would envisage herself at the wheel of a Ferrari driving at top speed. Stung by the criticism she faced after Athens, Jones decided to make big changes in her life. After dumping Wood for Swiss-born Stefan Widmer, she chopped off her hair and adopted a more relaxed approach to her sport after admitting the pressure was making her depressed.

It was a move that paid instant dividends. She broke her long drought at major events when she won the 100-200 double at the 2005 world championships in Montreal, regaining the 200 world record she had held for two days in the lead-up to Athens.

Jones lost her 100 record to Jessica Hardy in the semifinals at Montreal but beat the American in the final then regained her record at the Australian championships the following year, lowering her 200 mark at the same meeting.

Hamilton started his rookie year with nine successive podium finishes, winning his sixth and seventh races, to dent Alonso's pride and end up ahead of his teammate as championship runner-up.

Piquet, albeit in very different circumstances, has so far seen the checkered flag only twice. Renault's car is a far cry from the McLaren of 2007 or 2008 but Alonso showed what a difference a driver with experience can make when he took fourth place in Australia in March, started on the front row in Spain and finished sixth in Turkey at the weekend.

While the Spaniard is ninth overall, Piquet is 18th. Two of the four drivers beneath him are no longer even in the run-

Brazilian Formula One driver Nelson Piquet of the Renault team poses for photos.

ning after the demise of Super Aguri.

Formula One is the kind of sport where any driver struggling for results becomes grist for the rumor mill but Renault team boss Flavio Briatore has remained supportive.

PHOTOS

REUTERS

Four golds She collected four gold medals at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, then won the 100 and 200 at the 2007 world championships, also in Melbourne, to become the first swimmer, male or female, to win the breaststroke double at successive championships.

Now 23, her self-belief took a significant new turn this year when she announced her engagement to former Australian Football League (AFL) player Marty Pask and left her Brisbane home to train under Rohan Taylor in Melbourne. Seemingly able to cope with anything, she faced an extraordinary test of character just before the Olympic trials in March when her estranged father revealed he had terminal cancer and issued a public plea to reconcile his differences with her.

Jones has not spoken to her father since her parents separated before the Sydney Olympics and has refused to discuss their relationship publicly, saying only that it was a private matter. She provided a demonstration of her newfound maturity by casting aside her emotions to qualify for the Australian team and give herself a chance of finally winning that elusive gold medal at her third attempt.

Last month, she showed off her form by breaking her own shortcourse 100 meters world record at a grand prix meeting in Canberra. Sydney Reuters

like Piquet, was panned by Briatore after his 2007 race debut in Australia and it took him six races to get into his stride.

A second-place finish in Japan last September worked wonders for his confidence and he has already appeared on the podium this season with a third place in Malaysia for McLaren. The Finn's front-row start in Turkey could easily have been translated into victory had he not picked up a puncture at the start after banging wheels with Ferrari compatriot Kimi Raikkonen.

"I think it's different when you start a season with a good car," said Piquet. "Heikki had a difficult beginning of the season (last year) and ended up good and now he's doing well.

"It's never easy when you are fighting in the middle of the group compared to having a car that is easily winning races and fighting only with another team.

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"Nelsinho definitely has talent," he told Reuters before the Turkish race. "Nelsinho is a part of the team and we need to support him. I don't have any doubt about Nelsinho."

Kovalainen, a former Renault test driver

"I spent one year without racing and the year that I didn't drive, testing was cut to a half. The year that Heikki didn't race, he drove absolutely thousands of kilometers in the car so he knew the car from head to toe," continued the Brazilian.

"Every time I sit in the car there's a few things I'm learning so for me it was more difficult in the beginning. Obviously that's not an excuse. I mean, Lewis did a perfect job in the beginning.

"Heikki is doing very well now so maybe for a driver not to be doing well in the beginning can be something normal and then a driver always improves."

Alonso returned with the clear understanding that he would be the main man, with Renault determined to avoid another McLaren situation. Piquet is very much the apprentice.

"At the moment, with my learning phase, it's very important to finish races so every lap I'm doing I am learning," Piquet said after qualifying 17th and finishing 15th last Sunday.

"I'm happy to finish one more race.

"Our car was good, it was quick. I should have been better in qualifying and that didn't help me. The only thing I could do in the race was a few overtakings. I don't think it was good, it was what I had to do.

