Photo Comparison Project: Tensions While Asserting Identity

Protest in Rome, Italy (June, 2010).

Protest in Istanbul, Turkey (July, 2010).

A collective national identity can be viewed as a compilation of smaller, individualized identities. In Italy, a stereotypical Italian can be a person from the lazy south, the economy-driven north, or an immigrant who married a native Italian. Similarly, a Turk can live in Asia, Europe or even Kurdistan – a place where people wish to be recognized independently from Turkey. Regardless of the nature of the identity that individuals associate themselves with, in order to assert your accepted or wishful identity people must make their opinion known. Often, this statement takes the form of a public protest. Controlling and maintaining a national identity is also in the interest of a nation’s government. If identity were a coin, the government’s viewpoint, or side, is usually enforced by police who attempt to control protests representing the citizen’s perspective, or the flip side of the coin.

To a foreigner, police presence or force can be surprising and startling, while conversely a demonstration anywhere in the world often sparks curiosity and garners support for a specific cause. Police seem to have this effect on foreigners because each country accepts different police behavior. Therefore, the way in which police and protestors interact provides a clue as to the nature of national identity. For example, is the country a dictatorship or a democracy? From a distance I was able to capture demonstrator and police relations in both Rome and Istanbul. Despite the different reasons for protest, demonstration and police tactics appear very similar in these two major cities.

The first similarity that stands out in the two sets of photographs is the demonstrators’ use of color - both signs display light colored (yellow or white) letters on a red background. This is a strategic mechanism employed to gain attention and increase public awareness about the issue at hand. One can imagine that although the goal of a demonstration is to promote consciousness, these protestors do not want to provoke or gain excessive attention from the police. Police response to such a statement could give the foreigner a feel for how the government responds to citizen uprising. For example, do they feel threatened because people are not buying the propaganda, or is the government largely popular and not endangered by less popular politics? Interestingly, the flag being carried by the Italian demonstrators is a peace flag. Although I do not know about the general message of the photographed protest, this flag could be another strategic device to alert the polizia of their peaceful intentions.

Additionally, the pictures of police accurately reflect the size of the demonstrations. In Rome, the protest was very large, such that it filled and blocked off a main thoroughfare. The number of polizia and the formation they used to assert their presence, and control the protest, mirrored the arrangement of the demonstrators. On the other hand, the protest in Istanbul was much smaller in scale; essentially the entire group of people can be seen in the photograph. In this context the police appear rather tolerant, as if they are simply required to be there, and are small in number. Regardless of their number, the police in Istanbul and Rome were outfitted almost identically, with bulletproof vests, guns, and riot shields. This observation about dress highlights an intentional display of imposing power that out-does the balance in number that is created between protestors and police.

Taken together, these pictures give the foreigner a sense of tension between the citizen’s desired identities and police-enforced citizen compliance to the government’s laws and politics; both groups are making a statement. The protestors are attracting attention to an issue that they feel should be better represented while the police, a proxy for the government, work to establish a boundary with respect to how far the demonstration can proceed, or raise awareness. Little by little, as the boundary is moved forwards or back, individual perception and national sentiment changes, consequently leading to a unique concept of identity.

Istanbul: Day 5

Finally, a picture of a typical Turkish breakfast! Show to the right are 2 simit filled with cheese as well as Turkish tea (pronounced as we say chai). The tea comes very hot and is best with one sugar cube. This breakfast costs less than 3 Turkish Lira, which is $2. I'm loving the exchange rate in Turkey!







Our entire morning was spent exploring a museum that had an exhibit of ancient - 19th century art, to include pieces made during the Roman and Ottoman Empires. For example, I did a project on glass and its shared trade between the Middle East and Italy, and I got to see a 2nd century glass bowl.

