Argentina’s natural beauty entrances visitors

This country has much in common with Turkey. Both have experienced coups unseating governments and crises rocking the economy. Foreign forces have tried to stymie this country as well. Every time it was on the verge of recovery, it suffered another blow. Domestic extensions of foreign forces never gave this country a break. One example of this is the fact that Argentina, Chile and Bolivia used to be one country.

If you love flat terrain and plains, this is the country for you. There are many large agricultural and animal breeding fields. There are also farms that house up to 150,000 sheep. Apart from the country’s major urban centers, this is what you’ll see.

The capital, Buenos Aires, means “good air” in Spanish. This name suits the city well. Despite a population of 12 million, Buenos Aires has clean and lush gardens and parks. Its wide streets are very popular. One of these is 9 de Julio Avenue, or July 9 Avenue. At 140 meters, it is one of the widest avenues in the world. Wealthy people live in the northern part of the city while the poorer segments live on the south side.

Tango is an essential part of the culture here. It was not at first socially acceptable. Women who danced the tango were seen as promiscuous and for many years the dance itself was seen as a dance that belongs to people of the lower class. In fact, people were reluctant about having public tango performances. Now, however, this dance style has become closely associated with Argentina, and tango performances are used as an opportunity to attract tourists, many of whom are European. Indeed, Argentina is worth visiting and seeing, but this is not the only reason why European tourists come here. The strength of the euro against Argentina’s currency makes Argentina a relatively inexpensive country for Europeans. As a result, Argentina is one of the top destinations for Europeans on vacation.

Minorities in Argentina

Many Armenians, Jews and Arabs from the Ottoman Empire migrated to South America, particularly in the early 1900s. Argentina began attaching importance to international trade in the 1860s and started welcoming immigrants. Between 1880 and the years of World War I, close to 150,000 citizens of the Ottoman Empire moved to this country. Argentina became their homeland and they became Argentine citizens. There are hundreds of people in Argentina, like 79-year-old Sabah Teyze who continue to love Turks and the Turkish language. Sabah Teyze is one of the thousands of Arab-Argentine citizens. Sabah Teyze’s son Sabir Salech is the president of the Islamic Center of Argentina. Like his mother, Salech, a businessman, also loves Turkey. Arabs in Argentina are mainly interested in business. They are the grandchildren of Ottoman citizens who came to this country at the end of the 19th and at the beginning of the 20th centuries.

Marcelo and his wife, Lilyana Benveniste, belong to a Jewish family that migrated later on. They have faded photographs from earlier periods carefully kept in their family archives. Passports from the years when they emigrated feature Ottoman writing. Lilyana’s grandfather Sabetay Çukran left Turkey in 1923. They come from the Jews of Rhodes. The cover of his passport has “Passport of the Republic of Turkey” written on it. Çukran first traveled to Marseilles and then arrived in Argentina in 1927 to begin a new life. Even the grandchildren of these thousands of people continue to have an affinity towards Turkey and occasionally visit.

Mıgıdır Biliç is an Armenian, and he is another immigrant who moved to this country. He was born in Turkey’s Ordu province in March 1926. Even though he has lived in Argentina for many years, he chose to stay a Turkish citizen.

Muslims have built a mosque with beautiful minarets in a central part of Buenos Aires. The mosque, named King Fahd Mosque, covers a wide area and includes a complex used to organize cultural activities. Muslims can practice their religion freely in Argentina. In Buenos Aires you can come across Argentine Muslims, though limited in number, who recite Turkish hymns in the mosque. The sincerity and warmth of the handful of Argentine Muslims, whose eyes fill up with tears when praying, is very touching.

Enjoying horse shows

There are venues in different cities where performances are put on for tourists. Among these performances are horse shows. The horses race in groups of four. Each group has a leader. Every lead horse has a set of bells that make different sounds around his neck. Every group of horses makes a different sound. The horses are trained according to the sound of the bell of their leader. When racing in groups, the horses don’t confuse their leader with another horse. They follow their leader and then get in line once the race is finished. It’s quiet interesting how the horses don’t mix the sounds of the bell in the midst of such commotion.

At these touristic sites, tourists can have lunch or dinner accompanied with a tango performance after watching the horse shows.

[QUICK FACTS] Capital: Buenos Aires Official language: Spanish Government: Federal presidential republic President: Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner Vice president: Julio Cobos Area: 2,766,890 square kilometers Population: 40,913,584* GDP (PPP): $575.6 billion** Religion: Roman Catholic (92 percent), Protestant (2 percent), Jewish (2 percent), other (4 percent) *July 2009 estimate **2008 estimate

Aside from its wide streets and clear air, another important aspect of Buenos Aires is that there are always “dog herders” (dog walkers/sitters) in parks and gardens. We know about shepherds, goatherds and cowherds, but a dogherd is not a very common concept. This is virtually a profession or side job for many people in Argentina. Dog owners give their dogs to dogherds from morning until evening or just for part of the day. Dogherds are responsible for walking dogs. But they don’t walk just one dog; they walk three or four and sometimes six or seven dogs at a time. This leads to interesting scenes in parks, gardens and at beaches. You see one man running after five or six dogs on leashes. The shift for these people starts at 7 a.m. and ends at 5 p.m. According to the law, a dog herder can at most walk eight dogs at a time. But you can come across people who walk more than eight dogs very often. Dogherds put on gloves to pick up and throw away the dogs’ waste. Cleaning after the dogs is one of their responsibilities.

Most dogherds are men, since managing 10 to 15 dogs is no easy job. These dogherd are a golden opportunity for people who love their dogs and don’t want to give them away but don’t have enough time to take care of them. Plus, those who take care of dogs make a lot of money -- some make up to $2,000 a month. But like every job, this job also has risks. Since dogs are considered part of the family, if anything happens to the dogs, the herders are held responsible. Dog owners love their dogs as much as they love their children. If anything happens to the dog, they immediately take the dogherd to court. There’s also the risk of dogs biting each other. In brief, it is not easy being a dogherd.