‘Turkey is on sale,’ a man on the streets declared to me. ‘50% off.’
Tourism has been suffering for the last couple of years, what with the attempted coup, the bombing of Ataturk Airport, the Syrian crisis, etc. It doesn’t take much to keep people out of a country. A local friend who’s in the travel business said it’s down 2/3rds. The man on the street said it was down 75%. Which meant fewer crowds.
‘You see here,’ the man said, pointing to Atmeydani Street. ‘During normal years the line of people trying to get into the Blue Mosque would snake all the way there. Now do you see anybody?’
There were a few people milling about on the cobble stoned streets leading to the epicenter of Istanbul’s historical monuments: the Blue Mosque & the Hagia Sophia, representing the two main eras of this ancient city, facing each other, as it were, in stately aloofness across a park.
The man seemed eager to talk to me. ‘Thank you for coming, my friend.’ As I was to find out, he was not the last person to thank me for visiting Turkey. ‘Everybody thinks this is a war zone. You see any war here? No Europeans, no Americans. Only the Iranians are coming these days.’ And right on cue, an Iranian family — with a portly matriarch in a chador, a younger woman in a rousari and a man, reeking of cologne, wearing a formal suit — walk by.
‘Your new president, Mr. Trump,’ the man continued, ‘he’s a good man. Finally America is doing something in Syria. We need strong leaders. Like him and Erdogan. Men. Not women like Merkel or half-men like Obama.’
I waited for him to finish. Then I replied, ‘Trump is bad for the world. And your president Erdogan is not much better.’
He was taken aback by my candor. ‘Yes, yes, you’re right, my friend. Bad people. All of them bad.’ He looked around shiftily and lowered his voice. ‘You know what Erdogan has done to this country?’
‘What?’
‘Don’t ask, my friend. Too many bad things.’ He paused and went back to his normal speaking voice. ‘You know Turkish carpets, my friend? Come, let me show you some beautiful Turkish carpets.’ And with that, he firmly pushed me towards his carpet shop located in a small alley behind the Blue Mosque past a large Turkmen restaurant. ‘50% off, my friend. Just like the country.’
