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As a reporter, I've traveled
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the Middle East for many years.
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It's an area that has always fascinated me,
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but in my work, I've mainly covered its war zones,
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its crises, and its tragedies.
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This journey, which takes me down the Silk Road
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in the footsteps of Marco Polo,
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gives me the opportunity of exploring
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the great historical and cultural
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significance of this part of the world,
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its ancient melting pot of peoples and civilizations
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that have contributed so much to our own.
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(gentle music)
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We sometimes forget that Turkey actually beings in Europe,
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in the ancient province of Thrace,
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a piece of the old Ottoman Empire that has been pushed back
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to the Southeastern corner of the Balkan Peninsula.
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(peaceful music)
(bird chirps)
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The Turks and Islam have been at home here in Edirne
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since the 14th century, when the Silk Road's days
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of glory were starting to decline.
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(muezzin vocalizing)
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What could be more fascinating, but also more uncertain,
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than the border between east and west.
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Where should it be drawn, in Venice, or, for example,
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here in Edirne.
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Founded by the Roman Emperor Hadrien as Adrianople,
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it was conquered in 1361 by the Ottoman Turks,
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who made it the new capital of their empire
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as well as base for sending their armies off
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to conquer Southern Europe.
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(upbeat music)
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Situated just a few kilometers away from the borders
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of Bulgaria and Greece, Edirne is truly a Balkan city.
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From a bustling Ottoman metropolis during the era
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of the Silk Road, it shrank to a sleepy little town
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after the communist countries of Eastern Europe
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closed off their borders and the Iron Curtain came down.
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This is the legendary founder of modern Turkey,
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Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the father of Turkish secularism,
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who gave women the right to vote and adopted the Latin
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alphabet for writing the Turkish language.
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Today is an ordinary day.
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There's no special celebration but we can see that dozens
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of people have come to lay carnations at his feet.
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In an interesting juxtaposition of symbols, the father
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of modern, secular Turkey, stands at the foot
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of the grand mosque of Edirne.
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The Selimiye Mosque was commissioned
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by the great sultan, Selim II.
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Built in just six years and completed in 1574,
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it would go on to become a historic stronghold
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of Islam on the European continent.
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Around the mosque itself is a complex known
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as külliye, containing a school, a hospital,
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a library, and a Turkish bath.
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This architectural masterpiece would serve as the model
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for all religious structures built by the Ottomans
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with its four tapered minarets and, above all,
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it's monumental dome, measuring 31 meters in diameter.
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(calm, gentle music)
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It really is very spectacular.
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We've just entered the land of Islam and this is our
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first mosque on the Silk Road.
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We couldn't have picked a better place to start
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because this is the magnum opus of one of the greatest
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architects in history, Mimar Sinan, and this is
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the largest dome to be found in Ottoman architecture.
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Sinan was an architectural genius.
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For this mosque, he designed a system of eight supporting
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pillars that hold up its enormous dome and create a
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vertiginous sense of perspective.
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The great mosque testifies to the grandeur of the
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Ottoman Empire, which at the time, ruled over
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almost one third of Europe.
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Today, the Thracian Turks are confined to a
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small region around Edirne, but they're still fiercely
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attached to the traditions inherited from their past.
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For example, traditional Turkish wrestling.
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Every year, the big annual tournament is held
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at Kırkpınar Stadium just outside the city.
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The Turkish word, yağlı güreş, means fighting with oil,
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and as we can see, the wrestlers really are coating
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themselves with cooking oil.
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The oil is supposed to make the wrestling
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more difficult and more technical.
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(speaking in foreign language)
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Okay, everyone's got enough?
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Okay, good luck guys!
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The Kırkpınar tournament is the most famous
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tournament in Turkey.
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It's held on the spot where the Janissary camp once stood.
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The Janissaries were the Ottoman Emperor's
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special shock troops.
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In fact, the gypsy drums and five sweep produce
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the marching music of the elite core mounting an attack.
