Expo 2008 will be hosted in the Spanish city of Zaragoza from June 14 to Sept. 14, and organizers expect around 8 million visitors at the event. Zaragoza is centrally located in the Aragon region, approximately equidistant from Madrid, Valencia, Barcelona and Bilbao. Turkey, with a unique geographical setting -- surrounded by sea on three sides and land on one -- has much to offer the exposition, which this year has a theme of "Water and Sustainable Development." Along with Turkey about 100 nations, regions and international organizations and enterprises will address this theme at Expo 2008.
Through Expo, Turkey wants to share with the world the technologies and infrastructure it is developing for suitable management of water and for environmental protection. “Turkey is a country with abundant freshwater resources and a rich cultural and historical tradition in the proper use of water. Turkey is also a modern country that tries to respect and use its freshwater resources rationally. And finally, Turkey is an innovative country that, thanks to enormous investments, like those undertaken in the Southeastern Anatolia Project [GAP], is involved with the preservation and conservation of water, approaching future initiatives and projects,” Turkish officials explain.
They note that these are the key messages they want to communicate in the Turkish pavilion. In order to achieve this, the messages are transmitted by means of a peculiar, striking and unique staging designed to attract and entertain visitors. Diplomats have selected four themes to be reflected at the Turkish pavilion: “Water-Source of Life”; “Fountains for Life”; “Water and Life for All”; and “Pleasures of Water.” Accordingly the pavilion will be organized into four different spaces, the first three of which will be exclusively expositional.
“Water-Source of Life” will form an introductory space, the main purpose of which is conveying that Turkey is a land marked by the presence of water and the importance it has had and still has for Turkey. “Water,” in this context, refers to the substance as a condition for and basis of “life” in the biological sense, i.e., the necessary condition for organic existence, be it vegetal or animal.
“Fountains for Life” will illustrate the historical tradition of the use of water in Turkey from the perspective of major infrastructure, such as channeling and supply, as well as the social, artistic, political and mythological point of view.
“’Fountains’ in this context bring us, above all, to ‘water’ in the ‘sense’ of ‘human life’ in the economic, political, cultural sense, as well as customs and traditions,” diplomats explain.
“Water and Life for All” will showcase infrastructural work carried out in Turkey as well as future projects to recover and take advantage of the water resources available in those areas where they are scarce, for instance southeastern Anatolia. The idea behind this theme is that “’water’ has a double meaning here as the basis for ‘biological life’ and the source of the social, cultural, economic, etc., ‘human life’ inscribed in the context of future plans and programs.”
In the fourth space, featuring “Pleasures of Water,” visitors will be able to leave Zaragoza with a special souvenir from Turkey. This multifunctional space, located at the very end of the itinerary through the exhibition, will host a painting workshop for the traditional Turkish art of ebru (paper marbling), where examples of this art there will be exhibited, and its technique will be explained via live demonstrations.
This space will also host a tourism office, where visitors can learn about Turkey’s most famous sites, and a souvenir center, with free and for-sale items that visitors can take away as a memento of the pavilion.
What Yunus Emre says
According to several studies, around one-third of the world’s population does not have sufficient water, with the lack of safe drinking water and bad or nonexistent sanitation leading to disease, social conflict and international tension. Scientists anticipate that clashes over water will be one of the main causes of conflict in the future.
Water is a main theme in poems by Yunus Emre, the great Turkish Anatolian mystic poet who lived in the late 13th and early 14th century. “Water out of the same fountain/Cannot be both bitter and sweet,” Yunus Emre says in one of his poems. According to Professor Talat S. Halman, here water symbolizes life, the life that created human beings -- a common symbol in Sufism. The fountain is God, from which the water comes; it creates human beings. Just as water from the same fountain tastes exactly the same, humans are all equal and are in essence all good.
A stanza by Yunus Emre which focuses again on the relationship between water, life and death will be displayed at entrance of the Turkish pavilion, reflecting a humanitarian approach. With this poetic declaration, Turkey will perhaps also able to explain that water should not be used as a weapon in relations between countries.
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