In the afternoon we went on a bus tour of the Asian part of Turkey. A professor at Bogazici University who recently got is Ph.D. from UW told us all about urbanization. In short, people, both rich and poor, illegally invade forest lands and settle there. They then wait until legislation changes such that their taking of the land is not illegal. Now, the government is building houses for the people living in shanty town so that they can renovate their homes and sell them to upper middle class citizens. One of the pictures I posted yesterday protests this in another part of Istanbul. It was only in the areas we saw on the Asian side that I actually saw animals. For example, I saw goat and sheep herders grazing their animals on the uknpopulated hillsides with their broken down settlement located at the top of the hill. Seeing this made me realize how hard it is for the people to move without losing their livelihood and identity. Moreover, the government housing isn't conducive to the way these people live. For example, most of the extended family lives together - this isn't taken in to consideration while building the government housing. Additionally, these houses aren't like government houses as we think of them. Instead, they are places that will likely raise in rent in the near future, and consequently force the tenets, which are part of a very poor economic class, to relocate once again.

Ok, on to something much lighter now! We visited the main campus of Bogazici (Bwa-zichi) University. Previously this campus was a high school (boarding school) and my prof. went there! The campus is really beautiful - it overlooks the water and the old city walls. Also, there are cats and kittens everywhere! Istanbul has a large population of wild cats and dogs, but most of the cats are friendly. The little black kitten was one that always hung out at the cafe I went to in the morning.

We then went down to the water to hang out and have dinner. Below is a day and night picture of the same mosque.

Istanul: Day 4

Today we saw a few mosques built my the famous architect, Mimar Sinan, in the 16th century during the height of the Ottoman Empire.

Rustempasa. This mosque was somewhat small, consequently giving it a cozy feel. The tiles decorating it were absolutely beautiful.

Sokollu Mehmet Pasha Mosque. This one was my favorite. It was quite spacious and the decorations are very light and tasteful. I didn't get overwhelmed when first walking into this mosque, as I had with mosques decorated with thousands of tiles.

For lunch we were given free time to explore the area and the neighboring spice market. For desert we tried some of the best baklava in the city - it was filled with pistachios, and very sweet and good.








Tea for sale at the spice market.













Dried fruit stuffed with nuts. I've never seen this before, so I thought it'd be fun to share - they look good. I didn't try them though...











Our afternoon was fill with another tour of a church-turned-mosque, which is now a museum.This is an 11th-century church was noted for its remarkable mosaics illustrating scenes from the life of Christ and the Virgin Mary.

The picture shown here is my favorite - it is just so precise! The majority of the other mosaics in the museum are in better shape (more complete). A special artist was brought in to create the faces of these biblical figures. Even from this picture one can see how detailed the face is.


In the afternoon we walked through one of the poorer parts of the city on the European side of Turkey. The sense of community was very strong in this area. Women and girls gathered on the streets to chat and retired/unemployed men sat in the tea shops laughing and playing cards. Children, too, entertained themselves with "marble soccer" and rain that had collected in a dip in the road.


These signs in the window are to protest the government's plan to restore these building, consequently forcing their tenets out of their homes.

Our afternoon ended with a gorgeous and relaxing 1.5 hour cruise on the Bosphorous (the strait separating European and Asian Turkey).

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the cruise.









A mosque located right down on the water. This is a good example of how these are everywhere, and seem to fit in just like any other building, despite being very recognizable by the minarets.

Istanbul: Day 3

Today we saw all of the major sites in Istanbul! We went the the Blue Mosque, some palace, Hagia Sophia and the Basilica Cistern. Here are the highlights...


Hagia Sophie - or ayasofya in Turkish - is a Christian church turned into a mosque. When this church was turned into a mosque, no images of Christ (or other religious figures) could be depicted; this is a principle of Islam. To cover up these images, muslims painted over the christian mosaics. During the restoration such paintings were removed. Ironically, painting over the mosaics effectively preserved them.

Christian mosaics.

Islamic paintings (there are mosaics underneath).

Both christian and Islamic symbols.

