Diyarbakir

I was nervous about going, as several of you know. In fact a Google News search with that word yields....many results. And recent ones. Lots of 'em.

Briefly--it's a Kurdish dominated city that has experienced a lot of conflict both in the huge region of Southeastern Turkey. The agitation is between the PKK militants who want some form of independence and the Turkish military/police. There are often bombings and landmines explosions going off. Please look it up, as I'm not an expert here, and it's important to understand it.

I won't describe my experiences too much, as I'm writing my thoughts about it here. I'm glad I went. Let's leave it at that.

I also got to travel to Mardin, about an hour + away from Diyarbakir, and the drive out there was just incredible. Though it was over 100 degrees, the flat landscape of D suddenly transformed into rolling hills with shrubs, and then with small rock outcrops on top, and then more defined mountains, and then again, along the Syrian border and near to the Iraqi border, back to complete flat. Mardin is supposed to be just beautiful, though I didn't see much more of it than from inside a women and children's center.

By the way, the women's movement in Turkey is really strong in Southeast Turkey, and it's been very interesting to learn about their successes. In fact, before leaving (11pm flight back to Istanbul!), I went to a monthly "party" that one organization had. A full plate of delicious cheeses, fruits, and finger foods are given to each guest, and a Kurdish group was singing and playing the guitars, drums, etc. The group of women often got up to do traditional Kurdish dances. I can say I feel very lucky to have seen so much traditional dancing in Georgia & Turkey!

That area is highly militarized. Every few minutes you see a military base, and a big one at that. Roads are punctuated with with weird concrete structures with sandbags and painted in camouflage (not sure for what??). The city of D has lots of police everywhere, so my strategy of avoiding them would have been impossible.

But, I am so glad I went. I think that persistent fear that we sometimes feel due to gov't controled (or at least influenced) media is REALLY important to challenge. And just try it.. which I did.