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Legend has it, that in the 14th Century,
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two brothers fought each other in the Janissary camp.
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Neither was able to get the upper hand
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and they ended up dying of exhaustion.
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The wrestlers wear extremely sturdy leather pants
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which, since the oily bodies are hard to grip,
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their opponents try to grab in any way they can.
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These wrestlers are called Pehlivan,
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from the Persian word meaning hero.
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And we can see where the French expression,
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strong as a Turk, comes from when we watch them.
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What's the connection between Turkish wrestling and the kind
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of wrestling that was practiced here back in ancient times?
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The Greeks oiled their bodies and wrestled on marble tables,
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and they were naked, while you're clothed.
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Why is that?
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Yes, that's absolutely right.
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Wrestling is found in Greek mythology,
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but there we're talking about mythological times.
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Religions are born.
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The Islamic religion emerged, the world began to develop.
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Things aren't the same as they were.
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According to our religious beliefs,
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human health is extremely important.
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In other words, wrestling on marble is harmful to our health
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and according to our beliefs, to Islamic principles,
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the lower part of the male body must be covered.
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So we wear leather pants, the kisbet.
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All of the movements in oil wrestling are done
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so as not to harm the body.
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Why do you cover yourselves in olive oil or sunflower oil?
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We use oil because it's an essential part of the sport.
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It makes it much more difficult
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to seize your opponent when he's moving.
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In other styles of wrestling, you usually start off
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by grabbing the limbs, but in oil wrestling, we wrestle
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with the kisbet, the leather pants, and not with the body.
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In other words, we have to grab the pants,
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focus on the kisbet rather than on the opponent.
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Oil makes things more complicated
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and it's been used since the very beginning.
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Of course, wrestling without oil exists, too,
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but our wrestling tradition is with oil.
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When you wrestle, do you feel like you're
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practicing a sport or do you feel like
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you're preserving a very old cultural tradition?
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Both.
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We practice a sport, we do wrestling, we train all the time.
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Just like Sumo wrestlers in Japan, oil wrestlers
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are highly respected in Turkey.
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It's a very difficult sport to do
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and because it's so difficult, everybody respects them.
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In ordinary daily life, when people see them in town,
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at the market, anywhere, they give them respect.
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Everyone loves them.
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They have a special place in our lives.
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How do you win in a wrestling match?
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Well, let me explain it, first by using
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one of our expressions.
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We say that if your belly sees the sun, you're the loser.
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Go ahead, show them a hold.
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(speaking in foreign language)
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Right, that's a win!
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Okay, I can see it's over!
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(gentle music)
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On the outskirts of Edirne, the Bayezid II Complex
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was built in the 15th century
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by the great sultan, Bayezid II.
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This is one of the most remarkable examples of a külliye,
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that is, of a charitable foundation erected around a mosque.
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(upbeat music)
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The Complex is especially famous for it's dar al-shifa,
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or house of health.
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It was a state of the art medical facility at the time,
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with a fee hospital and a mental asylum
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that continued to operate until
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the Turko-Russian War of 1878.
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The historian, Aken Akhenechi,
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oversees the conversation of the site.
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Why did the Ottoman Empire decide to conquer Edirne
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and to make this city its capital?
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And why did it build such a lavish complex
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with a mosque and, especially, a hospital?
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Edirne was a point of transit between the Silk Road
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and all the roads leading to the west.
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The Ottomans became aware of its importance and they
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came here because it lead to the Balkans and to Europe.
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Right away they set about building this complex based on the
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idea of the welfare state.
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It was to do with giving importance to the human being.
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Sheikh Abid Ali said, "Where human beings flourish,
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"the state will flourish, too."
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First the imarets were built,
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kitchens that gave free meals to the poor.
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In the area just behind us, for example,
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free meals were served for 150 people.
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Next to it was a hospital, which was also free.
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Throughout the 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries,
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patients came from all over Anatolia and the entire world.
