Strange Places, Strange Faces

Sidney Owitz

Description

We are all the same, yet so different – perhaps even strange to each other. “Strange Places, Strange Faces” deals with this phenomenon. The dictionary gives the definition of ‘strange’ as unusual or surprising, that which is unsettling, unfamiliar or alien, not previously encountered. I suppose we appear strange to people who are unfamiliar to us, just as they appear different to us. There are individuals living in this world who are not the same as we are, dwell in locations unlike those in which we reside, and have goals in life which might appear odd to us. I have tried to paint these pictures on a literary canvas.

Sujets

• Literary
• Histoire
• Literature
• Strange
• History

Informations

• Publié par: AuthorHouse
• Date de parution: 01 décembre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781665576895
• Langue: English

Extrait

Also by Sidney Owitz [all published by Author H ouse]
Unshuttered Windows
Things I Never Learned At School
Through My Eyes
The Invisible Thread
The Stone Cutter
Reap The Whirlwind
Portraits In a Gallery
The Other Room
A Mosaic
Beyond This Place
A Cut Above
The River
Empires Come, Empires Go
Journey into Yesterday
Strange PLACES, Strange FACES
 
 
 
SIDNEY OWITZ
 
 
 

 
AuthorHouse™
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© 2022 Sidney Owitz. All rights reserved.
 
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.
 
Published by AuthorHouse 11/28/2022
 
ISBN: 978-1-6655-7690-1 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6655-7689-5 (e)
 