The Basilica Cistern. This was used in the James bond movie From Russia with Love.












Italy is known for its coffee and wine, and Turkey is known for its Turkish Delight. This is a soft, chewy candy, often with nuts in the middle, that is covered in powdered sugar. At first, I really didn't like them, but now I'm beginning to become a fan of the pistachio kind. They come in all flavors (rose, mint, nuts, etc.).





Cigarette Cartons
Cigarette cartons from Turkey! Also, these pictures will give you a taste as to how foreign Turkish is! Seriously, I look around and often cannot understand any of the street signs. I tried using google translate on these, but the warnings did not make sense in English.

Istanbul: Day 2

This morning I got up bright and early to check out the Turkish coffee scene before we had to meet as a group at 8:30. FOr breakfast, people eat Turkish bagels called simit (see picture). Today I got a bun-shaped one that had cheese inside.

Unfortunately, I didn't sleep all that well. There are a lot of stray dogs around the city that were barking that woke me up, and of course the 4ish am Muslim call to prayer. Today was a holiday in Turkey, so this call wasn't heard again until 8:30-ish pm.


Here are some of the highlights of my first full day in Istanbul! Ok now the coffee update...waaay worse than Italy. I guess that can be expected, but still Turkish coffee has definitely made a name for itself! It's brewed slowly so that it's quite thick. It's usually consumed with either one or two cubes of sugar - I had one. So we did go to the first cafe place we went too, and I don't think they were serving quality coffee, but I still seriously doubt the coffee will grow on me. I am a fan of the tea, though.
Tea at an old madrassa. Between sites we took a tea break at an old madrassa, which is now a hookah lounge/cafe. The atmosphere inside was extremely relaxed!










1/3 of a giant obelisk from Egypt! If I remember correctly it's from the 15th century BC.

















Lunch at the Culinary Institute of Istanbul. This meal, although good, was very modern. I will likely not eat most of these dishes again. For appetizers we had multiple types of bread (thin cracker things, cornbread and plain old bread). The next course was yogurt and wheat soup. This was sort of strange, but decent. Next came the parsley salad with beets, tomatoes, pickled carrots and a vinaigrette. Yep, that's right parsley salad. The first bite was the strangest, but it grew on me. The best dish came next - chicken over noodles with a sundried tomato paste. Pretty self explanatory. For dessert we had a dish was was similar to lemon jello, but it was not solid like jello. Instead, it was rather soupy with a little gelatin at the top. I could barely finish this as most of the dishes had been very lemony/acidic. I did have a great glass of white wine and tea, also.

Shopping at the Grand Bazaar. This place is huge - there are 4,000 shops! The shops are grouped by the items they sell. The main categories are leather goods, jewelry, ceramics, and scarves/clothes/linens. This was much more fun than shopping in Rome because the exchange rate for the Turkish Lira is much better than the euro (1.5 TL: 1 USD).





This evening is the only evening we have free in Istanbul. After such a long day of traveling yesterday, not a great sleep, drinking tea and coffee and wine, of course I got a headache. By the time we got back to the university it was 6pm and I had to lay down.

The weather here is so much nicer than Rome! It may be a little more muggy, but it's only in the mid to upper eighties and there is always a strong breeze coming off the water. I did manage to get sunburned today, despite putting on sunscreen.

Tempted by productivity, Sarah and I walked a short distance to grab a quick bit to eat. We came to a decent looking restaurant and decided to give it a go. The waiter didn't speak English so we mainly pointed at pictures to convey what we wanted. Thinking we asked for water, we were brought milky-yogurt. Luckily, this worked out well because we also got a spicy salsa-type dish with our meal. Oh, and we can't drink tap water here so either way we would have to pay for a drink. Dinner was very good! I have no idea what type of meat it was, but it was good.