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(upbeat music)
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We know that Arabic, Islamic, and by extension, Turkish
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medicine was far ahead of Western medicine
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at the end of the Middle Ages.
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In what way, what was innovative here?
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We know that all of the sciences and the arts
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in the 8th, 9th, and 10th centuries were moving
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from East to West with people like
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Al-Farabi, Al-Biruni, and Avicenna.
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We also know that the trade routes, the Silk Road,
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the Spice Route, contributed to that.
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So if we take this place, the Bayezid II Complex
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in the 15th century, treatments for the mentally ill
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included music, the sound of water, aromatherapy,
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and different activities.
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You spoke about medical knowledge that
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came here from Buccara, about Avicenna, Ibn Sina,
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but this road was also known as the Spice Route.
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Were there spices or plants that were brought
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to the Balkans to be used as remedies in the hospital?
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We know that the rose is a plant that came to us
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via the Spice Route, and many other kinds of products
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followed the same route west.
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An example of one of those products is rose syrup,
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which was used in the Bayezid II Complex.
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Edirne was a major rose center during the Ottoman era.
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The roses cultivated in this region
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were sent to the West and Anatolia.
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Later, they were used in making various syrups, sherbets.
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At the Bayezid II Complex, patients were fed
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rose syrup to calm them down.
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Here roses were not only used in syrups,
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but also for their fragrance in treatments
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for the mentally ill and other patients.
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The Ottoman Turks, who originally came
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from Asia to subsequently rule in Europe
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as far as the gates of Vienna, deserve our recognition.
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They were the intermediaries between two worlds
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who greatly contributed to the interchange of ideas
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and techniques that occurred along the Silk Road.
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There is one city, the most legendary of all,
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that epitomizes this coming together of Europe in the East,
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the intersection of Christianity and Ummah,
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the world of Islam.
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It is, of course, Istanbul.
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Once called the new Rome, it's now Turkey's largest city
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with over 14 million inhabitants
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as well as it's economic and cultural nerve center.
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Dozens of remnants of the Silk Road
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can still be found here today.
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For example, the famous Hagia Sophia Basilica,
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where a young Marco Polo went to pray before starting off
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on his journey to China with his father and his uncle.
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It's now a mosque which overlooks
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the esplanade of the old Byzantine Hippodrome.
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It faces the famed Blue Mosque, which was built to be
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its counterpart in the 17th century.
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Bridging Europe and Asia,
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the Greco-Roman world and the Arab-Islamic world,
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Istanbul is still one of the world's
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most fascinating cities, even today.
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It was founded as Byzantium.
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It then became Constantinople in 324
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when the Emperor Constantine made it the eastern capital
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of the Roman Empire, and was finally conquered
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by the Turks in 1453.
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When the Turkish soldiers came through
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its gigantic walls, they found an almost deserted city.
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They even wondered where they were.
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The few remaining inhabitants told them in Greek,
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"Eis tín Pólin, you are in the city."
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That's the most probably etymology.
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Eis tín Pólin, Istanbul.
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(ship horn wails)
(gentle music)
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The famous chestnuts of Anatolia.
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The Turks are nuts about them!
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(car horn blares)
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On the Golden Horn, the estuary where Byzantium
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00:14:59,460 --> 00:15:02,500
once built its boats, I'm intrigued by the site of dozens
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of men who spend there days fishing off the bridge.
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They aren't doing this for fun.
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They're refugees from the Syrian Civil War,
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which has forced millions of civilians
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into exile since 2011.
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Over the centuries, the Silk Road's routes constantly
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changed in relation to the wars that were being waged.
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To get to Buccara, for example, the Byzantines
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avoided the Turkish Empire by traveling
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to the north of the Black Sea.
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In our case, we're going east and in order to avoid
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the war in Syria, we'll be going through Northern Turkey.
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History repeats itself.
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On the other side of the Golden Horn, the fortified
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Galata Tower overlooks the old Christian quarter.