 
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
CONTENTS
Dedication
Thought For Today
Chapter 1Who Are You?
Chapter 2Spinoza
Chapter 3In God We Trust?
Chapter 4Indigenous Africans
Chapter 5Jews In Africa
Chapter 6Man’s Inhumanity To Man
Chapter 7Strange Places
Chapter 8A World Tour Seldom Undertaken
Chapter 9Relationship Between Insects And Plants
Chapter 10God Save Our Queen?
Chapter 11Would-Be Conquerors
DEDICATION
This book is dedicated to my wife, Joan, my constant love.
THOUGHT FOR TODAY
T he fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well on the surface of a gas-covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away, and think this is normal is obviously some indication of how skewed up our perspective tends to be. (Douglas Adams, author, 11 March 1952 – 2001.
CHAPTER 1 Who Are You?
I n days gone by when people had no means for traveling large distances they stayed within a small confined region where they lived, worked, spent their hours of relaxation and died. They were hunters and gatherers. They protected their families from wild people, wild animals and natural phenomena. Those who lived in confined areas looked much alike, as though they had been molded by a cookie-cutter. With the passage of time and the discovery and development of better means of transportation societies began to mix as people moved around from place to place and joined other groups. Today any world-wide traveler can tell you of the different peoples he has come across all over the planet. They are white and black, with colors in between; short and tall, with sizes in between; and fat and thin, and they all talk different languages, while most cannot be understood. They have distinct appearances, and different habits and mannerisms. They pray to different gods and they, like you and I, have fears and loves. We are all different, and yet we are all the same. Who are we?
WHO ARE THE TURKS?
Turkmen came from Central Asia. They had a close relationship to the Mongols, but they do not look like them. They may or may not have had a similar origin. Turkmen were a nomadic people, and wandered southward into Anatolia, which is the main and central portion of Turkey. Turkic people can be found in Turkey, but they are also amongst the Azerbaijanis, Uzbeks, Kazaks, the Kyrgyz and Uyghurs. All were wandering around South Asia to find a better life. Osman I (1259 to 1326) was the leader of a tribe of Turkmen who fought to make Turkey into an independent state, which later developed into the Ottoman Empire. They borrowed Osman’s name. Today Turkey consists of 1/3 European, 1/3 Middle Eastern and 1/3 Turkmen. Religion-wise 85% of the country is Sunni Muslim. This polyglot of Asians and Europeans include Kurds, Armenians, Arabs, Greeks and other south-eastern Europeans. The northern part of Cyprus is also a part of Turkey. The population of Turkey consists of 80 million people. Apart from Muslims there are Christians and Jews living there. The Armenians of Turkey are Christians (who have a national home in Armenia, a neighboring country) while the Kurds are Sunni Muslims, like most of the other Turks.
Before Christianity arrived, Turks were a pagan people. Paul of Tarsus, who went traveling around the Middle East after the death of Jesus, spent much time also preaching in Anatolia and converting many of the pagan people to Christianity. Some of the Epistles from the New Testament are addressed to the people of Anatolia, Ephesus and Cappadocia. After Constantine of the Roman Empire embraced Christianity (until then the Romans were anti-Christian) Christianity became the religion for the entire Empire (fourth century A.D.). Because it was too large, the Roman Empire was later divided into Western and Eastern (or Byzantine) Empires. The Byzantine Empire had its capital in Constantinople, Turkey, and thereafter Christianity spread further into Turkey. The St. Sophia Church built by Justinian can still be seen in Istanbul. It has since been converted into a mosque. In the 7 th century new intruders in the form of Islam spread like wild-fire from the Arabian desert. Turkey, like the rest of the Middle East, North Africa and much of the Mediterranean area, succumbed to its force.
From the time Osman I established a power base in Turkey the Ottoman Empire grew. In 1453 Mehmet II attacked Constantinople, broke through the walls and captured the city, putting an end to the Byzantine Empire, which outlived its brother, the Roman Empire, by almost a thousand years. Constantinople was on two continents, and, therefore, it was well placed for the Ottoman Empire to advance into Europe and Asia. In Europe, over time, they occupied the Balkans (Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia) and the Caucasus. Many citizens of these European countries, especially Greeks, came to live in Turkey, thus accounting for the large number of Europeans living there and diluting the Turkmen who originally called Anatolia their home. Middle Easterners, too, came to live in Turkey after the days that most of the Middle East became a part of the Ottoman Empire.
After centuries of occupation, Turkey was no longer able to manage such a large and far-flung Empire. Problems increased and distances were difficult to overcome in a short space of time. Transportation was slow. People all over the Empire began to demand independence. The Ottoman Empire was called the “sick man of Europe” at this time when Turkish influence began to wane. Many countries in the Empire were revolting and asking for independence. The Greeks gained their independence way back in 1830. Other Balkan states also fought for and gained independence later in the century after the First Balkan War. World War I was a disaster for the Ottomans. They had chosen the wrong side – the Germans - as allies. In fact, World War I heralded the end of the Ottoman Empire.
The Young Turks were a growing movement within Turkey at about this time. They played a large part in the development of modern-day Turkey. They entered the scene when the Ottoman Empire’s power was waning. They demanded a European-style constitutional government. Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, too, had been a Young Turk. They also demanded religious freedom for other religions, apart from Sunni Islam. Ataturk made sure that there would be a separation between government and religion, with no religious interference from government. The Young Turks Westernized Turkey, separating it from its old Ottoman roots. Apart from suspending religion from government, Ataturk got rid of the fez, brought in Western clothing, Westen alphabet and rid the country of the old Turkish form of writing. In 1923 Ataturk arranged a huge population exchange with Greece. Turkey returned hundreds of thousands of Greeks to Greece and took back similar numbers of Turks from Greece. This way, he saved the lives of numerous Jews from Greece who came to Turkey with the exchange because a decade later Adolph Hitler sent the remaining Jews of Greece to the gas chambers. However, Erdogan, who is the present President of Turkey, is trying to bring Islam back to the Turkish people and into the government, undoing some of the Ataturk reversals.
It is said that the Turks hate the Kurds. Apparently, that is not quite true. They have been living together for many centuries. They are both Sunni Muslims, and in many ways very similar. There are also Kurds living in Iraq and in Syria. The Kurds in all three countries would like to live in a Kurdish country of their own, and be ruled by Kurds. They were overlooked by the Treaty of Versailles and not given any land for a Kurdistan, and are still being rejected whenever they bring up their wish for their own land. So, what Turkey does not like about the Kurds is their desire for a homeland of their own. Turkey does not wish to see her territory disrupted by a breakaway Kurdish nation.
We are also aware of an enmity that has been going on for years between the Turks and the Armenian population in Turkey. During the time of World War I, Turkey was on the side of Germany and the Austro-Hungarians. Turkey was fighting against Russia on the Black Sea in southern Russia. The Armenian homeland was a part of Russia, with a large number of Armenians having spilled into Turkey. The Turks were afraid that the Armenians in Turkey were passing on war information to Russia since both Russians