[EXPAT VOICE] A guide for Turkey’s grand inheritance

Over 100 archaeological sites are spread out across Turkey’s rich landscape. Nine of Turkey’s historic places are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Troy is one and is where I met self-proclaimed Trojan and guide Mustafa Aşkın.

“I consider myself a true Trojan,” Aşkın proudly said from his office located alongside his brother’s all-in-one restaurant, hotel and souvenir shop.

Aşkın has been leading groups through Troy since 1978. Aşkın said Troy is his passion. The clutter of books on Troy and archaeology, artists’ renderings of the city and maps in Aşkın’s office are indicative of that. Aşkın grew up in the small village of Hisarlık, where he and his father herded sheep over the same hill that Troy lay buried beneath.

“[My friends and I] used to go through the fields and used to collect some coins, Roman coins,” remembered Aşkın about his first encounter with Troy. “We used to sell them to the tourists, which I feel sorry about now; it’s a shame.”

Aşkın said as a boy, he and his friends knew little about the special nature of the place, although it had attracted many archaeologists and tourists. Aşkın said his father told him that the people came because it was a holy place. They were making a pilgrimage.

“I never understood what was special about that rubble,” said Aşkın.

Today, Aşkın knows more about Troy than most of Turkey’s residents. He initially pursued medicine. However, test scores pushed him into economics in İstanbul and then to London for English training. Costs and a lack of scholarships brought him to his brother Hasan’s small shop next to the ruins of Troy. Aşkın decided to sign up to be a tour guide, and that is where his passion emerged and flourished.

“When I started researching [for my thesis on Troy], I said: ‘Oh my God! This is a vast subject and so interesting.’ I could not stop reading,” Aşkın said excitedly.

Since then, he’s published two guidebooks about Troy and an autobiography. Aşkın hopes that his work will help people understand Troy and respect the site more. He mentioned Turkey’s up and down relationship with its ancient history.

“I’m ashamed to say that in the past, for example, there were some governments, some [people] that simply refused and said the paganism period was not our history. Troy was not our history,” Aşkın said regrettably.

Indeed, the Anatolian plains are littered with ancient Neolithic, Bronze Age, Greco-Roman and Islamic sites, but unfortunately not all have been preserved well. The TAY Project, an independent group of archaeologists and specialists who have monitored Turkey’s settlements since 1993, have filed reports of hundreds of settlements disturbed by treasure hunters and development operations. The protection of a 7,000 year-old settlement in Bardakçıtepe was removed to permit the building of a six-story apartment complex. The world’s oldest known thermal city, Allianoi, near Bergama, is also under immediate threat from the floodwaters of a new dam. Turkey faces the challenge of modernizing while also holding on to priceless historic settlements.

Today, Aşkın hopes that Turkey will take better care of its inherited treasures. He believes that there is more protection of sites like Troy today. However, a large part of the improvements came from Troy’s chief sponsor, Daimler-Chrysler, which declared bankruptcy last April. Troy also benefits from being a popular tourist destination. Aşkın said he hopes teams will continue to excavate the hill and that Turkey will make sure that the city is protected before and after excavations are made.

Aşkın reminded his audience that Turks are not homogeneous. “When [the Turkic peoples] came from Central Asia, they mixed with these people. Now, to today’s Turkish people, I say: We are Trojans, we are Hittites, we are Greeks, we are Armenians, we are Lydians, Phrygians … we are the descendents of those ancient people.”

Turkey’s monumental inheritance is easily evident in Hisarlık where two of history’s most damaging battles were fought. The Trojan War, which entrenched the Greek Empire, theoretically occurred just off its shores, while only 20 kilometers away across the strait, the Gallipoli campaign occurred where some say the groundwork for the Republic of Turkey began as Mustafa Kemal Atatürk successfully defended the Dardanelles from the invading allied forces.