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The current medieval structure is also called
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the Genoese Tower because merchants
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00:15:44,310 --> 00:15:46,350
from the Italian city of Genova established
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a colony in Constantinople.
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Genova and Venice were commercial rivals,
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which meant the Venetians were no longer welcome
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on the banks of the Bosporus.
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That's perhaps one reason why Niccolo and Maffeo Polo,
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Marco Polo's uncle and father who were living in the city,
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decided to go further east in 1261
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and try their luck in China.
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The Genoese Tower and the city's formidable
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00:16:13,600 --> 00:16:16,743
ramparts were supposed to make Constantinople impregnable.
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As was the spectacular basilica cistern,
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which was built in the 6th century to collect rainwater.
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The underground system is more than 100 meters long
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and supported by 336 Corinthian style columns.
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Few places are able to give us a sense of the
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00:16:33,060 --> 00:16:36,423
bygone splendor of Byzantium as this ancient reservoir.
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00:16:38,704 --> 00:16:41,287
(gentle music)
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Istanbul lies on the Bosporus, which in fact,
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divides the old Greek city into two parts,
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separating Europe from Asia.
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Connecting the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara
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and then to the Mediterranean,
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00:17:12,600 --> 00:17:15,443
this strait is one of the busiest sea routes in the world.
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00:17:16,824 --> 00:17:19,574
(sea gull calls)
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(fast paced music)
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00:17:29,600 --> 00:17:32,100
Overlooking the Sea of Marmara, is the big industrial
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city of Bursa, with its nearly three million inhabitants.
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In the early 14th century, the city was also the
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capital of the burgeoning capital of the Ottoman Empire.
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The Ottomans tried their best to make Bursa
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the western terminus of the Silk Road.
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The city produced silk fabrics and enjoyed a monopoly
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in trading with the Europeans.
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00:17:53,030 --> 00:17:55,400
For centuries, in order to maximize their profits,
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the Turks also tried to prevent raw silk from being exported
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and to keep the secret of silkworm breeding to themselves.
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The big merchants who came, for the most part, from Persia
330
00:18:05,610 --> 00:18:08,960
had to stay in this extraordinary two-story caravanserai,
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the Koza Han, or Silk Bazaar.
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Turkish sericulture, which was extremely labor intensive,
333
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flourished and then went into a decline.
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Today, most of the silks come from China
335
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or from Central Asia.
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(upbeat music)
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However, another tradition is still going strong in Bursa.
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A tradition that has had a deep influence
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on the Turkish imagination called Karagöz,
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or shadow puppet theater.
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00:18:41,180 --> 00:18:43,490
In his modest tourist shop in the bazar
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Senazi Shedekal brings these humorous
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and impertinent puppets to life.
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Karagöz and his friend Hacivat are supposed to have been
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brick layers in Bursa in the 16th century
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who were executed by the Sultan
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because they told so many funny stories
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that it slowed down the construction of a mosque.
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(speaking in foreign language)
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Oh my God!
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I've prepared the screen, turned on the light,
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my luck has changed in Bursa!
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As I was on my way to the Orhan Mosque, I met a strange man.
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His name was Karagöz, he's a gypsy!
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When we speak, everyone watches us.
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This is shadow theater we're talking about,
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so why are the puppets so colorful?
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It's true that in Egyptian's shadow theater,
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everything is dark, there's no color at all.
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But they use color, for example, in India, in Indonesia,
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and Thailand and China.
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Color is used because it attracts people's attention.
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So that's why Karagöz puppets are colorful.
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00:20:01,080 --> 00:20:03,493
In the old days, they were colored with alizarin.
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00:20:04,410 --> 00:20:08,310
Traditionally, alizarin was made from plants or insects.
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That's how natural colors were obtained, but not anymore.
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Today we use watercolor inks.
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Senazi why do you think Karagöz and Hacivat
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became so popular in Turkey?
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Everyone liked them because they represented the people.
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They spoke about things that people were interested in
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and they talked about things like corruption.