"We have to improve in qualifying and get that sorted, not to get all this traffic in the race because that's what's costing us the points," added the Brazilian. London Reuters

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Young champion Sofuoðlu pledges to win more races in memory of 3 brothers

Inter Milan's Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Ibrahimovic eyes comeback for finale

NURULLAH KAYA ÝSTANBUL

The “golden kid of motorcycle racing,” Kenan Sofuoðlu, is grieving the loss of his older brother, Sinan, also a motorcyclist, after the latter died in a motorcycle accident last week during a training session; Sinan was the third son his parents have lost, and Kenan has pledged to win more races to honor the memory of his brothers.

Kenan’s father, Ýrfan, and mother, Nurhayat, lost their third son, Tahir, before he reached his first birthday and their oldest son, Bahattin, in a traffic accident six years ago. “When the building we lived in collapsed in the Adapazarý earthquake on Aug. 17, 1999, we all survived. However, God willed it and took my sons one by one to his abode,” Ýrfan said. The young world champion Kenan made a promise to the Turkish nation after the death of Sinan, saying, “God willing, I will win more championships for my brothers.”

For four decades, motorcycles have been a part of this family, which has a life story of joys and sorrows. Ýrfan, the son of Imam Tahir Sofuoðlu, started out in life as a motorcycle repairman. Having been brought up in a very religious family, Ýrfan married Nurhayat in their hometown of Adapazarý. Living a very humble life and from hand to mouth sometimes, the Sofuoðlu family had four sons and a daughter. Although their life was full of financial problems, they were very happy until they suffered the pain of losing a child 20 years ago. Their third son, Tahir, named after his imam grandfather with the hope that he would take after him, died in the sixth month of his life. “Tahir was a huge baby; he looked like he was two when he was only 6 months old. We loved him so much, but he just couldn’t recover from his illness,” Ýrfan said. The family found consolation in their other children, Bahattin, Sinan, Kenan and Nilüfer.

PHOTO MESUT YILDIRIM PHOTO TURGUT ENGÝN PHOTO

The three sons soon grew to be teenagers and all took to helping their father repair motorcycles in his workshop. What started out as a teenage hobby soon turned into an obsession for the brothers. From that time on, they virtually grew up on motorcycles. Ýrfan, wanting to carry on the tradition of having a hafiz (a person who has committed the entire Quran to memory) in the family, sent middle son Sinan to a Quran school and then to a religious imam-hatip school in the city.

Sinan soon completed his Quran studies and memorized the entire scripture, filling the gap left by his grandfather and receiving much praise from members of his family.

When Sinan broke one of his legs during a race, Kenan replaced him after receiving special permission since he was only 14 and won his first championship. The entire family celebrated over this win; but not long after the race an earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale hit Adapazarý, claiming thousands of lives. Their building, too, collapsed, killing 15 people, but the family survived. Having lost their house and all their furniture, they headed back to their village Akyazý Pazar. The father and the three sons would spend the night in the village and then go to Adapazarý early in the morning. While earning a living, they soon turned the upstairs of the workshop into a beautiful flat. They moved back to the city and some of their joy returned when Kenan won another championship.

However, the oldest son, Bahattin, was run over by a car while crossing a street near the workshop. “I was able to cope with everything because of his support. We went through a lot of things together. What can I do? His life was destined to end there,” the father noted, wiping his tears.

Kenan became more ambitious in wanting to realize his oldest brother’s dreams and began putting in extra hours in training in order to win more races for his brother. Despite all the financial problems of the family, Kenan did his best to participate in as many competitions as possible with his father’s support. His father sold many things to afford his son’s application fees for the races. They received no support from anyone in those years.

CÝHAN

Three sons, all of them motorcyclists

Inter Milan striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic could at least make the bench for today's thrilling season finale, where a win at relegation-threatened Parma would hand Inter the Serie A title.

Second-placed AS Roma, a point behind the defending champions, will snatch the scudetto if they beat struggling Catania in Sicily and Inter fail to win. If Inter lose and Roma draw, Inter will prevail due to a better head-to-head record.

Inter have blown an 11-point lead they had in February and the possible return of leading scorer Ibrahimovic will be a welcome boost after a month and a half out with a knee injury.

