Dinner with RC Grads at Richmond Hotel

We are beginning to get used to the luxury of a car, as we were picked up by a driver at 8:00 and driven downtonw to the Istiklal area, through backstreets and alleys, a way we could hever have known or followed. We ended up at the Richmond Hotel, right in the center of Beyoglu, about a quarter to half mile from Taksim. We ate at the rooftop restaurant, with a great view of the city, though the food was somewhat pedestrian, American style really, It was great to see eveyone: Muharrem, Sami, Agop. Tayfur, Egber An, and Serdal Aral. All played basketball except for Tayfur who was a soccer capatain. It was an easy night because all of them spoke good English, so we talked of RC days mostly, but also of politics, and especially of the marriages and divorces of Agop, who said he got out of prison after 22 years of marriage. I spent most of the time talking with Sami and Muharrem, mostly because they were sitting near me. They both were very intersted in our family; what they were doing, where they were living and they seemed to remember them. Muharrem has a daughter at Columbia grad school, a son working for Coke Cola in Toronto. Interstingly, he mentioned how hard it is for a Turk to get a job in the US after 9/11. We had heard this once before from a guy we met on the bus, who lost his job after 9/11. Also, it seems as though no one will hire an engineer in any of the critical areas, like defense or the miitary industial complex if they a Turkish or muslim. Sami’s 18 year old daugher is starting school in London; Agop’s son is at USC, as an electrical engineering student. Tayfur has lived with a women for 24 years but never married. Egber has a 12 year old son and lives in Emirgan, runs an antique bookstore on Istiklal Caddesi. He wants us to stop by next week, so we can go out, have lunch or head back to Emirgan, where he lives. He is as inconocluastic as ever, never fitting in, the round shape in a square holed world. He is a delight, remembers trying to help me get my car through customs: I kept saying, “Tell them I play for Besiktas.” As he said, that might have made a difference in a fish market, but here you had to be Fener or Galatasaray. What was really amazing was the walk to and from the restaurant, the latter around 11:30, though narrow streets packed with people eating outside, mostly Turks, mostly young, eating, drinking, having a good time. The alleys and streets of people seemed to go on and on, as if all of Istanbu was up, having a wonderful time. Sami lives in this district, says it is always like this, kind of the in place for Turks, though tourists are starting to discover it. I can see why. Sami says he bought a couple buildings in this area about ten years ago for a pittance and now they are worth quite a bit. At the end of dinner, Sami and Muharrem said they were going to make plans for us to go to Izmir and Cesme, where they both have homes on the sea. We will see what happens…I know they are serious so if it works out, we may drive there with Sami, through various sites, visit Ephesus, stay with Muharrem one night, Sami another, then head back, I assume. Or we might fly down, I’m not sure. They are both very successful business man; in fact, Muhareem has just opened up a 40 million dollar factory in India, and Sami, according to Hasan, has made a bundle in buying real estate; He also supposedly has 100’s of acres of olive trees in the Izmir area. Both are was to talk to, have a very liberal and secular attitude, and we think pretty much the same way about the world, which is nice. In fact, all the Turks I’ve met are very sophisticated in their thinking, knowledgeable about the world in a way much Americans aren’t. They all speak two or three or four languages, have traveled and done business all over the world and have a pretty good fix on the States, who they criticize mostly for supporting the current govt, which many feel is just a few steps away from becoming something like Iran. The US supports them for now because Turkey gives them what they want; an the govt gets legitimacy from of the US which is what they want(since they are moving towards a semi theocracy), not a democracy. That seems to be the fear, though most are optimistic that it won’t happen. Muharrem sees the worst development being the split that is cleaving Turkey, between the Ataturk democrats, secular and open minded, and the religious, more close minded conservative movement of Erdogan. I guess I would say the US is looking at short terms gains but in the long run, they may rue their support of the Turkish government, especially if it becomes more intolerant of debate and freedom, which seems to be the case as they are harasssing and closing some newspapers that are critical of govt pollicies. I suppose it’s a tough rope to balance, to get what you want yet be critical of a government; you cannot do both and, as usual, we think short term.