Getting Settled by the Aegean

 We are settling more into Izmir ways – including starting most days (after Morning Prayer) with a walk along the Kordon by the Aegean Sea before breakfast. We’ve eaten out a couple of evenings – including one strange experience, when I ordered two different dishes, chicken for Jo and köfte for me, only for the waiter to bring two plates of each, claiming that was what I had ordered. How we were supposed to eat two meals is a mystery, but fortunately the manager told him to remove the superfluous plates!

 For our day off last week, we took the tram to Űçkuyular, where there is lovely recreation area around a lagoon. We walked along by the beach, among a variety of semi-tropical trees, with different sea-birds around (including one flamingo). Lots of families go there for picnics and bathing.

 Other leisure activities included our regular Sunday afternoon ‘voyage’ across to Bostanlı by vapur (the water-buses which criss-cross the gulf to and from different areas of Izmir.) We usually treat ourselves to an ice-cream, but this time came across a lovely little café that served excellent Turkish coffee and delicious cheesecake. And we had another coffee one afternoon after spending two or three hours at the really good new Museum of Art and Culture opposite the church. A big improvement on the old one; it was encouraging that it recognised the multi-culturalism of Smyrna’s history, with a number of references and displays of Christian artefacts. (And the tourist leaflet includes a downloadable walk around Izmir’s churches, as well as one around its mosques.)

 We’ve continued with the weekly pattern of Sunday Eucharist, Tuesday Zoom Evening Prayer and Wednesday Bible Study (today we had 8 in the office and 5 on line!) I mentioned last week that Jo and I are older than most of the congregation – but it doesn’t seem to matter, and the younger members (several students at one of Izmir’s universities) are comfortable talking to and sharing with us. Indeed, we had two of the students with us on Saturday afternoon, when we opened the church for visitors – not as many as sometimes, because there were activities around the Kordon (for the 101^st anniversary of Ataturk’s victory over the Greek forces defending Smyrna – after which most Armenians and Greeks were driven out of the city.) 

There are certainly some restrictions on freedoms in Türkiye – the media is inhibited, if not censored, and most institutions have been purged of any critics of the government. But it is a relaxed and friendly country, and always feels safe and comfortable. There are many police in evidence in the streets and on the Kordon – but their presence seems pretty benign. There is no obvious feeling of there being surveillance of the population (there seem to be no more CCTV cameras than in the UK.) Churches are free to gather; some discretion is called for – but that is also true in France. The only change since our first visit is that non-Turks leading Turkish churches have been refused continuing visas.

 Residency permission is certainly getting more difficult: several church members have been unable to gain permanent resident permission, and so have to move between Türkiye and another country on 3-monthly intervals. And in general there has been a strong clampdown on refugees and others without full papers, many of whom have been deported, especially back to Iran. Others have been deprived of any medical care. So it is not all good news. But one church member is finding it absurdly difficult to get a green card to move to the States, where his wife is living. 

 To finish on a lighter note, the church cat, Cleopatra, waylaid us on our way to church on our first morning in Izmir. She welcomes stroking and expects to be fed on a daily basis, something she shares with her ‘understudy’ Henrietta. But we certainly had the impression that she remembered us from last year. So we have had a good ‘welcome back to Izmir’, all round.