Roberto Mancini's side wasted opportunities to retain their title with a defeat by AC Milan two weekends ago and last Sunday's 2-2 home draw with Siena.

The nervous club have imposed a near press blackout this week, with Ibrahimovic's return to fitness a rare bit of news.

Influential midfielder Esteban Cambiasso will miss the big clash through injury with defender Cristian Chivu a doubt.

By contrast, Roma have no new injury worries for the trip to Catania with Francesco Totti and Rodrigo Taddei having been ruled out for the season a few weeks ago. Captain Totti has still tried to make his presence felt by beginning the mind games, stating that Inter will easily take the title.

Brazilian team mate Cicinho is not so sure.

“I don't know what the Inter players think. I know they are under a lot of pressure. We are very concentrated and feel good. So I'm convinced Roma will win the scudetto,” he said.

The two matches have extra importance because of Parma and Catania's troubles at the bottom of the table.

Third-bottom Parma, who occupy the final relegation place, are two points behind fourth-bottom Catania and must beat Inter to have any chance. Milan Reuters

Bolu, Eskiþehir in today's playoff final Boluspor and Eskiþehirspor clash at Ýstanbul's Ýnönü Stadium this evening in the Bank Asya Lig 1 (second division) playoff final for the only remaining berth in the Turkcell Super League berth, after eliminating their opponents in penalty shootouts on Friday.

Boluspor beat Sakaryaspor 5-3 in the shootout after the score at extra-time was tied 2-2. The match between Eskiþehirspor and Diyarbakýrspor was 0-0 deadlock even at the end of extra-time, and Eskiþehir won the penalty shootout 6-5. The winner today will join already promoted Kocaelispor and Antalyaspor in top-flight Turkish soccer next season. Kickoff at 8.30 p.m. Ýstanbul Sunday's Zaman

Another loss to bear Kenan found opportunities to train and race abroad. He achieved a first in the history of Turkey by winning the 2007 World Super Sport Championship, making his country proud and helping his family forget some of the pain of the past. Kenan also made a very successful start to 2008.

However, then Sinan got into a fatal accident during a training session on the Körfez racetrack a day after his wife had a baby. Kenan immediately dropped out of a race in Italy and returned to Adapazarý to console his parents. The champion said if they are able to bear this unbearable pain, it’s because of their strong faith in God. “Everything my family has gone through is divine providence. It’s he who gives life and he who takes it away. What we have to do is show patience. I will win more championships for my brothers,” stated the young champion.

Kenan’s mother, Nurhayat Sofuoðlu, holds the pictures of Bahattin and Sinan, who died in separate accidents.

Live on TV today NTV 16:00 Parma - Inter NTV SPOR 19:00 Mallorca – Zaragoza 21:00 Real Madrid – Levante KANAL 24

World motorcycling champion, Kenan Sofuoðlu, lost his brother Sinan in a fatal motorcycling accident last week. Photo shows Kenan (left) and his father, Ýrfan Sofuoðlu, in front of their family home in Adapazarý.

16:00 Cataina – Roma 19:00 Milan – Udinesse 21:30 Torino - Fiorentina

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Sebastien Loeb leads in Rally of Sardinia World champion Sebastien Loeb led Italy's Rally of Sardinia after claiming three stage victories in the opening leg. The Frenchman, criticized by rallying officials recently for his "scruffy looks," held a comfortable 35.7 second advantage over Citroen teammate Dani Sordo of Spain. Cagliari, Reuters WWW.SUNDAYSZAMAN.COM SUNDAY, MAY 18, 2008

ABDULLAH BOZKURT DUBAI

come to a safari happened a while back when I took the kids to Six Flags in New Jersey for a fun day almost 10 years ago.

When I was shipped out to Dubai on assignment to cover the Arabian Travel Market, the largest expo on tourism in the Middle East, I dropped by one travel agency pavilion featuring desert safaris and showcasing one of their dune buggies for visitors to try out. I told my colleague, Beytullah, the deputy director for our daily's advertising department, that we should take the opportunity and venture into the desert for a great safari tour. He tagged along, albeit unwillingly.

