Every November 10th at 9:05 in the morning, all of Turkey commemorates the death of Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) by stopping whatever they are doing and paying their respects to the father of modern Turkey for one full minute. Normally at this time I am on route to the clinic in a bus or on the metro. This day, I was off the bus before 9 and waited outside the entrance to the metro in Kizilay, the busiest intersection in Ankara. At 9:05 the city siren went off. Loud as it was, it was quickly drowned out by automobile horns as every car and bus stopped and many drivers blew their horns in commemoration of Ataturk's death. If you look carefully at the picture, you can see drivers standing beside their cars in four lanes of traffic. I would liked to have gotten a better shot, but I didn't want to be the only one moving, a foreigner at that.
Shopkeepers stepped out onto the sidewalk; pedestrians stopped where they were; workers in upper story offices came to the windows and for one minute the whole Turkish world stood still. The car horns began to die down and the city siren was audible again. At the end of the minute, the siren stopped and cars, buses, people all started back to whatever they were doing. The bustle resumed, and I took the escalator down into the metro.
All in all, it was an incredibly moving moment when all the Turks stood still.
2 comments:
Cok ilginc!
I wonder if this public outpouring is as fervid outside Ankara, the center of all things Ataturk.
Mike would like to hear more about the metro and public transit.
Carol
thanks for communicating, we miss you all! how about the election, did you vote in the run-off? it's cold here!
-bill
strange being so close to atlanta with no louise and steve! school is great. we miss you!
-maggie
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