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(speaking in foreign language)
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Karagöz, Karagöz!
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Where is the dancer?
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She left a long time ago!
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Oh, my Karagöz, what is this?
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May the clergy break your head!
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You've taken down the screen, now it's in pieces.
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I'm going to tell the host!
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Well, best of luck!
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Please forgive us for any slip of the tongue!
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Is Karagöz just as irreverent today as it was in the past?
384
00:21:04,860 --> 00:21:08,040
Karagöz is not, in fact, a show for children.
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00:21:08,040 --> 00:21:10,540
It's for everyone from three to four years old
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00:21:10,540 --> 00:21:12,990
up to 80 or 90 years old.
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00:21:12,990 --> 00:21:14,050
Before the play begins,
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00:21:14,050 --> 00:21:16,530
the Karagöz puppeteer goes out in front of the screen
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00:21:16,530 --> 00:21:18,900
and looks to see who's in the audience.
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00:21:18,900 --> 00:21:20,243
Then he improvises.
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00:21:21,210 --> 00:21:23,567
For example, he says "Mrs. Senel is here,
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00:21:23,567 --> 00:21:25,670
"she speaks French very well."
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00:21:25,670 --> 00:21:28,700
And he'll throw out a couple of French expressions.
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Or he might say, "Ah, there's Alfred!"
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and say a few words to him.
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Karagöz performances are very flexible.
397
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Politics is also part of it.
398
00:21:38,190 --> 00:21:41,710
A Karagöz play has four parts to it: the prologue,
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00:21:41,710 --> 00:21:43,470
the dialogue, which is the longest part,
400
00:21:43,470 --> 00:21:45,420
the main play, and the epilogue.
401
00:21:45,420 --> 00:21:47,343
The last part is always humorous.
402
00:21:48,320 --> 00:21:49,900
But in the second part, the dialogue,
403
00:21:49,900 --> 00:21:51,770
the Karagöz artist also talks
404
00:21:51,770 --> 00:21:53,720
about politics and current events.
405
00:21:53,720 --> 00:21:54,947
For example, he might say,
406
00:21:54,947 --> 00:21:56,847
"Well, my Karagöz, what's the matter?"
407
00:21:56,847 --> 00:22:00,430
"Oh the situation's very bad in Syria and Iraq."
408
00:22:00,430 --> 00:22:02,570
Or he might talk about Erdoğan.
409
00:22:02,570 --> 00:22:05,440
Nowadays, politicians pretend to like Karagöz,
410
00:22:05,440 --> 00:22:07,670
but in reality, they don't because the puppets
411
00:22:07,670 --> 00:22:09,060
make fun of them.
412
00:22:09,060 --> 00:22:12,373
That's why politicians don't really like Karagöz very much.
413
00:22:16,310 --> 00:22:18,070
The Karagöz puppets are both lighthearted
414
00:22:18,070 --> 00:22:19,350
and serious at the same time,
415
00:22:19,350 --> 00:22:21,890
which can be a little bit perplexing.
416
00:22:21,890 --> 00:22:24,420
Their ambiguity is, in fact, much like the ambiguity
417
00:22:24,420 --> 00:22:26,800
of modern Turkey, a Republic that is both
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00:22:26,800 --> 00:22:29,770
secular and Islamist, turned towards Europe
419
00:22:29,770 --> 00:22:31,213
as well as towards the East.
420
00:22:34,723 --> 00:22:37,806
(muezzin vocalizing)
421
00:22:46,050 --> 00:22:48,370
Located on the northwestern edge of Anatolia,
422
00:22:48,370 --> 00:22:51,680
Bursa was the last stop on the Silk Road's overland route.
423
00:22:51,680 --> 00:22:53,580
It was also from here that the Ottomans set out
424
00:22:53,580 --> 00:22:55,490
on their quest to expand their dynasty,
425
00:22:55,490 --> 00:22:57,540
and for several centuries, the Ottoman princes
426
00:22:57,540 --> 00:22:59,823
came back here to be buried in the Muradiye.