The tour company picked us up from Al Jawhariye Gardens, a four-star hotel five minutes from Dubai International Airport. The service bus was filled with mostly Chinese and South Asian tourists who were looking for a day of adventure just like us. I started chatting with a Chinese man sitting across the aisle. "My name is John," he responded to my pleasantries, adding: "I have been here for four years working as a construction engineer." John turned out to be a veteran of these trips, and he was taking his newly arrived Chinese friends on a tour. "Construction is very big business here," he said, pointing to the high rise cranes that crowd the Dubai skyline.

After taking a long ride into the heartland, away from the gulf and closer to the border with Oman, the bus dropped us off at the launching area, where tourist shops flourished all over, offering their goods to visitors. These stores, as well as the safari rides such as the one we were about to embark upon, were mostly run by South Asians, such as Pakistanis and Bangladeshis. We hopped in the lead car, a white Toyota Land Cruiser outfitted with safety cage bars to protect passengers against rollovers.

I suspected our driver was a fellow Muslim from the Asian continent. When I asked "Are you Muslim?" he got furious. It must have sounded like I said "Moslem." For most English-speaking people, Moslem means the same as Muslim. However, the Arabic transliteration of the two words are very different. A "Muslim" in Arabic is "one who gives himself to God" and, by definition, someone who adheres to Islam. But "Moslem" in Arabic means "one who is evil and unjust" when the word is pronounced, as it is in English, like "Mozlem," with a "z." We talked it over and made our peace with the driver.

John, being very attentive and keen on pleasing his friends from mainland China, got upset when they were ushered into a 2006 Jeep Cherokee for the safari instead of the brand new 2008 model Toyota Land Cruiser we had hopped in by mere chance. I remembered the Cherokee's reputation when it comes to off-road tracking from car review magazines. When I made an offer to exchange the cars to please both myself and defuse the tension growing between the operator and the Chinese group, everybody took a deep sigh of relief.

We got what we wished for from Abdulkadir Geylani, a local driver from Dubai, who gave us a night of excitement of desert safari tracking amidst yelling, shouting, swearing and, at times, begging for a stop. "Please, that is enough," shouted Wassem, a sales rep for the Excel Healthcare pharmaceutical company from Pakistan, "I can't take it anymore." Syed Aal-e Ahmed Bukhari, another passenger, contradicted him: "Is that the best you can do, Geylani?" provoking the driver to perform more dangerous maneuvers. The driver seemed to handle the Cherokee very well, using both high and low gears in a snap. Knowing the track and being familiar with almost all the low and sloppy tracks, he was commanding the car like scaled stock cars in the hands of a child. He wasn't fearful when the windshield got covered with scorching desert sand or when the right tire threw a curve ball on the cliff. At times, we felt the car lose touch with the ground. By the time I started to feel the bad taste of my last lunch in my mouth, the driver put stopped and let us out of the car for some fresh air and a photo op.

Out there in the middle of nowhere between Dubai and Oman, we were watching the ultimate daredevils taking up the challenge of climbing steep hills using SUVs, ATVs and dune buggies. We were not ready for this, obviously, and the tour included us as spectators only. While my eyes were feasting on this thrilling show, a young Chinese girl approached and asked, "Do you think you can do this on your own?"

Being a Turk, of course, I didn't hesitate for a moment before responding, "Yeah, why not! There's nothing to it!" Surely I was lying through my teeth to this girl named Elisia, who came to work here from China almost two years ago.

Our tour ended with a night at a Bedouin camp in the middle of the desert. Out there you can have free food and drinks -- courtesy of your tour operators -- as well as experiencing camel riding, henna painting, hookah smoking and more. You may also pass a romantic evening by spending the whole night under the stars of the Arabian desert if you like.

modern marvels but the old 19th century traditional safaris you can still experience in the desert. The word safari means "journey" in Swahili and comes originally from the Arabic word "safara," meaning travel. When I was a kid, I remember watching old safari movies in the heart of Africa or in the wilderness of the Arabian desert - with great admiration, I must add. The closest I had ever

TODAY’S ZAMAN

I had heard it all before coming to Dubai: "Arabian Disneyland," "Las Vegas of the Middle East," "Monaco in the Desert," "Architectural Playground," "Giant Construction Zone" and "Gateway City." What attracted me most, however, was not the

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Great safarý rýde ýn the mýddle of the desert

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