ISTANBUL! Day 1

Wooohooo! Today, we flew into Asian Turkey and then crossed the Bosphorus into European Turkey. The picture to the right is just on the Asian edge of the Bosphorus. It's been a very successful traveling day! And, I can add Asia to my list of continents visited.






After driving for about 45 minutes we made it to Bogazici University where I will be staying in the dorms for the next 5 days! I'm staying in a room with 3 other girls (Melissa, Kristin and Sarah - same group as Rome) and then in our suite there is another room of 4 girls. We have a bathroom with 2 showers, toilets, etc., and a kitchenette.

So the bad news about our travel adventure was that many people got things stolen out of their checked bags - luckily mine was not gone through. As a group we lost 2 external hard drives (containing many pictures not located anywhere else), jewelry and a PSP.

Our time n Turkey last night was consumed by an AMAZING dinner. Ready for it? Here is goes...
P.S. I eat beef now! I've had it, and probably other meats that I don't even know what they are, two nights in a row now!

Appetizers of babaganoush, tomato salad, cheese, eggplant + yogurt sauce, eggplant stuffed with rice, all on a hot, puffy bread (not shown).

Course 1: Flat bread + meat + very good grilled onion, tomato and peppers! I'd say this is the Turkish version of a fajita.

Course 1, part 2: The best hamburger I've ever had! It must have been beef with vegetable and wrapped in a flat bread/tortilla thing. This was followed with

Course 2: Woops, didn't get a picture of this! The consisted of individually served pieces of meat. There was chicken, and one or two types of beef. The chicken was amazingly tender and they were both super flavorful!

Dessert, part 2: So part one consisted of watermelon, cherries and Turkish apricots - all very good. This, is pistachio baklava with ice cream. I wasn't a huge fan of this, but definitely gave it a try.

Sorry Rome, this food is way better!

Last day in Rome!

Today is my last day in Rome!! I cannot believe how fast the time has gone!

On our way home from class this morning, we stopped at Sarah's favorite bakery (she goes there almost every day) to say bye to her friend. He always giver her tastes, discounts, etc. So Kristin and I go there with her and he cuts us each slices of pizza - thick, salty, yummy crust with some sort of lettuce, tomatoes mozzarella and olive oil. It was delicious. And he wouldn't let her pay for it. I really wanted to try a spinach and cheese one that they had just brought out, so I go and ask for it and hand him a 5 euro bill. He tried to refuse, but I kept on asking him to take my money. So, he went over to the cash register and gave me 4 coins. Thinking he had charged me 2.50 euro or something, I look and he had given me back my 5 euro in coins. People are really really nice around here.

Next, we had to make our entire apartment spotless and pack. I'm crossing my fingers that my suitcase isn't over the 15kg limit! I guess I'll find out tomorrow...


A beautiful street shrine of Mary. There are these all over the city! Sometimes as many as 3 or 4 in a single piazza.










Tonight we have a final, group dinner at a really nice place in the heart of Rome! It looks expensive, so I'm really excited to go and not have to worry about money (the program is paying, with our money, of course). Check out their website if you're curious...
http://www.pierluigi.it/e_index.asp

Gelato (from the past week)
Pear Granite - First, a little background. Granite is much icier than gelato. Until today, I'd only seen it as lemon-flavored - sort of like a lemon/lemonade snow cone. Anyway, I today I topped this great pear granite on top of my favorite frozen yogurt. It was delicious and reminded me of applesauce (the good stuff my mom makes) with yogurt.

After already having frozen yogurt at lunch, Lisa took us out for gelato after art history...

Grapefruit - This gelato flavor was ok. I'm not a huge fan of grapefruit, but it was fruity and refreshing, which was exactly what I was looking for this afternoon.

Strawberry/raspberry - Ok funny story. I hadn't tried respberry yet and I wanted to, so I said "raspberry" in english. The man working behind the counter didn't hear/understand me, so I said "fragola" which happens to be strawberry. DAMN! I've had strawberry many times and really wanted to get raspberry :(