427
00:23:01,820 --> 00:23:04,870
The exteriors of the 12 main tombs, or türbe,
428
00:23:04,870 --> 00:23:07,520
were designed in the Byzantine style of architecture.
429
00:23:08,800 --> 00:23:10,850
The Ottomans thus remained faithful to their
430
00:23:10,850 --> 00:23:12,890
nomadic origins and continued the tradition
431
00:23:12,890 --> 00:23:15,330
of returning to be buried together with their families
432
00:23:15,330 --> 00:23:16,573
all in the same place.
433
00:23:17,550 --> 00:23:19,250
Even if they'd gone off to distant lands
434
00:23:19,250 --> 00:23:21,610
or conquered half a continent in their lifetime,
435
00:23:21,610 --> 00:23:24,540
their final resting place would be at home in Bursa
436
00:23:24,540 --> 00:23:26,373
in the complex of Sultan Murat II.
437
00:23:27,480 --> 00:23:29,810
In the mausoleums, the tombs of the sultans
438
00:23:29,810 --> 00:23:32,470
and other important persons can be identified by the fact
439
00:23:32,470 --> 00:23:35,320
that their turbans were placed on top of the sarcophagus.
440
00:23:36,480 --> 00:23:38,690
All around them, the stuccoes and frescoes
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00:23:38,690 --> 00:23:40,820
in the Oriental Rococo style have been
442
00:23:40,820 --> 00:23:42,893
considerably restored over the centuries.
443
00:23:43,890 --> 00:23:45,610
It was Sultan Murat's son,
444
00:23:45,610 --> 00:23:47,460
Mehmet II, known as The Conqueror,
445
00:23:47,460 --> 00:23:50,840
who finally captured Constantinople in 1453 and made
446
00:23:50,840 --> 00:23:52,190
it the new Turkish capital.
447
00:23:53,424 --> 00:23:55,841
(slow music)
448
00:24:05,622 --> 00:24:08,205
(car whooshes)
449
00:24:14,300 --> 00:24:16,030
A good way to catch a glimpse of the past
450
00:24:16,030 --> 00:24:18,220
and to see how the Turks once lived back in the times
451
00:24:18,220 --> 00:24:21,450
of the Sultans and the final glory days of the Silk Road
452
00:24:21,450 --> 00:24:23,650
is to take the side roads and head towards
453
00:24:23,650 --> 00:24:26,050
the mountains that tower over the city of Bursa.
454
00:24:29,020 --> 00:24:32,400
At the foot of Mount Uludag, the village of Cumalikizik
455
00:24:32,400 --> 00:24:34,153
seems to have been frozen in time.
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00:24:35,670 --> 00:24:38,050
For centuries, passing through places such as these
457
00:24:38,050 --> 00:24:41,150
in Asia Minor were a must for travelers, painters,
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00:24:41,150 --> 00:24:43,480
Orientalist scholars, or romantic poets
459
00:24:43,480 --> 00:24:46,683
in search of the misty lands of their fantasies of the East.
460
00:24:49,190 --> 00:24:51,250
Ever since then, the number of tourists wandering
461
00:24:51,250 --> 00:24:54,850
through the crafts and souvenir stores has steadily grown.
462
00:24:54,850 --> 00:24:57,050
But they still come with the same desire to explore
463
00:24:57,050 --> 00:25:00,870
the architectural mazes of these Balkan style villages
464
00:25:00,870 --> 00:25:03,670
and to take in the atmosphere of an era in history
465
00:25:03,670 --> 00:25:05,640
when the Ottoman Empire was one of the most
466
00:25:05,640 --> 00:25:07,210
powerful in the world.
467
00:25:07,210 --> 00:25:08,787
An empire that was a bridge between Europe
468
00:25:08,787 --> 00:25:10,693
and the East along the Silk Road.
469
00:25:13,426 --> 00:25:16,343
(slow paced music)
38007
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