I found this about the fire in Smyrna:

The Great Fire of Smyrna is the name commonly given to the fire that ravaged İzmir/Smyrna starting 13 September 1922 and lasted for four days until the 17 September. It occurred four days after the Turkish army regained control of the city on 9 September 1922, thus effectively ending the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922) in the field, more than three years after the Greek army had landed on Smyrna on 15 May 1919. The reason of the fire is not fully determined and is still a widely disputed subject. There have been accusations from all sides, blaming the Turks, Greeks or Armenians, conflicting press reports at the time as well as analyses later, and there is also a theory that it was an accident caused by chaos.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Fire_of_Smyrna


Retreat from Smyrna,

The overextension of the Greek lines proved disastrous. Kemal lured the Greek army ever deeper into the rugged heartland of Anatolia. When he judged that the Greek position was untenable, Turkish forces shattered the Greek line with a major counteroffensive. Kemal then isolated and destroyed the segments of the Greek army, chasing the remnants back to Smyrna. While soldiers, sailors, and journalists from around the world watched from ships anchored in the bay, the Turkish forces burned and sacked the great city of Smyrna, killing about 30,000 Greeks. The Megali Idea went up in smoke on the shores of Asia Minor.



http://greece.russiansabroad.com/country_page.aspx?page=66

I learned a new Turkish word: Balık etli

In the dictionary here it says: fully rounded

The site rapidly became famous internationally due to the large size and dense occupation of the settlement, as well as the spectacular wall paintings and other art that was uncovered inside the houses.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/catalhoyuk/sets/72157603438736704

Maca kizi Turkish version of Hearts - Uzun Eşek
http://www.pagat.com/national/turkey.html

http://www.pagat.com/marriage/hoskin.html

very funny Turkish Youth games

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qm6epNmD0zw&feature=related

You can play Tavla with everybody in the world on the internet

A folk game in Turkey is called Yüzük Oyunu (The Ring Game), which is a guessing game. On a tray there are usually eleven coffee cups, one of which covers a ring (or sometimes a seal). There are two teams. The first team hides the ring under one of the inverted cups. Their opponents try to guess the cup under which the ring is hidden. If the opposite team is right with their first guess, it is their game, and the functions are reversed. This is the most important moment of the game, and victories are celebrated with cheers. If they find the ring with the second guess, the hiding side gets eleven points, and the ring is hidden again. If it is not found the first or the second time for each cup upturned, the hiding side adds to its score by adding the number of cups upturned to the eleven points from the lifting of the second cup. This is done until three unopened cups are left. If it is found in the first or the second of these cups, the hiding reverts to the guessing team. If it is not found in these two of the remaining three cups, the hiding team continues the game. Whichever teams gets fifty points first is the winning side. Of course this is a simple description of the game, as there are many more rules, either basic ones about making progress or special ones about “what happens if...”

http://www.turkishculture.com/pages.php?ChildID=750&ParentID=12&ID=59&ChildID1=750



ANOTHER MOST POPULAR GAME



TAVLA - BACKGAMMON in every corner café in Istanbul and all over Turkey

nothing comes close to the fascination of chess

combining two different articles in this thread:
1. Aphrodisias
2. Dumlugoze


Since 1961, Dr. Kenan Erim a native of Turkey, supervised the digging in the all-marble city of Aphrodisias, which contains a bounty of late Greco-Roman art 100 miles from the Aegean. Aphrodisia had a wealth of marble that was used to build even workers' huts and a two-mile-long city wall, which still stands. He passed away in 1990 when he was only 61. What a loss.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE7D6123EF936A35752C1A966958260


Bumper snowdrop harvest for Turkish village Dumlugoze

Villagers are celebrating the end of their eighth harvesting season for cultivated giant snowdrop bulbs (Galanthus elwesii), a crop that provides them with regular income while at the same time helping to preserve the species in the wild.

The inhabitants of the small village of Dumlugoze in southern Anatolia once earned their living by collecting bulbs from the Taurus mountains. However, the bulbs, which are sold mainly for export, were becoming increasingly rare and, with few other ways to make a living, many villagers were leaving for cities.

Under the Indigenous Propogation Project (IPP) supported by WWF-Turkey, the villagers received money to start cultivating the bulbs, which have proved hard to grow elsewhere in the world. The cultivated bulbs are sold to exporters for 6.5 million Turkish lira (about €4) per kilo, much more than the 1.5 million lira (€0.91) per kilo for the often much smaller wild bulbs.

"We're very happy with this programme. It has provided revenue for 150 of the very poorest families here," said Abdurrahman Sahin, a villager who this year produced a bumper 125kg crop worth some 800 million Turkish lira (about €490. His other crops will bring in no more than 150 million lira (€90.

"I no longer have any reason for going up into the mountains to pick wild plants," he said.

Dumlugoze produced two tonnes of giant snowdrop bulbs this year, and two nearby villages have also started to cultivate bulbs.

Thanks to the programme, the number of giant snowdrop bulbs gathered from the wild has dropped from 40 million per year to six million, with 350,000 cultivated giant snowdrop bulbs exported each year from Turkey.

National and international legislations are also helping to protect Turkey's plants. Until 1991, there was no national legislation to protect the 500 different wild bulb species found in the country, but now, only 20 species of bulbs can be exported, with quotas for each.
http://www.ecoearth.info/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=23788

Looking for a low key entertainment place in Kumkapi where I can enjoy Turkish Gypsy Music. References welcome and appreciated. Thanks.

Ottoman miniature themes includes accession to throne, religious festival gatherings, palace entertainments, ambassador receptions, rewarding of statesmen and ambassadors, council meetings , Topkapi Palace, life out of the palace, etc.